The Eurythmics

[dms1972]

Lets have a meaningful discussion about this band / duo - ie Annie Lennox / Dave Stewart.

Edit note: I have taken down the song that I originally sought to discuss because I am mindful of what scripture says about controversial matters in Roman 14:19 and following - this is no reflection on the thoughtful comments received in reply. I am not sure of the forum policy I assume its up to individual believers to leave threads alone if they are in doubt about songs - but have decided to err on the side of caution in this instance. :-/

Thanks for the comments though

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Ok, dms. I've watched the video, and you're right in saying it expresses some spiritual things in an artistic way. Which parts of it are most meaningful to you? Personally, I like her lines about how her love for her dearly departed (aunt?) is akin to being 'wowed' by Elvis in Las Vegas. That must have been some aunt she had.

Thanks for sharing this. I hadn't seen this video/song by the Eurythmics yet, although I've seen more than several over the years.

 

[dms1972]

Ok, dms. I've watched the video, and you're right in saying it expresses some spiritual things in an artistic way. Which parts of it are most meaningful to you? Personally, I like her lines about how her love for her dearly departed (aunt?) is akin to being 'wowed' by Elvis in Las Vegas. That must have been some aunt she had.

Thanks for sharing this. I hadn't seen this video/song by the Eurythmics yet, although I've seen more than several over the years.

I wondered having just listened to some old Elvis songs was she refering to listening to Elvis with her aunt as a child - I also wondered whether she lost her aunt in childhood or later in her life? The scenes of Stewart running through the derelict abandoned house with leaves blowing around. The room on fire - very powerful visually. I haven't read the novel Jane Erye but I know there is something in the story about a fire and a suicide so I am also wondering if there is an allusion to that novel in the video?

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I wondered having just listened to some old Elvis songs was she refering to listening to Elvis with her aunt as a child - I also wondered whether she lost her aunt in childhood or later in her life. The scenes of Stewart running through the derelict abandoned house with leaves blowing around. The room on fire - very powerful visually. I haven't read the novel Jane Erye but I know there is something in the story about a fire and a suicide so I am also wondering if there is an allusion to that novel in the video?

Excellent question. I think I'm going to do what I do with a lot of songs and have a solid look at the lyrics tonight. I'll get back with you on what I think Annie might be saying.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I wondered having just listened to some old Elvis songs was she refering to listening to Elvis with her aunt as a child - I also wondered whether she lost her aunt in childhood or later in her life. The scenes of Stewart running through the derelict abandoned house with leaves blowing around. The room on fire - very powerful visually. I haven't read the novel Jane Erye but I know there is something in the story about a fire and a suicide so I am also wondering if there is an allusion to that novel in the video?

You make a good point. It could be that Annie often listened to Elvis songs with her aunt(?) It sounds like they had a meaningful relationship, with whomever the family figure actually was, that person acted with in the role of a kind of mother. So, Annie's lyrics seem to express that there is irony here since the aunt/mother apparently said comforting, playful things like,

Angel
My angel
Fly over me
Angel

Close your eyesâ?
And go to sleepâ?
Forever in my armsâ?
I'll keep you safe
Forever
I'll keep you safeâ?​

...................................but then, like Elvis, she "left the building."

What are your additional thoughts so far on this song?

 

[dms1972]

I ve edited this slightly after my first version.

The lines "Angel my angel. Fly over me angel" - are difficult to interpret, I don't know for sure - but maybe expressing a call for some support in loss/grief when others are not able to reach out or connect because of their own grief? The song to me seems very much about seeking support.

Dave Stewart's presence in some of Eurthymics music videos is quite enigmatic and somewhat so here again he seems like a concerned figure not directly affected as not a relation, but concerned about someone he cares about - like he is looking perplexed at some points looking out the window. In his attempts to break through and find someone caught in grief he is caught in that person's own emotional storms - till he is able to connect and pull her back.

It could be an emotional allegory or an allegory on emotional / human level about connecting not with the dead but with the living maybe, and also perhaps about searching for something transcendent? Its probably not a linear narative but ideas coaleasing.

I find the emotional / human meaning of connecting with the living preferable than any spiritualist idea of people meeting after someone's death to "save" or connect with that person though a seance.

Annie Lennox has said she has a "sensibility for transcendent things..." This article gives some insights into her beliefs

Annie Lennox says she has a ‘sensibility for transcendent things’

Growing up in the 80s I often found Eurythmics a breath of fresh air - I think they were walking a fine line between presenting something emotionally authentic and yet not wanting to be taken too seriously because of the flak they caught from the religious right.

 

[dms1972]

So, Annie's lyrics seem to express that there is irony here since the aunt/mother apparently said comforting, playful things like:

Angel
My angel
Fly over me
Angel

Close your eyes?
And go to sleep?
Forever in my arms?
I'll keep you safe
Forever
I'll keep you safe?

I think thats quite a plausible interpretation of those lines - I don't wish to impose my own meaning on it or over-analyse it - but that gives me a new perspective on it - I had thought of the "I'll keep you safe..." as being something her aunt could have said, but not the "Fly over me angel" - but that gives me a new frame as it were to view it through. Thanks.

