WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.780 You know that specific feeling when you're, say, 00:00:01.820 --> 00:00:04.040 walking through a grocery store or maybe you're 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:06.660 at a wedding reception and the DJ is cycling 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:08.839 through the usual suspects. You're kind of half 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:10.380 listening, maybe thinking about your shopping 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:12.039 list or checking your watch. Right. It's just 00:00:12.039 --> 00:00:13.880 background noise. It's just background noise. 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:17.059 But then out of nowhere, you hear this sound 00:00:17.059 --> 00:00:20.559 that just cuts through the air like a knife. 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:24.320 It isn't just a melody. It's a texture. Oh, yeah. 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:27.179 It's sharp. It's driving. And honestly, it sounds. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:31.379 Kind of cold. It is that immediate, almost aggressive 00:00:31.379 --> 00:00:34.859 synthesizer hook. It just grabs you by the throat 00:00:34.859 --> 00:00:37.880 about four bars in. Exactly. And before you even 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:40.219 register what song it is, your brain has already 00:00:40.219 --> 00:00:42.740 switched gears. You know exactly where you are. 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:46.659 We're talking, of course, about ABA's Gibby Gibby 00:00:46.659 --> 00:00:50.619 Gibby, A Man After Midnight. A track that is, 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:53.659 and I don't say this lightly, arguably the single 00:00:53.659 --> 00:00:56.799 most recognizable piece of synthesizer pop ever 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:00.060 recorded. It has to be. It's iconic. And look, 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:03.200 on the surface, this is the ultimate party track. 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:06.140 It's late 70s disco. It's super high energy. 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:08.200 It's got that glittery production that makes 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:10.000 you want to find a mirror ball. For sure. It's 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.260 pure dance floor fuel. But we have a massive 00:01:12.260 --> 00:01:14.260 stack of research here today. Production notes, 00:01:14.459 --> 00:01:17.659 technical logs, old chart archives. And the more 00:01:17.659 --> 00:01:20.359 I dug into it, the more I realized this song 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:23.620 is, well, it's a Trojan horse. That is a fascinating 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:26.120 way to frame it. You think you're getting a party. 00:01:26.650 --> 00:01:28.049 Right. But you're actually getting something 00:01:28.049 --> 00:01:30.909 much, much darker and way more complex. Right. 00:01:31.010 --> 00:01:33.150 We're going to find out that this song, which 00:01:33.150 --> 00:01:36.629 was recorded in this frantic rush in 1979, basically 00:01:36.629 --> 00:01:39.510 just to sell concert tickets, somehow morphed 00:01:39.510 --> 00:01:41.969 into what critics are now calling a gothic tale 00:01:41.969 --> 00:01:45.329 of existential loneliness. Which is a complete 00:01:45.329 --> 00:01:47.890 contradiction to the tempo of the track. But 00:01:47.890 --> 00:01:49.890 that tension is exactly why we're still talking 00:01:49.890 --> 00:01:51.769 about it almost 50 years later. It's the secret 00:01:51.769 --> 00:01:54.400 ingredient. And it doesn't stop with the music 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:57.200 theory or the lyrics. We're going to talk about 00:01:57.200 --> 00:01:59.640 how this song ended up as a technical curiosity 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:03.200 hidden inside the Linux operating system, which 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:05.319 I know our tech -savvy listeners will appreciate. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:08.699 One of the weirdest and best Easter eggs in software 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:11.259 history. I still can't believe that was real 00:02:11.259 --> 00:02:14.219 for so long. And how, nearly half a century after 00:02:14.219 --> 00:02:17.020 it was recorded, it managed to hit one billion 00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:20.639 plays on Spotify. So the mission for this deep 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:23.710 dog is clear. We are looking beyond the disco 00:02:23.710 --> 00:02:25.629 ball. Way beyond. We're going to deconstruct 00:02:25.629 --> 00:02:27.509 the composition, the chaotic release history, 00:02:27.590 --> 00:02:29.590 especially the absolute mess that happened with 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:32.509 the US and Swedish releases, and its second life 00:02:32.509 --> 00:02:34.689 through Madonna and Cher. We have a lot to cover. 00:02:34.750 --> 00:02:37.199 It's a journey from... Like a Stockholm studio 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:40.400 to a Chicago baseball field to the server rooms 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.120 of the internet? Let's start with the context. 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:44.379 Because to understand the urgency of this song, 00:02:44.539 --> 00:02:47.539 you have to understand where ABBA was in 1979. 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:50.139 It wasn't just business as usual, was it? Not 00:02:50.139 --> 00:02:51.719 at all. Not even close. They were at a major 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.020 tipping point. Set the scene for us. Okay, so 00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:58.219 it's the summer of 1979. ABBA is undeniably massive. 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:01.240 They've conquered Europe. They've had huge hits 00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:03.800 in Australia. They're a global phenomenon. But 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:05.930 not so much in America, right? They were big, 00:03:06.050 --> 00:03:09.729 but not like biggies big. That's a key point. 00:03:09.789 --> 00:03:12.189 They had hits, but they weren't the dominant 00:03:12.189 --> 00:03:14.750 force there that they were elsewhere. And they 00:03:14.750 --> 00:03:17.330 were staring down the barrel of a massive undertaking. 00:03:18.150 --> 00:03:21.270 ABBA, the tour. Right. This was going to be a 00:03:21.270 --> 00:03:24.009 huge trek across North America and Europe starting 00:03:24.009 --> 00:03:26.770 in the autumn. We're talking. Big arenas, big 00:03:26.770 --> 00:03:29.289 production. And touring is expensive. The stakes 00:03:29.289 --> 00:03:31.310 are incredibly high. They need to fill seats. 00:03:31.530 --> 00:03:33.669 Incredibly high. And there's a rule in the music 00:03:33.669 --> 00:03:35.949 industry, especially back then. You do not go 00:03:35.949 --> 00:03:38.370 on a major tour without a fresh product. You 00:03:38.370 --> 00:03:40.449 need a hook. Something to get people to the record 00:03:40.449 --> 00:03:42.169 store and then to the ticket booth. Exactly. 