CAMELOT FANTASIES

Here I am with my No. 5 song. Very excited! lolol oh but I am. 

My no. 5 song is also taken from their last album - The Visitors. Clearly this is my most favourite one among all albums. The song is called 'Soldiers'. Agnetha said herself that the song was written and sung from the place of 'fear'.

According to Wiki, 'The entire song rests upon a "simple two-note" statement". The song has a "string-ensemble synth arrangement". Agnetha uses a "subdued yet stoic vocal", and "the chorus vocals, while typically multi-tiered, are somewhat 'murkier' and less liberated in texture".

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There are several different critical analysis of this song such as the ones as below:

The song is about how the public don't respect the work done by soldiers, though they "write the songs and...sing the songs that you and I won't sing".

Billboard explains "emphasizing that although there seems to be so little one can do to prevent the machinations of soldiers and those who control them, we must "not look the other way/taking a chance/cos if the bugle starts to play/we too must dance".[1]

The Telegraph describes the premise of the song as "how warmongers convince themselves they are noble men".[2]

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IMO this is an abstract song and a paradox. But I found this bit on the internet that describes the song the best (just keep in mind that the song was released in 1981).

SOLDIERS by ABBA - War and rumors of war. Dancing is combat. The sight of marching armies is taken for granted as if nothing is wrong. "Soldiers" questions the relationship between reality and fantasy. It is hard to tell if things are real or only happening in our minds. The martial tone of the drumming is a sign of war, and the pale moonlight suggests a cloud cover. Typical of the apocalyptic nature of The Visitors.

November, 1979, brought Jimmy Carter's Iranian hostage crisis. The Cold War flared up, and there was fear of a possible nuclear attack. Ronald Reagan touted a newfangled technology branded "Star Wars" to defend from incoming missiles while Carl Sagan envisioned a nuclear winter in which life would become extinct.

"Soldiers" mirrors the international tensions of its time and the threat of nuclear war. "All that thunder and the blinding light" are atomic bombs. "In the winter night" is nuclear winter. "The beast" is war.

Benny and Bjorn condemned the Communist government in Poland for its crackdown, making the statement: "Let the Polish rule Poland." As a result, ABBA records were banned in Russia.

No. 5 Soldiers

Do I hear what I think I'm hearing?
Do I see the signs I think I see?
Or is this just a fantasy?
Is it true that the beast is waking
Stirring in his restless sleep tonight
In the pale moonlight
In the grip of this cold December
You and I have reason to remember