Nothing Promised, No Regrets: The Real Meaning of “Voulez-Vous” by ABBA
BY
THOM DONOVAN
If you listen to ABBA as a guilty pleasure, you have nothing to feel guilty about. The tidiness of the group is impressive, made up of a pair of couples with a palindrome band name, itself made from the first letter of the bandmates’ first names.
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Before both marriages and their initial run ended, the Swedish Beatles conquered pop charts in multiple countries worldwide. While “Dancing Queen” hinted at disco, “Voulez-Vous” went all the way. The Swedish pop group made an American disco track with a French title, and it’s as délicieuse as it sounds on paper.
Do You Want?
“Voulez-Vous” translates to “Do You Want?” Looking to be sure, ABBA then poses a variation, “La question c’est voulez-vous?” meaning, “The question is, do you want?”
It’s a simple question gaining urgency on the dance floor. A dancing man finds the guts to buy a girl a drink, but she means business, and the only way he’ll survive is if he’s the master of the scene. This is a serious affair.
People everywhere
A sense of expectation hanging in the air
Giving out a spark
Across the room, your eyes are glowing in the dark
And here we go again; we know the start, we know the end
Masters of the scene
We’ve done it all before, and now we’re back to get some more
You know what I mean
The discotheque is no place for indecision. The pulsing bass and the cocktail give the dancing man some kind of confidence. Nothing promised, no regrets. Get moving, boy.
Voulez-vous (ah-ha)
Take it now or leave it (ah-ha)
Now it’s all we get (ah-ha)
Nothing promised, no regrets
Voulez-vous (ah-ha)
Ain’t no big decision (ah-ha)
You know what to do (ah-ha)
La question c’est voulez-vous
Voulez-vous
Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote “Voulez-Vous” for ABBA’s sixth studio album of the same name. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad share vocal duties on ABBA’s brand of disco, capitalizing on the peak music craze of 1979.
A global single, except in the UK and Ireland, released as a double A-side with “Angeleyes.” Compared with ABBA’s colossal hits, “Voulez-Vous” charted modestly, but over time, it became the beloved little disco sister to 1976s “Dancing Queen.”
Foxy Bahama Disco
Written in the Bahamas, Andersson and Ulvaeus recorded “Voulez-Vous” in the U.S. at Criteria Studios in Miami. Members of the ’70s disco group Foxy recorded the backing track, and though an American band performed the instrumentation, it sounds like an uptempo and slightly Russian version of Chic. But ABBA’s distinct Euro-pop lingers, and like most ABBA hits, it’s infectiously catchy (ah-ha). It’s the only ABBA studio track recorded outside of Sweden.
Though the session happened in 1979, it sounds like ABBA traveled via a time machine to borrow a St. Vincent riff from the future.
Dancing Blues
ABBA reached superstardom with their 1976 Greatest Hits album, followed by the perfectly titled and massive album Arrival in 1976.
ABBA looks like humans from another planet inside the helicopter on Arrival’s album cover. And their exoticness or otherness is the attraction. The symmetry of “other” fits with some of their songs’ best-known characters trying to fit in. ABBA’s melodies are obviously infectious, but the real meat is in their despairing lyrics. “Dancing Queen,” as an example, is layered with sadness, though it doesn’t feel that way.
The dancing queen is sad, like a Morrissey character, and even when you “feel the beat from the tambourine,” the specter of youth loneliness remains. Think of how many people still feel alone inside the club or the party. “Voulez-Vous” is a sister song to “Dancing Queen.” In each version, the goal is a hopeful cure for solitude.
Lost in Translation
The mistranslation of the Swede’s attempting American music is endearing. Their goal probably isn’t sadness, but ABBA just can’t shake their hardened pagan instincts.
It’s why Andersson and Ulvaeus rhyme master of the scene with you know what I mean. But, putting this grammar against Chic’s “Le Freak,” you spot how things become lost in translation.
Chic’s disco party sounds like this: Big fun to be had by everyone. But ABBA accidentally builds a party foul: The girl means business, so I’ll offer her a drink.
Hearing musicians from other parts of the world translate each other’s culture is endlessly intriguing. It’s the sound of white Brits playing Black American blues music. Mick Jagger tried singing like Muddy Waters but ended up with his own iconic voice. Or a Southern California band with a singer named Gwen Stefani who played Jamaican rocksteady but sounded only like No Doubt. New sounds emerge when the inability to reproduce with exactness endures.
ABBA is an enigma, and the innocent pleasure of their music brings about an answer to their pressing question: Voulez-Vous? Yes, we want.
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