00:03:42.229 --> 00:03:44.810 You can't just play the old hits. You need something 00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:47.229 that says, we are relevant right now. So they 00:03:47.229 --> 00:03:49.830 needed a single, a blockbuster. They needed a 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:51.960 hit. And not just for the tour, they also had 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:53.819 a compilation album coming out, Greatest Hits 00:03:53.819 --> 00:03:57.000 Vol 2. They needed a lead single to anchor that 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.460 whole package. Okay, so the pressure's on from 00:03:59.460 --> 00:04:01.979 two different directions. Yes, but the timeline 00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:04.979 was just brutal. The recording for Gimme Gimme 00:04:04.979 --> 00:04:09.060 Gimme didn't even start until August 1979. Wait, 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:11.379 wait, wait. The tour was in the fall, so they're 00:04:11.379 --> 00:04:13.659 in the studio in August, just a month or two 00:04:13.659 --> 00:04:16.019 before. Yes. They were cutting this track just 00:04:16.019 --> 00:04:18.540 weeks before they had to be rehearsing choreography, 00:04:18.939 --> 00:04:22.800 sound checks, packing crates. It was a rush job 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:24.920 in every sense of the word. Usually when you 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:27.740 rush art, it suffers. You know, you get sloppy 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:29.699 production or half -baked lyrics. You'd think 00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:31.680 so. But in this case, the pressure seemed to 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:34.439 crystallize something really special. Where did 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:36.300 the inspiration even come from? Because this 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:38.600 doesn't sound like Dancing Queen. It doesn't 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:41.279 sound like Fernando. It's a different animal. 00:04:41.459 --> 00:04:44.199 It is. And that's because Benny Anderson and 00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:46.439 Bernal Veas, the songwriters and, you know, the 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:48.800 masterminds behind the ABBA sound, were listening 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.279 to the radio. Okay. Specifically, they were listening 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:54.199 to American radio. And they heard Donna Summer. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:57.699 The queen of disco. And specifically, her track, 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:00.439 Hot Stuff. Oh, interesting. Okay, now that you 00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:02.800 say it, I can totally hear the connection. Hot 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:06.519 Stuff isn't just flucky disco. It has that driving, 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:09.959 almost... rock disco fusion. It's got some grit 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:12.740 to it. It's undeniable. Benny and Bjorn heard 00:05:12.740 --> 00:05:15.879 Hot Stuff and it sparked a realization. They 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:18.540 realized that the sound of disco was shifting. 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:20.720 It was getting harder, more electronic, a bit 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.420 more aggressive. It wasn't about lush strings 00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:25.860 and grand pianos anymore. It was about the beat, 00:05:25.980 --> 00:05:29.100 the synth, and the attitude. They took direct 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:32.079 inspiration from that track's riffs, its melody, 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:34.699 and really the overall sentiment. It's kind of 00:05:34.699 --> 00:05:36.459 a funny parallel when you think about it, isn't 00:05:36.459 --> 00:05:39.000 it? You have Donna Summer singing about needing 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:41.939 hot stuff, and then you have ABA's protagonist 00:05:41.939 --> 00:05:45.600 yearning for a man after midnight. It is the 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:48.639 same raw energy, that desperate need for connection, 00:05:48.860 --> 00:05:51.519 just translated through two very different cultural 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:54.100 lenses. Right. Donna Summer's version is gritty, 00:05:54.139 --> 00:05:57.360 American, street smart. Yeah, it feels like it's 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:00.220 happening out in the club. Exactly. ABA's version 00:06:00.220 --> 00:06:03.550 is... We'll get to the lyrics. But it's more 00:06:03.550 --> 00:06:06.389 internal. It's more neurotic, almost. It's happening 00:06:06.389 --> 00:06:09.329 inside someone's lonely apartment. A very Scandinavian 00:06:09.329 --> 00:06:12.189 take on the same impulse. So they realized that 00:06:12.189 --> 00:06:14.709 to be relevant in the 1979 market, especially 00:06:14.709 --> 00:06:16.389 that North American market they were trying to 00:06:16.389 --> 00:06:19.050 crack with this tool, they needed that modern, 00:06:19.149 --> 00:06:22.730 harder -edged sound. Right. But here is where 00:06:22.730 --> 00:06:25.689 the research stack threw me a massive curveball. 00:06:25.970 --> 00:06:28.470 That wasn't the original plan. No. Gimme, gimme, 00:06:28.470 --> 00:06:32.240 gimme. almost didn't happen. What do you mean? 00:06:32.420 --> 00:06:34.240 There was another song, a song that was fully 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:37.079 written, fully arranged, and was this close to 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:39.319 being the single instead. What was it? It was 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:41.579 called Rubber Ball Man. Rubber Ball Man. Rubber 00:06:41.579 --> 00:06:43.459 Ball Man. I have to be honest, that does not 00:06:43.459 --> 00:06:45.680 have the same ring to it. Not at all. It sounds 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:48.040 like a novelty track. Or maybe something from 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:49.920 a children's show. Well, it was a completely 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.680 different vibe. Rubber Ball Man featured what 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:56.759 we might call the classic ABBA arrangement. Okay, 00:06:56.759 --> 00:06:58.569 so what does that sound like? You know the sound 00:06:58.569 --> 00:07:00.889 Agnetha and Annie Fred singing lead together 00:07:00.889 --> 00:07:04.129 in those tight perfect harmonies, heavy use of 00:07:04.129 --> 00:07:06.470 classical strings, layered acoustic guitars, 00:07:06.829 --> 00:07:09.509 maybe a glockenspiel in there somewhere for good 00:07:09.509 --> 00:07:12.850 measure. It was much more traditional ABA. So 00:07:12.850 --> 00:07:15.379 closer to something like... Chiquitito or Fernando. 00:07:15.819 --> 00:07:19.079 Exactly. A bit more uptempo, but orchestrationally, 00:07:19.079 --> 00:07:21.500 it was looking backward to their previous hits. 