EURYTHMICS: THIS IS 1985, OK?
Nothing’s as simple or as logical as it should be in the radio-ruled world of big time music biz politics—or film, either, for that matter.
You would think that with one platinum album, two number one singles and three sold-out tours, even a halfway decent band would get some respect (translate that to airplay) the next time they released a record. Ah, but nothing’s as simple or as logical as it should be in the radio-ruled world of big time music biz politics—or film, either, for that matter. Just ask Eurythmics, they’ll tell you. In fact Annie Lennox finds it amusing— “bemusing, because I can see the irony of the whole thing,” she says, striking an appropriately bored pose for the cameras of Entertainment Tonight.
“The whole thing” happens to be the war on two continents over 1984, the soundtrack album Eurythmics recorded to go along with Michael Radford’s remake of George Orwell’s infamous book. The Radford film, as opposed to the original done in the ’50s, would eventually have become a Trivial Pursuit question, since it stars Richard Burton in his final performance. But nooooo, this bleak and grim version of Orwell’s stark futuristic vision (I didn’t say that, the critics did, though they loved it) opted for more immediate infamy, engendering a sense of controversies even George couldn’t imagine. As a matter of fact, if the ol’ boy had forseen rock ’n’ roll, he probably would’ve put this one in the book.