 

[dms1972]

I retrieved the below from song facts whichs sheds additional light on it - however the last paragraph about the occult is I think a misunderstanding and misrepresention as a result of a failure to relate to the song on its own emotional level - its not spirits of the dead - its more likely she is working in to the song her own memories of things she heard others saying about her Aunt's passing such as "She's gone to meet her Maker - back to where she came from." and her words represent her working through coming to terms with what happened - not communicating with the deceased - at least that is how I read it.

Angel by Eurythmics - Songfacts

• In December 1988, Annie Lennox' first pregnancy with her second husband, the filmmaker Uri Fruchtman, resulted in a son Daniel, who was tragically stillborn. This song was inspired by Daniel, and also Lennox' great-aunt, who died at age 57. In Q magazine, she explained:
  
  "'Angel' is sometimes hard for me to sing. It started off as a poem about a great-aunt who had died:
  
  Underneath this canopy of snow
  57 winters took their toll
  
  I was fascinated by death. I thought of this concept of a burial place where seasons take their toll - snow covers the grave spot, leaves fall and buds come up - and this woman from my childhood.
  
  The song turned into something else after the death of my first child. But it's about death generally - I will die; we will all die. Where do we find meaning in our lives?"
  
  Lennox and Fruchtman went on to have two girls, Lola and Tali.
• In 1997 Annie Lennox re-recorded this for the Diana, Princess of Wales tribute album.
• The music video, directed by Sophie Muller, was not shown by MTV because of several scenes depicting the occult. In the video, spirits from beyond the grave are seen speaking through Annie Lennox.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I retrieved the below from song facts whichs sheds additional light on it - however the last paragraph about the occult is I think a misunderstanding and misrepresention as a result of a failure to relate to the song on its own emotional level - its not spirits of the dead - its more likely she is working in to the song her own memories of things she heard others saying about her Aunt's passing such as "She's gone to meet her Maker - back to where she came from." and her words represent her working through coming to terms with what happened - not communicating with the deceased - at least that is how I read it.

That's a good point, and it could be that the 'seance setting' in the video is simply a visual metaphor for the lyrical meaning about how Annie is wondering (as we all might about loved ones who have passed on) how her aunt is doing in the afterlife, all wrapped up in the contexts you've been pointing out here for us in this thread.

Angel by Eurythmics - Songfacts

• In December 1988, Annie Lennox' first pregnancy with her second husband, the filmmaker Uri Fruchtman, resulted in a son Daniel, who was tragically stillborn. This song was inspired by Daniel, and also Lennox' great-aunt, who died at age 57. In Q magazine, she explained:
  
  "'Angel' is sometimes hard for me to sing. It started off as a poem about a great-aunt who had died:
  
  Underneath this canopy of snow
  57 winters took their toll
  
  I was fascinated by death. I thought of this concept of a burial place where seasons take their toll - snow covers the grave spot, leaves fall and buds come up - and this woman from my childhood.
  
  The song turned into something else after the death of my first child. But it's about death generally - I will die; we will all die. Where do we find meaning in our lives?"
  
  Lennox and Fruchtman went on to have two girls, Lola and Tali.
• In 1997 Annie Lennox re-recorded this for the Diana, Princess of Wales tribute album.
• The music video, directed by Sophie Muller, was not shown by MTV because of several scenes depicting the occult. In the video, spirits from beyond the grave are seen speaking through Annie Lennox.

All of that adds some context, for sure. Annie had a lot to deal with in the 1980s it seems.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I ve edited this slightly after my first version.

The lines "Angel my angel. Fly over me angel" - are difficult to interpret, I don't know for sure - but maybe expressing a call for some support in loss/grief when others are not able to reach out or connect because of their own grief? The song to me seems very much about seeking support.

Dave Stewart's presence in some of Eurthymics music videos is quite enigmatic and somewhat so here again he seems like a concerned figure not directly affected as not a relation, but concerned about someone he cares about - like he is looking perplexed at some points looking out the window. In his attempts to break through and find someone caught in grief he is caught in that person's own emotional storms - till he is able to connect and pull her back.

It could be an emotional allegory or an allegory on emotional / human level about connecting not with the dead but with the living maybe, and also perhaps about searching for something transcendent? Its probably not a linear narative but ideas coaleasing.

I find the emotional / human meaning of connecting with the living preferable than any spiritualist idea of people meeting after someone's death to "save" or connect with that person though a seance.

Annie Lennox has said she has a "sensibility for transcendent things..." This article gives some insights into her beliefs

Annie Lennox says she has a ‘sensibility for transcendent things’

Growing up in the 80s I often found Eurythmics a breath of fresh air - I think they were walking a fine line between presenting something emotionally authentic and yet not wanting to be taken too seriously because of the flak they caught from the religious right.