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:24.360 In fact, they were so confident in this song 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:26.500 that they actually performed it during their 00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:29.819 rehearsals for the 1979 tour. So it was a real 00:07:29.819 --> 00:07:32.040 contender. Oh, yeah. At that point, they were 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:34.560 calling it Under My Son. So it was a Finnish 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:36.980 song with a proper title that they were actively 00:07:36.980 --> 00:07:39.459 practicing. So they're in the studio. They're 00:07:39.459 --> 00:07:42.379 rehearsing Rubber Ball Man thinking. This is 00:07:42.379 --> 00:07:44.860 the one. This is the big single. What changed 00:07:44.860 --> 00:07:46.740 their minds? What was the pivot? I think they 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:48.720 just looked at the charts. They listened to Hot 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:51.500 Stuff again. And the group collectively felt 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:54.199 a disconnect. They had a moment of brutal honesty 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:57.480 with themselves. They realized Rubber Ball Man 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:00.100 felt like 1976 and they were about to step into 00:08:00.100 --> 00:08:03.279 1980. They felt that gimme, gimme, gimme with 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:06.000 that electronic disco forward, slightly colder 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.779 sound was simply a better strategic choice for 00:08:08.779 --> 00:08:11.850 the moment. So Rubber Ball Man got benched. It 00:08:11.850 --> 00:08:14.529 was relegated to being nothing more than a demo. 00:08:14.629 --> 00:08:16.889 It was the sacrifice. It was the song that was 00:08:16.889 --> 00:08:19.430 left behind so that gimme, gimme, gimme could 00:08:19.430 --> 00:08:22.730 live. Wow. That is a brutal industry decision. 00:08:22.970 --> 00:08:25.310 We have a perfectly good song, a potential hit, 00:08:25.430 --> 00:08:28.050 but it's not now enough. It's cold, but looking 00:08:28.050 --> 00:08:29.829 back, it was probably the right call. I mean, 00:08:29.850 --> 00:08:31.709 a rubber ball man might have been nice, but gimme, 00:08:31.829 --> 00:08:34.950 gimme, gimme is an absolute force of nature. 00:08:35.169 --> 00:08:37.509 It really is. And a huge part of that force, 00:08:37.669 --> 00:08:39.210 this is where we need to get a little technical 00:08:39.210 --> 00:08:41.519 for a moment, comes from the sound design. We 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:43.360 mentioned that hook earlier. The synthesizer. 00:08:43.419 --> 00:08:45.600 That opening melody line. Yes. And it wasn't 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:47.779 just a keyboard. It was played on a very specific 00:08:47.779 --> 00:08:51.200 instrument, an ARP Odyssey synthesizer. Okay, 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:53.039 for the gearheads listening and for those of 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:55.639 us who just like cool sounds, why does this specific 00:08:55.639 --> 00:08:58.399 instrument matter here? Why the ARP Odyssey and 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:01.179 not, say, a mini Moog, which was huge at the 00:09:01.179 --> 00:09:03.919 time? The ARP Odyssey was a very specific beast. 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.759 It was duophonic, which is a fancy way of saying 00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:08.299 it could play two notes at once, which allowed 00:09:08.299 --> 00:09:10.960 for some interesting textures. Okay. But its 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:13.580 real character came from its filter. It had a 00:09:13.580 --> 00:09:17.000 sharp, biting, almost aggressive quality. It 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.639 wasn't warm and fat like the Moog sounds that 00:09:19.639 --> 00:09:22.340 dominated. early 70s. So less Pink Floyd, more 00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:25.940 something else. Exactly. The Moog was smooth 00:09:25.940 --> 00:09:30.139 like butter. The ARP Odyssey cut like a knife. 00:09:30.279 --> 00:09:32.940 It sounded almost brittle, but in a way that 00:09:32.940 --> 00:09:35.200 commanded your absolute attention. It does sound 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:38.059 metallic. Yeah. Like steel being struck. Precisely. 00:09:38.059 --> 00:09:40.659 And by choosing to lead with that sharp, biting 00:09:40.659 --> 00:09:43.299 synth sound, ABBA was making a very deliberate 00:09:43.299 --> 00:09:45.740 statement. This was a dive into electro pop textures. 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:47.919 This wasn't the wall of sound acoustic guitar 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:51.139 and piano layering of Waterloo. This was colder. 00:09:51.259 --> 00:09:53.720 It was sharper. It was the sound of the future. 00:09:53.940 --> 00:09:56.440 It definitely stands out in your catalog. It 00:09:56.440 --> 00:09:58.860 feels mechanical, but in a really compelling 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:01.639 way, like a machine that's trying to feel something. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:04.159 That's a brilliant segue because that tension, 00:10:04.220 --> 00:10:06.559 that exact tension between the mechanical sound 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:09.519 and the very human emotion is the absolute core 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:12.899 of this track. You have this upbeat, driving, 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:16.100 relentless electronic disco production. It makes 00:10:16.100 --> 00:10:19.240 your body want to move. But then you actually 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:22.039 listen to what Agnetha Felskog is singing. And 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:23.820 most people don't, right? I think most people 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:25.659 just shout the chorus of the karaoke bar. Gimme, 00:10:25.779 --> 00:10:27.860 gimme, gimme. And they don't pay any attention 00:10:27.860 --> 00:10:29.879 to the verses. They totally miss it. But when 00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:33.779 you actually read the lyric sheet. Yikes. It 00:10:33.779 --> 00:10:36.899 is dark. It is remarkably dark. Agnetha is playing 00:10:36.899 --> 00:10:39.700 the role of a narrator, a woman who is completely, 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:42.019 utterly alone in her apartment. She isn't at 00:10:42.019 --> 00:10:44.600 the club. She isn't having fun. She's painting 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:48.519 a picture of absolute crushing isolation. There's 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:51.580 that opening imagery, half past 12. Oh. She's 00:10:51.580 --> 00:10:53.460 looking out the window, looking at the gloomy 00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:55.740 night. It feels so claustrophobic from the very 00:10:55.740 --> 00:10:58.139 first line. And she contrasts her own existence 00:10:58.139 --> 00:11:01.070 with the happy endings of movie stars. That line 00:11:01.070 --> 00:11:05.009 always gets me. Movie stars. It's like she's 00:11:05.009 --> 00:11:07.429 acutely aware that her life isn't following the 00:11:07.429 --> 00:11:10.490 script it's supposed to. Exactly. She views her 00:11:10.490 --> 00:11:14.549 own loneliness as this forbidding darkness. It's 00:11:14.549 --> 00:11:16.769 not just, I'm bored tonight, I wish I had a date. 00:11:17.110 --> 00:11:20.250 It's an existential crisis set to a disco beat. 00:11:20.470 --> 00:11:22.629 It really is. The source material we have includes 00:11:22.629 --> 00:11:24.509 some really interesting critical interpretations 00:11:24.509 --> 00:11:27.669 on this, which I think nail it. Yeah, that Financial 00:11:27.669 --> 00:11:30.370 Times piece was fantastic. They didn't pull any 00:11:30.370 --> 00:11:32.429 punches at all. The Financial Times described 00:11:32.429 --> 00:11:36.669 the song as a masterpiece of Scandinavian frankness. 