1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)
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| 1984 (for the love of big brother) | ||
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| Soundtrack by Eurythmics | ||
| Released | November 1984 | |
| Genre | New Wave, Electronica, Synth Pop, Dance-Pop | |
| Label | Virgin | |
| Producer(s) | David A. Stewart | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Eurythmics chronology | ||
| Touch Dance (1984) |
1984 (For The Love Of Big Brother) (1984) |
Be Yourself Tonight (1985) |
This soundtrack album by Eurythmics contains music recorded by the group for director Michael Radford's colour remake film version of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-four. Virgin Films produced the movie for release in its namesake year of 1984, and commissioned Eurythmics to write a soundtrack. However, unbeknown to the group, Radford has already commissioned his own orchestral score, and was not fond of Eurythmics' work. Two versions of the film were released, one featuring Eurythmics' music, another "director's cut" which replaced most of it by the orchestral score. When accepting an award for the film, Radford publicly complained of having Eurythmics' music "foisted" on him. Eurythmics issued a statement that they had accepted Virgin's commission in good faith, and would never have done so if they had known that it was not being done with the director's approval.
Lennox and Stewart worked as a duo for these recordings, with no other musicians contributing. The music, whilst containing many electronic elements, was far from being "synth pop"; Stewart desribed some tracks as being like "Kraftwerk meets African tribal meets Booker T and the MGs."
Most of the tracks were instrumental, with song titles and lyrics of the two songs on the album being derived from Orwell's text. For instance, "I Did it Just the Same" is taken from a passage in the book where the antihero, Winston Smith, relates how he committed "sexcrime" with a prostitute—initially deceived by her makeup, when he got close to her, he realised she was "about fifty - but I did it just the same". "Julia" was the name of Winston's lover. "Sexcrime" and "Doubleplusgood" are examples of Newspeak, the revised version of the English language spoken in Orwell's story. The track "Doubleplusgood" features Lennox reading out various memos which Winston had received at his job in the Ministry of Truth, where his role was to amend past and present newspaper articles so that they conformed to current Party dogma. The "Ministry of Love" was the government police and torture departmart, and included "Room 101", a room which contained "the worst thing in the world"—i.e. where each torture victim would be confronted with their own worst nightmare. In Winston's case, this is where he was pinned down whilst rats would eat his face.
Virgin released two singles from the album, the punchy pop track "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)", and the long gentle ballad "Julia". The former was a top 10 hit in most territories, however "Julia" achieved little commercial success.
[edit] Track listing
- "I Did It Just the Same"
- "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)"
- "For the Love of Big Brother"
- "Winston's Diary"
- "Greetings From a Dead Man"
- "Julia"
- "Doubleplusgood"
- "Ministry of Love"
- "Room 101"
[edit] Personnel
- Annie Lennox: vocals, keyboards/synthesizers, percussion
- David A. Stewart: backing vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards/synthesizers, drum & sequencer programming
- Produced by David A Stewart
- Mixed by David A Stewart & Eric 'E.T.' Thorngren
[edit] Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | The Billboard 200 | 93 |
Singles - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)" | Hot Dance Music/Club Play | 2 |
| 1984 | "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)" | The Billboard Hot 100 | 81 |
