ABBA The day before you came

This is a very 'dark' song and different from many of the more traditional ABBA songs. It was released at the end of the groups career.

In this activity we compare the video to the actual song and discuss various opinions at the end. Although you might not like the song the activity is really fun. For this reason this is a more complex activity which uses all visual elements. i.e the video. audio the song, and kinesthetic through different classroom seating formation.

If you don´t have access to you tube in class, download Easy Video Downloader to get it from youtube and then put it onto a CD/DVD to show the the class.

Here is the video.



Activity one: The video

Step one

• Split the groups into two halves
• Sit one half with their backs to the video/TV.
• Sit the other half facing the first half so they can see the video/TV.
• Turn the sound off ( some learners might not like the song at first)
• Play the video from the start and have the students facing th video describe it to their partners
• Play the video up until the train goes over the bridge and pause it.
• Now have the students who were listening to their partners say what was described to them.
• Teaching Tip. Don´t correct or say anything check there past simple and past continuous tenses.

Step two

• Now swap the groups around to the partner listening is not watching and the speaker is now the listener.
• Play the video until the end
• Now get feedback the same way as in step one

Now have all of the group watch the video. You can put the sound on if you want
Ask students to say what they found different from the description




Activity Two: The Song

• Give the handout below
• Go though any doubt about the vocabulary used for putting into the song. This can first be done by having students decide if the word is a verb, adjective or noun.
• Have students put the words in the song before they listen
• Now play the song to check for the correct answers.

The Day Before You Came

frown, frame , cuddle up, aim , yawn , blue,

drag , episode, bunch, exception, front, due.

Must have left my house at eight, because I always do
My train, I’m certain, left the station just when it was ___
I must have read the morning paper going into town
And having gotten through the editorial, no doubt I must have ____ed
I must have made my desk around a quarter after nine
With letters to be read, and heaps of papers waiting to be signed
I must have gone to lunch at half past twelve or so
The usual place, the usual _____
And still on top of this I´m pretty sure it must have rained
The day before you came

I must have lit my seventh cigarette at half past two
And at the time I never even noticed I was ______
I must have kept on ____ging through the business of the day
Without really knowing anything, I hid a part of me away
At five I must have left, there´s no ______ to the rule
A matter of routine, I´ve done it ever since I finished school
The train back home again
Undoubtedly I must have read the evening paper then
Oh yes, I´m sure my life was well within its usual ____
The day before you came

Must have opened my _______ door at eight o´clock or so
And stopped along the way to buy some chinese food to go
I´m sure I had my dinner watching something on tv
Theres not, I think, a single _____ of Dallas that I did´nt see
I must have gone to bed around a quarter after ten
I need a lot of sleep, and so I like to be in bed by then I must have read a while
The latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style
Its funny, but I had no sense of living without ____
The day before you came

And turning out the light
I must have _____ed and ______ed __ for yet another night
And rattling on the roof I must have heard the sound of rain
The day before you came



Activity Three

Have students sit in groups of 3 and give them each a different explanation (see the 7 below) to the song and the video. They read each one, you clear up any vocab doubts
As students to decided if they agree or not with the explanations

Opinion1
The woman met a man on the train and had a one night stand with him. She is stuck in her married and in the video she is telling her friends and husband (one of the men in the theater) about what she did and they are disapproving of her behavior. She is hoping to see the man again and is always dreaming about this time

Opinion 2
The woman is single and having a long-time affair with the man on the train and now misses her lover. He left to work abroad and was coming back to her. We see him leaving in the video and in the song she is saying how boring her normal routine is without him and looking forward to his return.

Opinion 3
The song talks about the woman´s life and it´s routine but the video is fantasizing about a mystery man she sees everyday. She wishes she could confront the man but is too scared because she feels this would change her well-organized life too much.

Opinion 4
This situation is about what happened before she got married. The man is an ex- boyfriend she met on the train. Her life was dull and routine and the day she saw him she decided to lie to everyone and tell them she had a normal day but she really had a fling and the man is married to the other woman in the video. None of the people at the end believe her.

Opinion 5
She is married to the man on the train and they decide to act as if they didn´t know each other and have an affair before he leaves to work abroad. She does this but wishes she wasn´t married to him and could meet other men this way and is confessing it to her friends.

Opinion 6
The woman is remembering how she met her husband on the train. he has run off with his secretary and is divorcing her. She still loves him and wants him back and her life is dull and routine

Opinion 7
The main on the train has died and left his wife (the woman) a lonely boring existence. She dreams of him all of the time and is confessing to her friends how depressed she is that the love of her life has gone forever

(Maybe you can think of another opinion. If you do or your students do comment here)

Final activity
Discuss what the real answer is
Language of peculation could be used here, may. might, could
After reading each one have each group write or say a short explanation of what they feel the song and video represent.