00:11:37.289 --> 00:11:39.490 Scandinavian frankness. I love that phrase. It 00:11:39.490 --> 00:11:42.289 sounds so serious and profound. It implies a 00:11:42.289 --> 00:11:44.549 refusal to sugarcoat the sadness, you know. They 00:11:44.549 --> 00:11:46.710 called it a gothic tale of alienation and sexual 00:11:46.710 --> 00:11:49.049 frustration. Which is spot on. It's not a love 00:11:49.049 --> 00:11:52.440 song. It's a song about pure desperation. And 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:54.980 The Emery Wheel had a similar take. They called 00:11:54.980 --> 00:11:58.080 it an unapologetic dive into electropop that 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:01.019 depicts an emotional unraveling. Emotional unraveling. 00:12:01.019 --> 00:12:03.779 That is heavy, but it's accurate. It is. The 00:12:03.779 --> 00:12:06.440 woman in the song is unraveling. She's staring 00:12:06.440 --> 00:12:08.139 at the shadows on the wall and talking to the 00:12:08.139 --> 00:12:11.980 TV. And I think that tension between the glittering, 00:12:11.980 --> 00:12:15.059 eerie melancholy, as the critics put it, and 00:12:15.059 --> 00:12:18.259 that propulsive beat is exactly why the song 00:12:18.259 --> 00:12:21.110 has endured. it captures a very specific very 00:12:21.110 --> 00:12:24.590 modern feeling being alone in a crowd or dancing 00:12:24.590 --> 00:12:27.850 to forget your problems it's the sad banger genre 00:12:27.850 --> 00:12:30.330 before that was even a term it's the blueprint 00:12:30.330 --> 00:12:32.549 for it and speaking of endurance and different 00:12:32.549 --> 00:12:34.970 interpretations the sources also mentioned that 00:12:34.970 --> 00:12:37.169 the song eventually gained this huge status as 00:12:37.169 --> 00:12:39.950 a gay anthem yes the times noted this specifically 00:12:40.750 --> 00:12:42.490 Which makes perfect sense when you think about 00:12:42.490 --> 00:12:44.149 it. It really does. If you look at those themes, 00:12:44.269 --> 00:12:46.129 that deep longing, the search for connection, 00:12:46.389 --> 00:12:49.309 the liberated disco beat, the idea of the night 00:12:49.309 --> 00:12:52.529 as a place of both possibility and danger, it 00:12:52.529 --> 00:12:54.889 resonates so deeply. It's about the hunt for 00:12:54.889 --> 00:12:57.070 connection in a world that can often feel cold 00:12:57.070 --> 00:12:59.210 and isolating. And it's about finding sanctuary 00:12:59.210 --> 00:13:01.409 on the dance floor when your real life feels 00:13:01.409 --> 00:13:03.590 empty or you're not accepted. It's a hymn for 00:13:03.590 --> 00:13:06.669 the lonely. So we have this masterpiece of Scandinavian 00:13:06.669 --> 00:13:10.009 frankness, a technical marvel on the ARP Odyssey. 00:13:10.570 --> 00:13:13.809 A lyrical gut punch. You'd think the record label 00:13:13.809 --> 00:13:15.470 would just put it out, it goes to number one, 00:13:15.490 --> 00:13:17.710 and everyone is happy. You would think. That 00:13:17.710 --> 00:13:20.190 would be the simple, logical story. But that 00:13:20.190 --> 00:13:22.889 is not what happened. Not by a long shot. Not 00:13:22.889 --> 00:13:25.429 at all. The release history of the song is a 00:13:25.429 --> 00:13:28.230 logistical nightmare. It's actually a classic 00:13:28.230 --> 00:13:31.210 case study in how fragmented and, frankly, weird 00:13:31.210 --> 00:13:34.669 the music industry was in 1979. Let's break this 00:13:34.669 --> 00:13:37.090 down, because today a song drops on Spotify. 00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:39.820 And it's the same file, the same version everywhere 00:13:39.820 --> 00:13:43.059 in the world instantly. Right. But in 1979, physical 00:13:43.059 --> 00:13:46.159 distribution meant local decisions. Regional 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:49.080 managers had power. Labels in different countries 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:51.100 could do their own thing. OK, so let's start 00:13:51.100 --> 00:13:53.860 with the United States. ABBA always had a bit 00:13:53.860 --> 00:13:55.980 of a harder time cracking the U .S. market compared 00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:58.639 to Europe. They did. They were viewed more as 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:01.580 a Europop novelty by some of the more rock -focused 00:14:01.580 --> 00:14:03.980 critics there, rather than the serious artists 00:14:03.980 --> 00:14:05.879 they were considered to be in Europe. So with 00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:08.440 this release, the U .S. ladle, Atlantic Records, 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:11.340 made a very strange, almost hostile decision. 00:14:11.820 --> 00:14:14.519 Hostile is a good word for it. The standard version 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:17.580 of Gimme Gimme Gimme, the one the rest of the 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:19.539 world got, the one Benny and Bjorn produced, 00:14:19.940 --> 00:14:24.100 was 4 minutes and 48 seconds long. Okay, nearly 00:14:24.100 --> 00:14:27.340 5 minutes. Pretty standard for a disco 12 -inch. 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:30.419 Maybe a bit long for AM radio, but nothing crazy. 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:32.919 But if you bought the single in the United States 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:35.580 or Canada, you got a version that was only three 00:14:35.580 --> 00:14:37.700 minutes and 36 seconds. That's over a minute 00:14:37.700 --> 00:14:40.559 shorter. That's huge. That's like 25 % of the 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:42.000 song. What did they cut? Did they just speed 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:44.519 it up? No, they took a hatchet to it. They just 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:46.940 chopped out huge sections. They removed the first 00:14:46.940 --> 00:14:49.600 half of the opening instrumental. So that slow 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:52.759 building tension, gone. Gone. They cut out the 00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:54.840 first four of the eight bars of the instrumental 00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:57.460 bridge between the second and final chorus, and 00:14:57.460 --> 00:14:59.559 then they just faded the song out early. That 00:14:59.559 --> 00:15:01.919 sounds jarring. Sounds like vandalism. Yeah. 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:04.120 Did ABA approve that? The sources suggest they 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:06.480 absolutely did not. It's widely believed that 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:08.980 this edit was done by Atlantic Records completely 00:15:08.980 --> 00:15:11.860 independently of Polar Music, which was ABA's 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:14.700 primary label in Sweden. Wow. So the U .S. label 00:15:14.700 --> 00:15:17.500 just decided, we know better than the artists. 