Definitely a work in progress towards the finished a-ha song we know and love (at least I do, if not everyone else). This one is more Doors and less a-ha…Pal sounding more Morrison and less Morten. It’s not that I dislike Pal’s vocals because I don’t, it’s just that they’re missing the suspenseful and emotive elements in Morten’s voice that make this track quite special as an end piece to Scoundrel Days…that, and of course the more dramatic and effective orchestration the a-ha version has!

It was indeed a surprise to me to learn that Bridges had recorded this! I had never thought that songs in a-ha’s second album would have their origins so far back in time! This one is closer to the a-ha version than The Leap (the previous one). Even the lyrics are almost identical. I like to hear the differences more than the similarities, though. Like the xylophone(-like?) sound at the beginning and in other parts of the song, the "march-like" drumming, the violins starting at 4:48 and the different singing by Paul... It's funny also that I always thought this was another song mostly about Lauren being away and Paul writing her letters and calling her on the phone (and people waking up with their mind miles away with this other person, as you said 😉), while in fact this was written and recorded years before Lauren appeared in Paul's life. 😜 So, not all love / longing songs by Paul were inspired by Lauren, after all. 😁 I think this song makes the "more commercial" approach on this album more clear. Not that it's a very "commercial" sound, but when you compare it with the songs in the previous album this us obviously much closer to the "mainstream". The song was picked up by a-ha in the early days in London, and several demo versions were recorded at Rendezvous Studios in 1983-84, but the final version would only be recorded in 1986. You will later hear one of those demos (from the Deluxe version of Scoundrel Days). 😉

Oh I have to agree!! If no-one told me this was Bridges I would have guessed the Doors and he sounds an awful lot like Jim Morrison here!!!! Pål has a great voice, he was just unlucky that Morten has an extraordinary (and unique) voice! I love Mag's voice too. Together they are just magic. Thanks for this - lovely to hear the history of songs we know and love. 🌹🕊

Well crud… I am the first? Okay, well I somehow have a feeling that I could be alone here, but I really like this. I love Pål’s voice, I love the sound of the backing vocals, love the music that cool 60’s vibe. I mean, I get that most people automatically think of the Doors, but there were quite a few with this sound. I wish I knew a word for this sound, but I do love it. I do get it’s easy to say “Doorsy sound” for they are the most well known. Hmmm… maybe I’ll look into this more. 🤔I do think I am the only one who is a little annoyed with not knowing the name of this style. Well, I think Graham mentioned something too. Here’s the part some might gasp at, I actually skip this song on “Scoundrel Days”. 🙈To be fair, I skip quite a few. I really only listen to SD, IBLY,TSOT,and MS. I guess that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise for I have mentioned in the past that I am more into their more Rock, Bluesy, Jazzy kinda stuff than the 80’s stuff. So, SROA and the other songs feel very 80’s to me. I mean, I get they are good too, just not my style. I like Bridges’ version for it does not sound 80’s-like at all to me. It sounds really cool to me. Sorry to anyone I offended there. Definitely just a personal preference and not at all fact. I will steal a bit of Jon Batiste’s quote I posted the other day…this song’s radar found me.❤ I am also excited for I found that this actual album is available to be downloaded. I am curious if I can get a T-shirt with the album cover too. I would so love that. ❤ I will have to give Matt a fist bump 👊🏼 🤜🏽🤛🏾. I completely agree with you about Pål’s voice. I know this can be touchy territory and yes yes, of course Morten has one of those rare and extremely amazing voices that could do basically everything and anything. However, Pål has a really good voice, I think. It could do a lot of really good things. Again, clueless on why we don’t seem to get to hear much of that at all on the Savoy stuff. Well, so far anyways. Why is that? He should have shown that off more. IMHO 😊

I did not realise... it's S-a-ha-turday (lol... turd). Ok so the song is (IMHO) an epic that was criminally over looked as a single release. The Bridges version just shows the strength of the song writing. It's solid gold. Yeah it benefitted from time, better recording techniques and a major record label to afford a rage of instruments. I prefer the a-ha version but this is no slight against Pal's voice or the arrangement. It's just different. I personally would rather have my eyelids stapled open than listen to October from SD, however the Savoy version made me tear up ! SROA feels more natural to me as a big mood piece rather than a 60's concept piece. On the subject of this song, Roy Scheider (from the movie 'Jowls' or something) said 'you're going to need a bigger studio...' or something like that. I agree.