At the Risk of Spreading a Virus...

At a recent Event, one of the songs that came on during conversation was Abba's "Dancing Queen". I mentioned the mondegreen I originally misconstrued from the song's opening lyrics:

You can dance,
You can die,
Having the time of your life...

This, of course, was incorrect. The actual lyrics were quite the letdown:

You can dance,
You can jive,
Having the time of your life...

Oh yeah, that makes sense. When I think "jive", the first image that pops into my mind is a quartet of bouncy Swedes.

Of course, the true disappointment was that my version actually had depth. The notion, so resonant with the 1970s, that we were waking up each morning because neither the U.S.A. nor the U.S.S.R. had decided to strike first was reflected in the party atmosphere, in the discos, in the stadium rock shows, and in the bonfire parties. We were living for the moment because that may well be all we had. Our well-being was out of our control.

The real lyrics were simply innocuous. They represented the underside of decadence, the teenager whose mind was already blown out on cocaine, or who never had a moment of self-examination. And we all know what they say about the unexamined life.

I was able to forgive the songwriting half of Abba years later when they wrote the music for "Chess".