The Paragons "Abba"

In the autumn Monorail Music announced via Twitter (@Monorail_Music) that they'd added a bunch of garage cds to their second hand racks. On went my coat and I was there within 25 minutes.  (I'm convinced the staff were working me by remote control!)  I dithered and hummed and hawed about which ones to buy so (recklessly! profligately!) bought all the ones I didn't already have; 13 discs in total.  It's taken a while to fully digest such a bounteous haul but with uncommon certainty I can now say that this song from "Teenage Shutdown: Nobody To Love" was the best of the lot:

With a killer intro and a joyful, almost gospel refrain of "I saw Abba late last night!" it's catchy to the point of madness. There's some wise advice amongst its lyrics, too: 

She said git your hair cut boy

Come on and get it outta your eyes

Stop your drinking and smoking boys

And tellin' all of them lies

The little Bobby Gillespie fade in the singer's voice on 'eyes' is a magical detail. Even the squarest of the squares must've punched the air with delight when they heard "Abba" at the college dance!  It sounded great across the PA in Heavenly* the other night but would've totally killed at 15 times the volume.

Read more about The Paragons on Beyond The Beat Generation.

As expected, original 45s are stupidly rare and hence command quite a price.


* - Apologies to anyone unfortunate enough to hear me wailing it and, er, to anyone who witnessed my air punching. Like I said, even the squarest of the squares....