Eurythmics -- Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)

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Nevil Clavain

 

George Orwell's dystopian "1984" (released in 1949) was required reading in high school. I'd heard about it before through media and fellow students, and as the year itself approached, there were all sorts of media taking snatches of its ideas for their own purposes...kinda like teeth from Winston's mouth. And perhaps even before the hype snowballed, expressions from the book such as "Big Brother" and "doublespeak" had already made their way into the vernacular.

One example was Apple launching the MacIntosh computer. It was a great commercial although I wouldn't get my own Mac for several years.

Even Canadian sketch comedy show "SCTV" did their own tribute to "1984" back in early 1981. Not sure how Orson Welles took his "casting" as Big Brother, but here's hoping that he had a sense of humour about it.

All that stuff about "1984" had me shivering in my boots because I'd gotten the paranoid impression that once 1984 arrived, everything would change and we would all be filling our sentences with antonyms.

Then came the news in 1984 (nope, Big Brother didn't arrive) that an actual cinema version of "1984" starring the late John Hurt would be appearing in theatres later in the fall. I'd already read the novel and was primarily interested in it for the twistings of language for political advantage but never really got the gumption to head to the nearest cineplex.

But in a way, I really didn't have to. The Eurythmics were more than willing to bring "1984" to us through their single and accompanying music video "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)" which had plenty of scenes from the Hurt film. 

Thus far on KKP's Reminiscings of Youth series, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart have continued to amaze decades later with the iconic "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and then the rock 'em/sock 'em "Missionary Man". In between those two singles though was "Sexcrime" which was released at around the same time as the movie in October 1984. This one single had Annie and Dave in dance music remix mode with a whole bunch of sampling and the former sounding as if she were vigorously stating the affirmative in Japanese. The song was supremely catchy so that hearing it in the trailer for "1984" was a bit weird considering what the movie was all about. One would think that Big Brother would have sent the hounds after Eurythmics for "coolcrime".

Both the song and video got heavy airplay to the extent that I'd gotten my life's worth of "1984" visuals without having to read the novel ever again. On Canada's RPM, "Sexcrime" managed to hit No. 18 while in America, it only reached No. 81 on Billboard although on the dance club charts, it made it to No. 2.

Anyways, what was up on the charts when the movie and the single were released in October 1984? Those Top 3 look too familiar to me so I probably posted them up on a recent ROY article. Therefore, let's go with Nos. 5, 7 and 8.

5. Takashi Hosokawa -- Naniwa Bushi da yo, Jinsei wa （浪花節だよ人生は）

7. Akina Nakamori -- Jikai (1984) 

8. Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Saiai (最愛）

Eurythmics -- Missionary Man

 

I can't quite believe that it's almost two years since I first up a Eurythmics single on Reminiscings of Youth. Of course, it had to be "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", one of the anthems for 80s New Wave.

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart concocted a lot of hits since that first memorable hit in the form of their 2nd single back in 1983. They've come from a whole bunch of angles, but one that also smacked me hard was "Missionary Man", their July 1986 single from the "Revenge" album. For me anyways, if there were ever a song that could get up to the levels of Tomoyasu Hotei's（布袋寅泰）"Battle Without Honor or Humanity" as a power walk song, "Missionary Man" could be the one. 

It's just too cool with Jimmy Zavala on the harmonica in an intro suggesting something rather epic is going to happen and then all of the rocking out. Lennox sings out the lyrics as if she were describing the missionary man as this otherworldly Thanos-level superbeing ready to sow justice or destruction while Joniece Jamison is the backup vocalist who sounds like a herald for Galactus. Any spy, assassin or hero/villain with that particular name would be proud to have this as a theme song before all hell breaks loose.

Additionally, the music video is a combination of Frankenstein's castle and Southern Gothic. Compared with Lennox's corporate dominatrix look on "Sweet Dreams", she looks to be more of a conventional dominatrix (not that I'm complaining at all). I'm not surprised that the video got heavy rotation on channels like MTV, especially with that stop-animation technique that became the popular thing following Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". When I first saw those affected scenes, I was going "WOW!".

"Missionary Man" went up to No. 13 on Canada's RPM charts while Stateside, it peaked at No. 14. So, what was also coming out in the month of July in 1986?

Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Ryote Ippai no Johnny （両手いっぱいのジョニー）

KUWATA BAND -- Merry X'mas in Summer

Kyoko Koizumi -- Yoake no MEW （夜明けのMEW）

Eurythmics -- Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

 

On this Reminiscings of Youth article, it's time to revisit the X-Men.

Yeah, I can't say that "X-Men: Apocalypse" was one of the better entries in that franchise, but there was that awesome and hilarious sequence with Quicksilver saving Professor X's students, a pizza-gnawing dog and a goldfish.

However, the sweet icing on that special-effects cake was "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics which for me was one of the primo songs of the 1980s. The first time that I saw the classic video with Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, my jaw just dropped at the figure of Lennox in the short-cropped fiery orange-red hair looking like the world's most powerful corporate dominatrix while her partner typed quietly at the computer. I was terrified and hooked at the same time.

Also, having been on my synthpop kick at the time thanks to Yellow Magic Orchestra, Depeche Mode and Gary Numan among others at the time, it was extremely easy to get drawn into the synthesized rhythms of "Sweet Dreams" along with Annie's rich soulful voice. Plus her presence in the video is truly attractive on the level of a magnet the size of a truck (it basically made her an overnight sensation). It didn't hurt either that the latter half of the video comes across as a dream to be analyzed, and I'm also including the cow in there.

From what I've read of the background behind "Sweet Dreams", the song was made from the despair that Lennox had felt after seeing her and Stewart's previous band The Tourists break up and therefore their own dreams fizzle away, although Stewart allowed some hope by adding the lines "hold your head up, moving on". Well, as I've encountered in many an anecdote, the adversity brought about success as "Sweet Dreams", their 2nd single from January 1983 (UK), hit No. 2 on the UK Singles chart and then No. 1 on Billboard once the song got its release in America later that May.

Eurythmics came out with some other great numbers but it will always be "Sweet Dreams" when that band's name comes up in my memories.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a ROY article on Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." which also came out in that same month of January 1983. So this time, instead of relying on the Oricon chart, I'll go with the Showa Pops Singles History once more to show what was also coming out at around the same time. At least a couple of the songs below were reported to have come out actually in November 1982 but they have shown up on SPSH in January 1983.

Akiko Kanazawa -- Yellow Submarine Ondo（イエロー・サブマリン音頭）

Shinichi Mori -- Fuyu no Riviera （冬のリヴィエラ）

Kaoru Hirose -- Information Love