In my reading of that article, Annie sounds sort of like a kind of Existentialist. I like her comment in relation to the meaning she finds in Christmas where she says,

Don’t you find that your allegiances sort of float? They’re kind of amorphous. I’m amorphous, I appreciate things and I see things. I see things that I love and I see things that I really feel repelled by, so it’s a whole mixture.​

 

[dms1972]

In my reading of that article, Annie sounds sort of like a kind of Existentialist. I like her comment in relation to the meaning she finds in Christmas where she says,

Don’t you find that your allegiances sort of float? They’re kind of amorphous. I’m amorphous, I appreciate things and I see things. I see things that I love and I see things that I really feel repelled by, so it’s a whole mixture.​

I think that Annie Lennox seems to take particular attitudes herself towards some moral and political issues means she is not really an existentialist (at least as I understand secular existentialism)

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I think that Annie Lennox seems to take particular attitudes herself towards some moral and political issues means she is not really an existentialist (at least as I understand secular existentialism)

You may be right. Annie might not be an existentialist in a formal way like Sartre or Nietzsche, but she seems to be an unclarified spiritualist of some kind. It would be interesting to see if she says anything specific in an interview somewhere.

 

[dms1972]

You may be right. Annie might not be an existentialist in a formal way like Sartre or Nietzsche, but she seems to be an unclarified spiritualist of some kind. It would be interesting to see if she says anything specific in an interview somewhere.

There is an article further up the thread which has some info- she has spoken of her memories of Christmas from childhood and has said something about having a sensibility for "transcendent" things - I don't know if she has said any more on that. However its not easy with terms such as "transcendent" without qualification to know what someone means - so "unclarified" spirituality as you say - and perhaps someone who is on journey. I think their songs express some aspects of the human condition east of Eden and the modern search for meaning and occasionally feminist (non-radical) themes. But some of their songs and music videos I think have both emotional and somewhat cerebrotonic (if that is the right word - ie. emotionally restrained) aspects.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

There is an article further up the thread which has some info- she has spoken of her memories of Christmas from childhood and has said something about having a sensibility for "transcendent" things - I don't know if she has said any more on that. However its not easy with terms such as "transcendent" without qualification to know what someone means - so "unclarified" spirituality as you say - and perhaps someone who is on journey. I think their songs express some aspects of the human condition east of Eden and the modern search for meaning and occasionally feminist (non-radical) themes. But some of their songs and music videos I think have both emotional and somewhat cerebrotonic (if that is the right word - ie. emotionally restrained) aspects.

It almost sounds like Annie has some Christian experiences with the church in her earlier background, maybe in association with activity in a local church with her family, but because of the painful events in her life, she's had a difficult time reconciling the agony with the blessing, so she maintains a kind of "transcendent transitoriness" in her spiritual seeking.

I hope she can come to a place in the near future where she accept Jesus more firmly.

 

[dms1972]

It almost sounds like Annie has some Christian experiences with the church in her earlier background, maybe in association with activity in a local church with her family, but because of the painful events in her life, she's had a difficult time reconciling the agony with the blessing, so she maintains a kind of "transcendent transitoriness" in her spiritual seeking.

I hope she can come to a place in the near future where she accept Jesus more firmly.

Well I would hope that also. A lot people have some experience through the christmas season - carols, school nativity plays etc. However I just have just come across an interesting bit of info in the Eurythmics Bio - Annie Lennox was born on christmas day (1954).

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Well I would hope that also. A lot people have some experience through the christmas season - carols, school nativity plays etc. However I just have just come across an interesting bit of info in the Eurythmics Bio - Annie Lennox was born on christmas day (1954).

Oh wow! I didn't know that. I can see how Christmas, in all of its various cultural pageantry through the centuries, could hold some emotional and spiritual significance to Annie. Very interesting, DMS! In the context of her music and her personal philosophy, this point seems significant with what we've read so far.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Oh wow! I didn't know that. I can see how Christmas, in all of its various cultural pageantry through the centuries, could hold some emotional and spiritual significance to Annie. Very interesting, DMS! In the context of her music and her personal philosophy, this point seems significant with what we've read so far.

So, what else about Annie would you like for us to think about here, DMS?

 

[dms1972]

So, what else about Annie would you like for us to think about here, DMS?

Its more the Eurythmics than just Annie Lennox - I leave it open for yourself or any other posters to bring up any other songs.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Its more the Eurythmics than just Annie Lennox - I leave it open for yourself or any other posters to bring up any other songs.

I hate to be cliche by playing the the following Eurythmics hit song from the 1980s, but in looking at it again here years later, I don't think I realized just how social and spiritual in nature the song is ... and how ahead of its time it was when it was a repeatedly played hit.

 

[dms1972]

I hate to be cliche by playing the the following Eurythmics hit song from the 1980s, but in looking at it again here years later, I don't think I realized just how social and spiritual in nature the song is ... and how ahead of its time it was when it was a repeatedly played hit.

Yes I was listening to that also - I prefer it to for instance to Love is A Stranger. Any thing you want to say about it the video or lyrics - it was this video I wasn't sure I understood it - I tend to think this is a song about wanting to make an emotional connection with someone - but there is a kind of gulf between them? Almost seems like a figure from literature - Annie's searching figure.