Must have left my house at eight, because I always do
My train, I'm certain, left the station just when it was due
I must have read the morning paper going into town
And having gotten through the editorial, no doubt I must have frowned
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 bunch
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 blue
I must have kept on dragging 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 exception 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 it's usual frame
The day before you came

Must have opened my front 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
There's not, I think, a single episode of Dallas that I didn't 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
It's funny, but I had no sense of living without aim
The day before you came

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


Lyrics submitted by Addıct

Day Before You Came Lyrics as written by Bjoern K Ulvaeus Benny Goran Bror Andersson

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

The Day Before You Came song meanings
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    General Comment

    Love this song, but it took me a minute to figure out the plot: The singer killed someone the day before, on her lunch break, and moved the body to be found in a way and place less likely to be linked to her. The singer is describing the day before the cop came to question her about the dead body they’d found that morning with ties to her and get her alibi. That’s why she’s so detailed about her timeline at the start and finish, why she tells the cop that after lunch she had so much work going on she hid from everyone in her office until quitting time at 5 pm when she left for her usual train ride home.

    That murder was why she was suddenly chain smoking after lunch but none before, why she stayed outside in the downpouring rain for so long she didn’t know how long her hands had been blue; she had to drag the body a ways to get it in a temporary hide y hole where to best dump the body after the sun started to set, the rain stopped, and the 5 pm commuter train full of wandering eyes left the city.

    There are loads of barely-nothing odd choices of words, double-meanings, etc, for most of her alibi narration. But I wasn’t sure until I realized what the cop definitely did quicker than me: Her morning commute from house front door to office desk took 1hr 15min total. She stresses go the cop that she didn’t alter her usual commute home last night, but left right at 5 pm to catch the usual train back home. That was her normal, had been for years she said, and she didn’t alter it last night. Specifically, she tells the cop she left the office at 5 pm, caught her usual train, and walked home only stopping for Chinese takeout at a place on her way. Then she screwed up, adding she arrived at her front door with her food right around 8pm. Home sweet home.

    That’s where the cop remembers her 1hr15min morning commute and realizes— she didn’t catch her usual train home, and she never went back to the office after her lunch break. Her usual commute home last night, however, somehow took her 3hrs, leaving 1hr 45min of unaccounted-for time (make that 1hr 30min to account for the Chinese takeout stop on her walk home) she had directly lied to him about having had at all, lying that she caught her usual train after leaving the office for it at her usual 5 pm, got Chinese to-go walking home from the train, then arrived home like normal.

    The song heavily implies she killed someone on her lunch break, hid the body the rest of the workday (not returning to her office), then got rid of the body in a way that didn’t point at her when it started to get dark, stop raining, and the first commuter train out was gone along with all its curious eyeballs.

    She took the next commuter train home, one hour later than usual, so leaving just after 6pm. Her commute from office to home front door takes 1hr 45 min.

    discobiscuon March 01, 2023   Link

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