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Love Is A Stranger
byEurythmics
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This was the Eurythmics fifth UK single and like the previous 4 it initially flopped. However it became a worldwide hit when re-released following their success with "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)."
The song was produced by Dave Stewart and Adam Williams and was self-financed at Eurythmics' 8-track facility above a picture framing factory in Chalk Farm, London. They decided on a simpler arrangement than their previous singles emphasizing Annie's vocals more. Said Lennox: "We did decide for 'Love Is A Stranger' that everything in it would be very clear. All that is there is seen to be there and nothing is hidden in a big mush of sound." Stewart added: "Using our own eight track we hear a song millions of times and the melody in it is always apparent to us. We realized it might not be so obvious for people hearing the song for the first time."
The single was accompanied by a music video which saw Annie Lennox in a number of different character guises which she later became known for in subsequent videos. At one stage of the video Annie removes a curly blonde wig to reveal close-cropped orange hair underneath, which gave her an androgynous look. Said Lennox: "The video is basically a little cameo story. I would say 'Love Is A Stranger' is a song about love objects. The concept of love in relationships is very often a person projecting what they want onto another person. We are all in love with the idea of love but what we want is not always good for us. We might get obsessed with something very dangerous. I wanted to put these ideas into a Pop song. In the video, a very expensive looking limousine draws up outside a house and very pricey-looking whore leaves the house, gets into the car and is driven away by the chauffeur. Obviously a whore is a very expensive love object for sale. In the car she pulls off the wig to reveal another personality. She arrives at another house as though she's delivering something, like a dealer. The person in the house is very sadistic, there's lots of leather around and strange things in the bathroom. When the person leaves that house and gets into the car, the person has become a man. The man turns into a dummy which you see is being manipulated by the driver of the car. That's the idea behind it."
Dave Stewart said of this: "A very simple idea. To me it's like a contemporary love song. I don't mean written with contemporary music but the lyrics are how things are at the moment unlike, say, the love songs of the '50s. A lot of people nowadays want to be single and separate. The song is a comment on that." (All quotes From the Mick Sinclair Archive, originally an article in Sounds. Learn more in our interview with Dave Stewart.)
Martha Wainwright covered this on her 2008 album Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
Comments:
Creative video shes so classy even with hair you would have to smile to put in a pony tail so short. Shes awesome almost awesome as me!
- danielle, Titusville, FL