00:15:18.169 --> 00:15:20.009 And chopped up the master tape. Essentially, 00:15:20.129 --> 00:15:22.950 yes. It's actually noted as a very rare instance. 00:15:23.029 --> 00:15:25.690 It marked the only time Atlantic ever commercially 00:15:25.690 --> 00:15:28.350 released an edited version of an ABBA single 00:15:28.350 --> 00:15:31.210 while they held the U .S. rights. So it was a 00:15:31.210 --> 00:15:33.370 one -off butchering. A one -off. And to this 00:15:33.370 --> 00:15:36.269 day, that specific Atlantic edit has never appeared 00:15:36.269 --> 00:15:39.610 on any commercial CD or streaming service issued 00:15:39.610 --> 00:15:41.570 by Polar or Universal. It's like an artifact 00:15:41.570 --> 00:15:43.629 of bad decision -making. They've buried it. So 00:15:43.629 --> 00:15:45.850 they chop up the song to make it more radio -friendly. 00:15:46.049 --> 00:15:48.899 Yeah. Does it work? Has it become a huge U .S. 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:51.259 chart hit? No, it doesn't chart at all. And that 00:15:51.259 --> 00:15:54.860 brings us to the disco demolition effect. Oh, 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:58.679 right. 1979 in the U .S. This is such crucial 00:15:58.679 --> 00:16:00.899 context. We have to remember the cultural climate. 00:16:00.980 --> 00:16:05.379 July 12th, 1979, Pomaski Park in Chicago. Disco 00:16:05.379 --> 00:16:07.980 demolition night. Where a local shock jock got 00:16:07.980 --> 00:16:10.240 thousands of people to bring disco records to 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:12.080 a baseball game so they could blow them up. They 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:14.500 literally blew up a giant crate of disco records 00:16:14.500 --> 00:16:16.840 in center field between games of a doubleheader. 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:20.000 It was a riot. It was a visceral, angry backlash 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:23.480 against disco music. Driven by rock fans, but 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:27.279 with undeniable racial and homophobic undertones. 00:16:27.539 --> 00:16:30.559 It was ugly. It was incredibly ugly. And by the 00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:33.539 time Gimme Gimme Gimme was ready for its U .S. 00:16:33.580 --> 00:16:36.740 release in October of 79, just a few months later, 00:16:36.860 --> 00:16:39.519 the word disco was poison in the U .S. music 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:42.269 industry. Radio programmers were running scared. 00:16:42.690 --> 00:16:44.789 So they just weren't touching anything that sounded 00:16:44.789 --> 00:16:47.049 like it came from a nightclub. Basically. And 00:16:47.049 --> 00:16:49.629 Atlantic Records panicked. They actually went 00:16:49.629 --> 00:16:51.690 as far as to cancel the full commercial release 00:16:51.690 --> 00:16:54.769 in the United States. You're kidding. No. They 00:16:54.769 --> 00:16:56.529 had already pressed up promotional copies for 00:16:56.529 --> 00:16:58.549 radio stations, which are now collector's items 00:16:58.549 --> 00:17:00.889 worth a decent amount of money. But they pulled 00:17:00.889 --> 00:17:03.450 the plug on the main rollout to the public. They 00:17:03.450 --> 00:17:06.009 presumed the unpopularity of disco would make 00:17:06.009 --> 00:17:09.130 the single a complete flop. That is wild. They 00:17:09.130 --> 00:17:11.670 have the global smash hit on their hands, a song 00:17:11.670 --> 00:17:13.630 that fits perfectly with the major tour they're 00:17:13.630 --> 00:17:16.029 about to do across North America. And they just 00:17:16.029 --> 00:17:17.549 don't release it because they're afraid of the 00:17:17.549 --> 00:17:19.970 anti -disco movement. Meanwhile, in Europe, it 00:17:19.970 --> 00:17:23.150 was hitting number one in Belgium, Finland, France, 00:17:23.549 --> 00:17:26.650 Ireland, Switzerland. An absolute monster hit 00:17:26.650 --> 00:17:29.450 everywhere else. Everywhere but the U .S. But 00:17:29.450 --> 00:17:31.210 wait, you mentioned earlier that the release 00:17:31.210 --> 00:17:34.170 was also weird in Sweden. That's their home turf. 00:17:34.269 --> 00:17:35.730 That's where they live. Surely they released 00:17:35.730 --> 00:17:37.900 it there. You would think so. It's the most logical 00:17:37.900 --> 00:17:40.319 place to release it. But this is the Swedish 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:43.700 paradox. Polar Music, their own label run by 00:17:43.700 --> 00:17:45.980 their own manager, never released Gimme Gimme 00:17:45.980 --> 00:17:50.119 Gimme as a single in Sweden. What? Why on earth 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:52.680 not? Did they hate money? I don't understand 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:55.160 that at all. Seems they wanted to drive sales 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:57.880 of the album, Greatest Hits Vol. 2. The song 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:00.160 was included on that album, which was released 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:03.180 in Sweden. Their logic was, if you want the new 00:18:03.180 --> 00:18:05.440 song, you have to buy the whole LP. But people 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:08.240 love singles. Yeah. Teenagers have pocket money 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:11.440 for a 45, not a full priced album. Exactly. And 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:13.960 Swedish fans were desperate for the single. They 00:18:13.960 --> 00:18:16.839 wanted that 45 RPM disc with the picture sleeve. 00:18:17.140 --> 00:18:19.779 So Swedish record stores had to resort to importing 00:18:19.779 --> 00:18:21.920 copies from the United Kingdom. So they were 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:24.700 buying the British version on Epic Records and 00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:27.460 shipping it to Stockholm. Yes. They were importing 00:18:27.460 --> 00:18:30.099 their own country's biggest musical export back 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:32.460 into the country. It's absurd. And did people 00:18:32.460 --> 00:18:35.839 buy it? Oh yeah. The demand was so high that 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:39.019 sales of these imported UK singles were sufficient 00:18:39.019 --> 00:18:42.160 to push the song to number 16 on the Swedish 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:44.640 sales chart. That is incredible. A band charting 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:46.400 in their own country with an imported version 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:48.819 of their own song because their label wouldn't 00:18:48.819 --> 00:18:51.019 sell it to them. It just shows you how powerful 00:18:51.019 --> 00:18:53.519 the demand for this track was. It overcame the 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:55.960 US cancellation. It overcame the Swedish non 00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:58.480 -release. The people just wanted the song no 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:00.799 matter what. And clearly they still want it. 00:19:01.379 --> 00:19:03.819 Because the afterlife of this song is almost 00:19:03.819 --> 00:19:07.099 as big, if not bigger, than the original release. 