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rfmcdonaldRecently, the webmaster of a couple of Eurythmics-related websites E-mailed me to inquire what sort of copy of the music video for the Eurythmics' 1981 song "Never Gonna Cry Again" I had.
Yes, the Eurythmics did a video for "Never Gonna Cry Again." It may not be on their Greatest Hits video album, or on their superb 1987 Savage video album, or on any of their other video productions. More on that later.
In The Garden, the Eurythmics' 1981 debut album, stands out both from Lennox and Stewart's previous work with The Tourists and from their later work in their duo. As Dan Flanery noted
The Tourists had suffered, following their 1979 international hit cover of "I Only Wanna Be With You", a fairly spectacular breakdown. At the time, the fledgling partnership of Lennox and Stewart--absent the songwriting genius of their Tourists' partner Peet Coombes, already caught up by the addiction to drug and drink that would kill him--wouldn't have seemed like such a good bet. The Eurythmics needed all the help they could get. And, at the very beginnings of MTV, what better way was there for an experimental European New Wave band to help promote their first single than to turn to music video?
The lyrics of "Never Gonna Cry Again," sung understatedly by Lennox against an unobtrusive synth and guitar background, evidences the numbed ambivalence surrounding romantic love allegedly characteristic of New Wave popular music.
And the video? I downloaded it via KaZaA, back in the golden age of filesharing. It's a Quicktime file, some 17 megabytes in size. The quality isn't all that good, I fear. At some point, it was converted from magnetic video tape, but not before the magnetically-encoded image had begun to stumble and tear. The video remains discernable, though, along with the sound. In the lower left corner appears the icon of Rage music video program, perhaps this very broadcast. Alas, Bryony Sutherland and Lucy Ellis report in their Annie Lennox: The Biography that the "Never Gonna Cry Again" video was filmed in the early 1980s using non-British (read West German) labour; and so, under prevailing union regulations, "Never Gonna Cry Again" was left orphaned, excluded from the Eurythmics' video canon.
This is unfortunate. "Never Gonna Cry Again" is definitely an early Eurythmics video, with a rawer edge than even "Sweet Dreams" and "Love Is A Stranger." It does show the Eurythmics' talent for interesting imagery, though. On a windy and cold day on a British beach, Annie rises from the waves dressed regally in a red evening gown, strolls past Dave who rises from his sandy grave, past flute-playing Timothy Wheatley, towards a grand feast that provokes Annie to flee back into the ocean.
I wish the webmaster luck in finding a high-quality copy of "Never Gonna Cry Again," or--perhaps--in rehabilitating an existing copy of the video. It's a good video that deserves to be seen more widely. Perhaps the Eurythmics themselves, with their individually- and collectively-accumulated heft, can manage this. At the same time that the remastered albums come out, perhaps?
UPDATE (11:58 PM) : This site hosts two Quicktime versions of the video, one small and one large.
Yes, the Eurythmics did a video for "Never Gonna Cry Again." It may not be on their Greatest Hits video album, or on their superb 1987 Savage video album, or on any of their other video productions. More on that later.
In The Garden, the Eurythmics' 1981 debut album, stands out both from Lennox and Stewart's previous work with The Tourists and from their later work in their duo. As Dan Flanery noted
In an effort to distance themselves from the "Byrds do metal" sound of the last Tourists album, In The Garden features very soft, hazy, sometimes dreamlike sonic landscapes, sparkled with electronic glitter lifted straight out of experimental German pop music like Kraftwerk. Not a surprise, really, since Kraftwerk producer Conny Plank was at the helm.
Those expecting powerful, blue-eyed soul singing from Ms. Lennox, along the lines of "Sweet Dreams" or even the Tourists' cover of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want To Be With You" are in for shock. The trance-like quality of this album extends to the vocals, which Lennox delivers with an appropriate out-of-body experience whisper, accompanied by occasional moans and sighs. Stewart's electric guitars are similarly muzzled. Compositionally, too, this album differs from anything else Eurythmics were ever to do again, as a duo or as solo artists.
The Tourists had suffered, following their 1979 international hit cover of "I Only Wanna Be With You", a fairly spectacular breakdown. At the time, the fledgling partnership of Lennox and Stewart--absent the songwriting genius of their Tourists' partner Peet Coombes, already caught up by the addiction to drug and drink that would kill him--wouldn't have seemed like such a good bet. The Eurythmics needed all the help they could get. And, at the very beginnings of MTV, what better way was there for an experimental European New Wave band to help promote their first single than to turn to music video?
The lyrics of "Never Gonna Cry Again," sung understatedly by Lennox against an unobtrusive synth and guitar background, evidences the numbed ambivalence surrounding romantic love allegedly characteristic of New Wave popular music.
I'm never gonna cry again
I'm never gonna die again
I shed some tears for you
I shed more tears for you than the ocean
I didn't wanna let you know
I didn't wanna take your time
I didn't wanna bring you down
I didn't want to hang around you
So we're living in desperate times
Oh such an unfortunate time
I can't relate to you
I just can't find a place to be near you
And the video? I downloaded it via KaZaA, back in the golden age of filesharing. It's a Quicktime file, some 17 megabytes in size. The quality isn't all that good, I fear. At some point, it was converted from magnetic video tape, but not before the magnetically-encoded image had begun to stumble and tear. The video remains discernable, though, along with the sound. In the lower left corner appears the icon of Rage music video program, perhaps this very broadcast. Alas, Bryony Sutherland and Lucy Ellis report in their Annie Lennox: The Biography that the "Never Gonna Cry Again" video was filmed in the early 1980s using non-British (read West German) labour; and so, under prevailing union regulations, "Never Gonna Cry Again" was left orphaned, excluded from the Eurythmics' video canon.
This is unfortunate. "Never Gonna Cry Again" is definitely an early Eurythmics video, with a rawer edge than even "Sweet Dreams" and "Love Is A Stranger." It does show the Eurythmics' talent for interesting imagery, though. On a windy and cold day on a British beach, Annie rises from the waves dressed regally in a red evening gown, strolls past Dave who rises from his sandy grave, past flute-playing Timothy Wheatley, towards a grand feast that provokes Annie to flee back into the ocean.
I wish the webmaster luck in finding a high-quality copy of "Never Gonna Cry Again," or--perhaps--in rehabilitating an existing copy of the video. It's a good video that deserves to be seen more widely. Perhaps the Eurythmics themselves, with their individually- and collectively-accumulated heft, can manage this. At the same time that the remastered albums come out, perhaps?
UPDATE (11:58 PM) : This site hosts two Quicktime versions of the video, one small and one large.
