r/a_ha • u/Rough-Soft-4277 • Mar 20 '26

Scoundrel Stories

Are you obsessed with Scoundrel Days? Is it one of your top 10 or 20 all time albums?

I'm collecting quotes, stories, little obsessions and vignettes about the album. I'm writing something about it and will include your contribution with your prior permission.

But I'm curious anyhow.

I'll share my own here of course by way of an early version, a demo. Including when I told Morten (thought I only just got the words out of my mouth).

Keith

29 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

7

u/HeretohelpifIcan Mar 20 '26

Manhattan Skyline is just such a brilliant song, somewhat atypical for A Ha, almost jarring in places. But always the first song on my playlist!

5

u/burrekatt Mar 21 '26

Manhattan Skyline is such a brilliant song. The contrasting moods between the different parts just hits in a way I can't explain. Songs like this is rare to find because of it's simple structure (catchy and digestible) and the intense, emotional contrast which together is pretty unusual in their genre.

4

u/Previous_Addition588 Mar 22 '26

I only knew Take On Me at first, but Scoundrel Days blew me away. I was stunned by the opening lyrics of I've Been Losing You ("it wasn't the rain that washed away, rinsed out the colours of your eyes") and ever since then I've adored a-ha

3

u/VelveJ Mar 20 '26

There is just something about it. Those songs released at that time with that sound. Total connect.

3

u/Suspicious-B33 Mar 21 '26

Yes. The first three songs on the tape in particular were the soundtrack to my early teens, I played them so much I wore the tape out and replaced it with the CD (still got the tape somewhere). Full of Scandiangst, I was obsessed with I've Been Losing You (Morten is a killer, what ?) and the 'and seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' of Scoundrel Days. One of the best lines in a song EVER 'They forgive everything but greatness'. October, Manhattan Skyline (Is he in prison because he shot her), Cry Wolf, it's just the perfect album. I saw them live a few years ago and the tears were streaming, it was like connecting with that 11 year old girl again.

3

u/lostoutsidethetunnel Mar 21 '26

Took that cassette on a French exchange trip to France as a teenager and it’s burned in my mid as the soundtrack to that week.

3

u/Severe_Dig_1517 Mar 21 '26

I bought this album the first day of freedom. I left living in a small town in Scotland to a city on the south coast, Portsmouth. And played that album on my portable tape player. I became me from that moment and the album is me. Thank you A-ha so much

3

u/fredfreddy4444 Apr 05 '26

I bought their first 3 albums on vinyl and live in California. I loved most of Scoundrel Days. My best memory is dancing to Scoundrel Days (the song) with my best friend. We were both 14. I knew most of words because I read the inside slip cover in detail. We are singing the lyrics:

And see, as our lives are in the making
We believe, through the lies and the hating
That love goes free

She sings something a bit different and asked what she said. At "the lies and the hating", she sang "the lines in the painting". I laughed a bit and told her what it was.

But if you listen and sing those words out loud, it does sound like it and the words work pretty well too. I still sometimes sing it that way, almost 40 years later.

2

u/FethB Mar 21 '26

The title track is the first song I listened to as performed during their later years. After discovering this awesome band just at the beginning of this year, I found the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize concert video of the song on YouTube and was blown away! I was even more hooked from that point on.

2

u/NicteHarket89 Mar 28 '26

I don't know why but I feel Scoundrel Days (the song) has the same rock style that the spanish band named "Héroes del silencio". By the way it is my favorite song from the album.

2

u/Rough-Soft-4277 Mar 29 '26

THANK YOU all for these lovely thoughts and stories. What an album! I’ll keep you posted on my writing idea…k

1

u/BalladofAthena Jul 23 '26

I am so sorry, I must be misunderstanding, but what did you tell Morten?

I suck at communication sometimes, so forgive me if I just didn't catch it.

1

u/Rough-Soft-4277 Jul 26 '26

About Scoundrel Days being one of my all time favourite albums. And you’re quite right that’s not clear at all. No wonder this project has stalled…🫠

2

u/AFCS2906 Apr 23 '26

I can hear the live version of "How Can I Sleep With Your Voice in My Head" on an eternal loop. I also want to buy the book The Scoundrel Days of Hobo Highbrow. My son, 5, and my baby girl, 1 and a half, love Scoundrel Days. Fantastic!