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:09.920 I want to talk about the samples, because there 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:12.339 is one that just looms so large over modern pop 00:19:12.339 --> 00:19:14.420 history. You're definitely referring to Madonna. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:18.599 2005. Hung up. Yes. From the album Confessions 00:19:18.599 --> 00:19:20.720 on a Dance Floor. This was a massive, massive 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.220 moment in pop culture. And to understand why, 00:19:23.299 --> 00:19:25.099 you have to understand Benny and Bjorn's philosophy 00:19:25.099 --> 00:19:28.180 on sampling. Which is basically, don't touch 00:19:28.180 --> 00:19:30.890 our stuff. Ever. Essentially, yes. They were 00:19:30.890 --> 00:19:33.410 notoriously protective of their catalog. They 00:19:33.410 --> 00:19:35.910 almost never grant permission for sampling. Before 00:19:35.910 --> 00:19:38.130 Madonna, they had only officially cleared a sample 00:19:38.130 --> 00:19:41.950 once. For the Fugees in 1996 for the song Rumble 00:19:41.950 --> 00:19:45.250 in the Jungle. That's it. In like 30 years of 00:19:45.250 --> 00:19:48.089 people asking. That's it. So for Madonna to get 00:19:48.089 --> 00:19:50.490 this cleared, she couldn't just have her lawyers 00:19:50.490 --> 00:19:52.549 call their lawyers. That wasn't going to work. 00:19:52.670 --> 00:19:55.109 She had to work for it. How did she pull it off? 00:19:55.170 --> 00:19:57.680 What was the secret? The story goes that Madonna 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.299 actually sent a personal letter to Stockholm, 00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:04.000 a begging letter, as it's often described in 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.779 the press. Wow. She sent an emissary with the 00:20:06.779 --> 00:20:09.819 letter and a copy of the track pleading her case. 00:20:10.019 --> 00:20:13.420 I just love the image of Madonna, who is arguably 00:20:13.420 --> 00:20:16.259 the queen of top, sitting down to write a humble 00:20:16.259 --> 00:20:19.130 letter asking ABBA for permission. It shows the 00:20:19.130 --> 00:20:21.849 immense respect involved. She reportedly talked 00:20:21.849 --> 00:20:23.710 about how much she loved their music, what it 00:20:23.710 --> 00:20:25.490 meant to her and what she wanted to do with the 00:20:25.490 --> 00:20:27.930 sample. And it worked. They said yes. They said 00:20:27.930 --> 00:20:30.410 yes. They granted the permission and Hung Up 00:20:30.410 --> 00:20:33.869 became this gigantic worldwide hit built entirely 00:20:33.869 --> 00:20:36.210 around that ARP Odyssey hook we talked about 00:20:36.210 --> 00:20:38.329 earlier. It's funny. For a certain generation, 00:20:38.589 --> 00:20:42.490 for millennials, Hung Up is the song. They might 00:20:42.490 --> 00:20:45.130 not even realize it's ABBA originally. That's 00:20:45.130 --> 00:20:47.730 the power of a good sample. It bridges generations. 00:20:48.230 --> 00:20:50.470 And Benny and Bjorn praised it. They said it 00:20:50.470 --> 00:20:53.210 was a wonderful track, 100 % solid pop music. 00:20:53.410 --> 00:20:56.230 They appreciated that she didn't just lazily 00:20:56.230 --> 00:20:59.170 loop it. She built a whole new incredible song 00:20:59.170 --> 00:21:01.869 that honored the energy of the original. But 00:21:01.869 --> 00:21:04.009 Madonna wasn't the only diva to take a crack 00:21:04.009 --> 00:21:06.829 at it. We have to talk about Cher. Yes. Cher 00:21:06.829 --> 00:21:09.890 released an entire album of ABEA covers called 00:21:09.890 --> 00:21:13.150 Dancing Queen back in 2018. And her version of 00:21:13.150 --> 00:21:15.970 Gimme Gimme Gimme was the lead single from that 00:21:15.970 --> 00:21:18.299 project. Which makes so much sense. Cher and 00:21:18.299 --> 00:21:21.440 ABBA, it feel like a natural fit. Both are icons 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:23.599 of camp. Both are beloved by the gay community. 00:21:24.039 --> 00:21:26.359 But it's also a lot of pressure to cover a song 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:28.700 that iconic. So how did she approach it? Did 00:21:28.700 --> 00:21:30.759 she try to copy the original arrangement? No, 00:21:30.759 --> 00:21:32.700 she worked with producer Mark Taylor, the man 00:21:32.700 --> 00:21:35.180 who helped create her massive hit Believe. Okay, 00:21:35.319 --> 00:21:38.680 so he knows his way around iconic, auto -tuned 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:41.380 pop vocals? He certainly does. And the critical 00:21:41.380 --> 00:21:43.839 reception was really interesting. Rolling Stone 00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:46.240 noted that while she didn't strip the song, of 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:48.980 its core catchiness, she completely transformed 00:21:48.980 --> 00:21:51.579 it. They said she turned it from FM radio pop 00:21:51.579 --> 00:21:55.140 into a club banger. Pulsating with every beat, 00:21:55.220 --> 00:21:56.980 I think was the quote I saw. That's the one. 00:21:57.220 --> 00:22:00.059 It was a modernization. It was designed to fit 00:22:00.059 --> 00:22:02.839 on 2018 dance floors, whereas the original was 00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:06.460 fit for 1979 discos. It was heavier, something 00:22:06.460 --> 00:22:10.079 very glossy. And we absolutely can't talk about 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:12.019 covers without mentioning Mamma Mia. Of course. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:15.730 The 2008 film. a cultural reset in its own way 00:22:15.730 --> 00:22:18.829 amanda seyfried sings it in the movie but there's 00:22:18.829 --> 00:22:20.490 a distinct difference between the movie version 00:22:20.490 --> 00:22:22.569 and the soundtrack version isn't there a significant 00:22:22.569 --> 00:22:25.289 one yeah if you watch the film the song is used 00:22:25.289 --> 00:22:27.950 primarily as a narrative device it's mostly instrumental 00:22:27.950 --> 00:22:30.529 the characters only sing the chorus to drive 00:22:30.529 --> 00:22:32.670 the plot forward as sophie is trying to figure 00:22:32.670 --> 00:22:34.789 out who her dad is so it functions more like 00:22:34.789 --> 00:22:37.349 it does in the stageway exactly but if you buy 00:22:37.349 --> 00:22:39.369 the soundtrack album you get a complete solo 00:22:39.369 --> 00:22:41.470 performance by amanda seyfried the full song 00:22:41.470 --> 00:22:43.890 start to finish It's just interesting how versatile 00:22:43.890 --> 00:22:46.490 the song is. It works as a movie plot device. 