Björn & Benny's new song:
The Day The Wall Came Down

After Steve's news yesterday that Barbara Dickson was performing one of the
Björn & Benny songs on her concert tour, I went along this evening with London fan
Ursula Esser to see Barbara's concert in Kent as they still had spare
tickets going.

Steve said that the song was in the second act, so we were anxiously waiting
for it to appear from the moment the second part of the concert started.
Sure enough, midway through Barbara introduced "The Day The Wall Came
Tumbling Down" as the song that Björn & Benny had written for her project with
Elaine Paige.

On that first hearing I was a little underwhelmed - it doesn't immediately
grab you, but listening to it a few times, it really does grow on you. The
melody is slow-paced and the arrangement is really quite lovely, very
"Benny" through and through. Then again it's not really like much else that
Benny has written of late - it couldn't fit into Chess or Kristina I don't
think and kind of stands alone from his recent efforts. It seems to be a
song that was made for Helen Sjöholm's voice somehow, and I can just imagine
her singing it. Overall though, definitely ranks as another Björn & Benny
masterpiece.

It feel a little strange listening to the lyrics as they're the first new
English lyrics I can recall from Björn since the Shapes album. He's chosen
an unusual subject matter and apart from a couple of awkward phrases, I
think they're really quite clever, atmospheric and evocative, again not
really in a similar vein to English lyrics that he's written before. I'd
like to hear some more of this style from him.

Barbara said in her introduction to the song that Björn & Benny had written two
songs for the project, one for her and one for Elaine Paige. We were able to
speak to her afterwards briefly, and she said that no vocals had been
recorded for either track, and all that existed was the demos that Benny had
made. We asked if she was planning to record and release the song, but she
didn't know whether this would be happening or not, nor what the title of
the song they wrote for Elaine was.

She's still doing a few more UK concerts in May including a couple within
reach of London if anyone wants to go and see her - details at
www.barbaradickson.com/WhenWhere.html

And here are what I think to be the correct lyrics, apart from the first
line which I can't quite make out:

The Day The Wall Came Tumbling Down (4:03)
(Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus)

Why in the state we were in
Did we go to to Berlin
Well I just can't remember
We had built our invisible wall
Things were bad that fabled fall

We walked through the city that night
What a heart-warming sight
In the cold of November
People danced in the streets
And I knew I must too

The day the wall came tumbling down
I knew I loved you more than ever
My war with you, so petty now
Now that the times were changing

The world stood still
And held its breath
A world that always had said never
New lease of life is what we found
The day the wall came tumbling down

Down by the Brandenburg Gate
People cheered, it was great
I will never forget it
And your eyes as you looked at me then
Said it all
Let's try again

And grand was a glorious day
How it swept me away
And God knows that I let it
I was drunk
By the crowd I was in
In Berlin

The day the wall came tumbling down
I knew I loved you more than ever
My war with you, how petty now
Now that the times were changing

The world stood still
And held its breath
A world that always had said never
New lease of life is what we found
The day the wall came tumbling down

From ABBAMAIL's No. 1 UK Reporter, Paul Carter