00:22:46.670 --> 00:22:48.529 It works as a thumping club banger for Cher. 00:22:48.730 --> 00:22:51.009 It works as a sample for Madonna. And it worked 00:22:51.009 --> 00:22:53.970 as a teen pop introduction for the 18s. Oh man, 00:22:54.109 --> 00:22:57.509 the 18s. 1999, I had completely forgotten about 00:22:57.509 --> 00:22:59.829 them. That was a huge moment for reintroducing 00:22:59.829 --> 00:23:02.049 ABBA to the millennial generation. It was their 00:23:02.049 --> 00:23:05.289 third single, hit the top 10 in Sweden. And the 00:23:05.289 --> 00:23:07.269 video, do you remember the video? I have these 00:23:07.269 --> 00:23:12.089 vague, hazy memories of a bowling alley. Yeah. 00:23:12.269 --> 00:23:15.329 And maybe a crystal ball. Yes, you got it. It 00:23:15.329 --> 00:23:17.690 featured the band entering a warehouse, finding 00:23:17.690 --> 00:23:20.069 a crystal ball and seeing an alternate world 00:23:20.069 --> 00:23:23.069 inside it where they perform. And yes, there 00:23:23.069 --> 00:23:25.829 were scenes in a bowling alley. It was peak late 00:23:25.829 --> 00:23:29.220 90s aesthetic. I love that. proves that the melody 00:23:29.220 --> 00:23:31.440 is completely bulletproof. You can dress it up 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:35.400 in 90s bubblegum pop, 2018 club beats, or 1979 00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:38.019 disco, and the core of it still works perfectly. 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:39.859 And it keeps going. You have even more modern 00:23:39.859 --> 00:23:42.579 interpretations. Ava Max subtly sampled it in 00:23:42.579 --> 00:23:45.180 her song Torn in 2019. She said she wanted to 00:23:45.180 --> 00:23:48.140 add a little disco flair. Right. And Reina Sawayama 00:23:48.140 --> 00:23:51.019 used the chorus melody for the main guitar riff 00:23:51.019 --> 00:23:54.299 in her song This Hell in 2022. Which required 00:23:54.299 --> 00:23:56.460 approval because the similarities were so strong 00:23:56.460 --> 00:23:58.519 you couldn't ignore them. It just shows that 00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:02.339 the musical DNA of gimme, gimme, givy is still 00:24:02.339 --> 00:24:04.799 being woven into pop music today. It is a foundational 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:07.940 text of pop. It really is everywhere. Yeah. But. 00:24:08.430 --> 00:24:10.190 And this is where we get into the deep dive exclusive 00:24:10.190 --> 00:24:13.549 territory. It wasn't just in music. It was also 00:24:13.549 --> 00:24:16.230 in our computers. For real. This is one of my 00:24:16.230 --> 00:24:18.670 favorite details in the entire research stack. 00:24:18.869 --> 00:24:21.549 The Linux Unix Easter egg. It's just so nerdy 00:24:21.549 --> 00:24:23.069 and brilliant. Okay, you need to break this down 00:24:23.069 --> 00:24:24.970 for us. I use a computer every day, but I don't 00:24:24.970 --> 00:24:27.549 know what a man command is. Okay, so in Unix 00:24:27.549 --> 00:24:29.650 and Linux operating systems, which, you know, 00:24:29.650 --> 00:24:31.789 run most of the internet servers in the world, 00:24:31.849 --> 00:24:35.400 there is a command line utility called man. M 00:24:35.400 --> 00:24:38.599 -A -N. Just man. Just man. It stands for manual. 00:24:38.819 --> 00:24:40.640 If you are a developer and you don't know how 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:42.779 a command works, you type man and then the command 00:24:42.779 --> 00:24:45.240 name, and it shows you the manual page. It's 00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:47.400 the help file. Okay. So it's standard stuff for 00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:49.920 developers. Very standard, very boring, very 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:52.460 functional. But for a long time, there was a 00:24:52.460 --> 00:24:55.460 hidden trigger in the code of the man DB package. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:59.779 A developer who was undoubtedly a huge ABBA fan 00:24:59.779 --> 00:25:02.619 added a few extra lines of code. What did it 00:25:02.619 --> 00:25:05.980 do? If you ran the man command without any arguments, 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.839 so you just typed man and hit enter at a very 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:14.099 specific time. What time? At exactly 00 .30 system 00:25:14.099 --> 00:25:16.500 time. Half past 12 in the morning. Referencing 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:18.200 the lyric half past. Half past 12. Half past 00:25:18.200 --> 00:25:20.099 12 and I'm watching the late show. Oh my God, 00:25:20.119 --> 00:25:22.940 that's amazing. Exactly. If you did that at precisely 00:25:22.940 --> 00:25:26.180 0 .30, the system would print the words gimme, 00:25:26.279 --> 00:25:28.500 gimme, gimme on the screen. That is hilarious. 00:25:28.740 --> 00:25:30.339 So you're a coder, you're working late, it's 00:25:30.339 --> 00:25:32.180 half past midnight, you make a typo and your 00:25:32.180 --> 00:25:34.359 computer starts quoting ABA at you. It was a 00:25:34.359 --> 00:25:37.480 harmless little joke, a perfect Easter egg. But 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:39.759 as with all things in tech, it eventually caused 00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:41.380 a problem. What happened? Why isn't it still 00:25:41.380 --> 00:25:44.480 there? It was removed in 2017. Specifically... 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:48.799 Inversion ManDB 2 .8 .0. Did the copyright lawyers 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:51.380 get involved? Or did someone just lose their 00:25:51.380 --> 00:25:53.779 sense of humor? No, it was actually a very practical, 00:25:53.839 --> 00:25:56.079 functional issue. It was annoying other developers 00:25:56.079 --> 00:25:58.559 because it broke their automated software tests. 00:25:58.839 --> 00:26:01.359 Explain that. How does a little bit of text... 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:04.700 break a big test well imagine you have a script 00:26:04.700 --> 00:26:06.859 that runs automatically every night on your server 00:26:06.859 --> 00:26:09.539 to check if everything is healthy it runs the 00:26:09.539 --> 00:26:11.539 man command to check something and it expects 00:26:11.539 --> 00:26:13.960 the computer to reply with a specific message 00:26:13.960 --> 00:26:16.819 like what manual page do you want or a particular 00:26:16.819 --> 00:26:19.420 error code right a predictable response exactly 00:26:19.420 --> 00:26:22.519 but if that automated test happened to run at 00:26:22.519 --> 00:26:25.500 exactly zero zero point three the computer would 00:26:25.500 --> 00:26:28.140 instead reply gimme gimme gimme and the script 00:26:28.140 --> 00:26:31.529 says I have no idea what that means, and it crashes. 00:26:32.009 --> 00:26:34.549 Precisely. The test fails, an alarm goes off 00:26:34.549 --> 00:26:36.670 somewhere, and a developer gets woken up, all 00:26:36.670 --> 00:26:39.670 because of an ABBA joke. So efficiency killed 00:26:39.670 --> 00:26:42.490 the disco star. They had to patch it out to ensure 00:26:42.490 --> 00:26:45.210 system stability. That is one of the best stories 00:26:45.210 --> 00:26:47.990 I have ever heard. It serves as a testament to 00:26:47.990 --> 00:26:50.910 how deeply ingrained this song is in our culture. 00:26:51.329 --> 00:26:53.670 It's not just on the radio. It was literally 00:26:53.670 --> 00:26:55.990 in the source code of the infrastructure of the 00:26:55.990 --> 00:26:58.359 modern internet. It's everywhere. And speaking 00:26:58.359 --> 00:27:00.279 of the Internet, we have to mention the huge 00:27:00.279 --> 00:27:02.319 milestone that just happened. The million mark. 00:27:02.420 --> 00:27:06.859 According to our sources on July 20, 2025, gimme, 00:27:06.859 --> 00:27:10.660 gimme, gimme, officially surpassed one billion 00:27:10.660 --> 00:27:14.380 streams on Spotify. One billion. That is just 00:27:14.380 --> 00:27:16.779 a staggering number to even think about. And 00:27:16.779 --> 00:27:20.299 it was the second ABBA song to do so, right behind 00:27:20.299 --> 00:27:22.960 Dancing Queen. That is just mind -blowing. This 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:25.480 is a song from 1979. It's racking up numbers 00:27:25.480 --> 00:27:28.259 that modern pop stars, your Taylor Swifts, your 00:27:28.259 --> 00:27:30.779 Weekends, would kill for on their new releases. 00:27:31.059 --> 00:27:33.500 It absolutely proves its longevity with Gen Z 00:27:33.500 --> 00:27:35.779 and younger listeners. It's not just a nostalgia 00:27:35.779 --> 00:27:38.319 track for people who were alive in the 70s. It 00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:40.700 is a living, breathing hit. People are putting 00:27:40.700 --> 00:27:43.079 it on their workout playlists, their party playlists. 00:27:43.150 --> 00:27:46.130 their Sad Vibes playlist right now, today. And 00:27:46.130 --> 00:27:48.450 the band or their label is keeping it fresh technically, 00:27:48.609 --> 00:27:50.730 too. We saw in the notes that in October 2024, 00:27:51.150 --> 00:27:53.789 it got a massive technical upgrade. It did. For 00:27:53.789 --> 00:27:55.529 the release of the box set, The Singles, the 00:27:55.529 --> 00:27:58.930 first 50 years, the song received a full Dolby 00:27:58.930 --> 00:28:01.089 Atmos remix. What does that actually mean for 00:28:01.089 --> 00:28:03.150 the listener? What does it sound like? Dolby 00:28:03.150 --> 00:28:05.849 Atmos is basically spatial audio. Instead of 00:28:05.849 --> 00:28:08.430 just stereo left and right speakers, it places 00:28:08.430 --> 00:28:10.769 the different sounds in a 3D space around you. 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:13.240 You can hear that ARP synth coming from above 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:15.880 you, the bass line from behind you. It's incredibly 00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:19.160 immersive. And it was only the third ABBA track 00:28:19.160 --> 00:28:21.759 to get that special treatment. Correct. After 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:24.200 Dancing Queen and The Winner Takes It All, it 00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:26.480 shows that they view this song as one of their 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:30.119 absolute crown jewels. They also released a 4K 00:28:30.119 --> 00:28:32.579 video remaster at the same time, so you can see 00:28:32.579 --> 00:28:36.480 those glorious 1979 costumes in pristine high 00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:38.880 definition. Okay, so let's try to pull all of 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:40.579 this together. We've been on quite a journey. 00:28:40.660 --> 00:28:42.940 We really have. We started with a band under 00:28:42.940 --> 00:28:46.319 immense pressure. It's 1979, they desperately 00:28:46.319 --> 00:28:48.920 need a hit for a tour, and they dump a perfectly 00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:51.319 good song, Rubber Ball Man, to gamble on a new, 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:54.119 colder, more electronic sound. A sound directly 00:28:54.119 --> 00:28:56.180 inspired by Donna Summer and American Disco. 00:28:56.359 --> 00:28:58.500 Right. They go into the studio and record this 00:28:58.500 --> 00:29:01.240 track that is technically brilliant, using that 00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:04.079 ARP audition to create that cold, piercing hook. 00:29:04.299 --> 00:29:06.980 But lyrically, it's a gothic nightmare of loneliness 00:29:06.980 --> 00:29:09.119 and frustration. A fundamental contradiction 00:29:09.119 --> 00:29:12.039 that defines the entire song. Then the release 00:29:12.039 --> 00:29:14.829 is a complete disaster. The U .S. label chops 00:29:14.829 --> 00:29:17.230 it up and then cancels release because of disco 00:29:17.230 --> 00:29:20.829 riots. Their own Swedish label refuses to sell 00:29:20.829 --> 00:29:24.329 it as a single to force album sales. But the 00:29:24.329 --> 00:29:26.630 fans find a way to buy it anyway. It survived 00:29:26.630 --> 00:29:29.269 the death of disco. It survived the music industry 00:29:29.269 --> 00:29:32.589 politics of its own labels. And now, almost 50 00:29:32.589 --> 00:29:36.190 years later, it's a billion stream giant. It's 00:29:36.190 --> 00:29:38.970 been sampled by Madonna, covered by Cher, hidden 00:29:38.970 --> 00:29:42.089 in Linux code, and remastered in 3D audio for 00:29:42.089 --> 00:29:44.740 a new generation. It really highlights that contrast 00:29:44.740 --> 00:29:46.500 we talked about right at the beginning. It has 00:29:46.500 --> 00:29:49.740 this huge party reputation. But at its core, 00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:53.339 it is a desperate, lonely song. And maybe that 00:29:53.339 --> 00:29:55.299 is the secret sauce, the reason it's lasted. 00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:58.000 How so? What do you mean by that? Because that's 00:29:58.000 --> 00:29:59.779 the human experience, isn't it? You're at the 00:29:59.779 --> 00:30:01.759 party, you're dancing, the lights are flashing, 00:30:01.839 --> 00:30:03.680 but there's still that little voice inside asking, 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:05.740 is there anyone out there for me? You can dance 00:30:05.740 --> 00:30:08.160 to it or you can cry to it. Or, more often than 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:09.900 not, you can do both at the same time. Usually 00:30:09.900 --> 00:30:12.180 both, let's be honest. It's the ultimate happy 00:30:12.180 --> 00:30:15.180 -sad song. It really is. It's a gothic tale in 00:30:15.180 --> 00:30:18.079 a disco dress. That's beautifully put. I'm stealing 00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:20.759 that. Before we sign off, I just want to leave 00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:23.369 the listener with one final thought. We talked 00:30:23.369 --> 00:30:26.069 about the Atlantic edit, that chopped up version 00:30:26.069 --> 00:30:29.650 that exists only on old vinyl and the Linux Easter 00:30:29.650 --> 00:30:32.549 egg that got deleted from the code. It makes 00:30:32.549 --> 00:30:34.670 you realize that once art is released into the 00:30:34.670 --> 00:30:37.869 world, it takes on a life of its own. It absolutely 00:30:37.869 --> 00:30:40.549 does. It gets cut up by executives. It gets hidden 00:30:40.549 --> 00:30:43.250 by programmers. It gets sampled and reinterpreted 00:30:43.250 --> 00:30:46.309 by new artists. The creators lose control of 00:30:46.309 --> 00:30:48.710 it in a way. It belongs to the world. Exactly. 00:30:48.890 --> 00:30:51.920 And it makes me wonder. What other classic hits 00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:54.400 have these hidden lives that we just don't know 00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:57.440 about? What other song has a secret line of code 00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:00.519 hidden in an operating system or a weird butchered 00:31:00.519 --> 00:31:02.980 edit that only exists in one country that we 00:31:02.980 --> 00:31:04.940 just haven't found yet? That is a question worth 00:31:04.940 --> 00:31:06.880 exploring. There must be more stories like this 00:31:06.880 --> 00:31:08.539 out there. Something to think about the next 00:31:08.539 --> 00:31:10.240 time you hear that synthesizer hook kick in. 00:31:10.740 --> 00:31:13.059 Thanks for listening to this Deem Dive. See you 00:31:13.059 --> 00:31:13.380 next time.