If the org had been up, I would have posted this on January 4th.

January 4th marked the 20th anniversary of the epic Eurythmics album, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." With this album, Eurythmics transformed their sound and pushed themselves to their artistic and creative limit and came up golden. Annie Lennox became a bonafide star and Eurythmics became not only a household name, but the most definitive new wave band.

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" contains the following tracks:

• Love Is a Stranger
  
• I've Got an Angel
  
• Wrap It Up
  
• I Could Give You (A Mirror)
  
• The Walk
  
• Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
  
• Jennifer
  
• This Is the House
  
• Somebody Told Me
  
• This City Never Sleeps
  

I believe this to be their best album. Each side starts with a classic single (Love Is a Stranger and Sweet Dreams) that became ubiquitous on radio. Infinitely catchy and appealing, those two songs broke Eurythmics to the world scene. However, this album is more than two hit singles and filler. "I've Got an Angel" features Annie sounding possessed and features some chillingly menacing lyrics. "Wrap It Up" is a catchy cover tune relying heavily on deep synth. "I Could Give You (A Mirror)" is another jaw-dropping synth-funk blast in the vein of "Sweet Dreams." Its lyrics are cutting ("I could give you a mirror to show you disappointment") and the beats and synths echo Annie's fury. "The Walk" is a silky and sexy strut that was released as a single in July 1982 and featured some killer B-sides ("Step on the Beast," "Invisible Hands," "Satellite of Love," "Let's Just Close Our Eyes"). Many consider this to be the best song on the album. "Jennifer" is a stunningly gorgeous and emotional tale of a woman who drowns. "This Is the House" is a quirky synth tune featuring a Spanish coda that was issued as a single in January of 1982 and features the wondrous B-sides "4/4 in Leather," "Dr. Trash" and "Home Is Where the Heart Is." "Somebody Told Me" is a forboding, angry song where Annie's spite and rage are at the forefront again. "This City Never Sleeps," however, may be the crowning achievement of their entire career. It may be the loneliest song ever recorded, with a stark, bleak atmosphere compounded by Annie's hushed and chilling lyrics ("Walls so thin I can almost hear them breathing...and if I listen in I hear my own heart beating.")

Annie and Dave recorded this album over the entirety of 1982. They were very poor after the paltry sales of "In the Garden" and as they could not afford a clap-trap, they resorted to unusal methods to create the sounds, which is perhaps why it transcends 80s synth pop. There were about 40 songs recorded for the album. One in particular is intriguing- "Beautiful Armadillo" was recorded in the presence of a very famous flautist, which made Annie very nervous as it was her instrument of choice. Annie donned a black wig and belted out Arabic exlamations as Dave played different guitars that were suspended by strings from the ceiling!

Please share your fond memories of this album here.

Nobody liked it?

It's typical of the org Ian. Anytime anyone puts some genuine thought into something, it gets totally ignored. It's gotta be silly, controversial or stupid to get any play around here.

I've been thinking about the rarities collection coming out and I figured out a way to get everything I want. Leave the b-sides off there and give us all new material that we've never heard.

And then release a 20th anniversary remaster of Sweet Dreams and include all the b-sides from that album on there since it's a relatively short album. Either that or make it a 2 disc set like the Ziggy one. Include:

Step On The Beast
Monkey, Monkey
Invisible Hands
4/4 In Leather
Baby's Gone Blue
Dr. Trash
Home is Where the Heart is
Satellite of Love
Let's Just Close Our Eyes
Mirror alt.
Beautiful Armadillo
Charlie Cat
Darling Don't Leave Me

Since those are basically the best of what's out there for their b-sides. That opens up lots of room for ultra rare stuff on the upcoming collection.

TRON said:

Sad, but true.

TRON said:

I was thinking that a 20th Anniversary Edition would be great as well with bonus tracks.

I have all of there Discs around the House in Tape&Disc Form."Sweet Dreams" the Song still to this Day though Sounds like the Era had a Vibe&Hook&Feeling about it that made it a timeless Song IMHO.I think The Eurythmics made some truly Really Good Pieces of Work.Dave&Annie had Chemistry that reached Beyond the Music&you felt that Depth in there work.thank you MoonBeam for Bringing this Topic too Light.Peace

Yes, and hearing that album with some good, crisp remastering would make it fresh all over again.

I'm a sucker for a good remaster.

Actually, all of their 80's ones could use it. Maybe then, more stores would start carrying them.

TRON said:

Perhaps even in Port Huron. I don't that Eurythmics will be remastered, though- at least not yet. I don't think they get the props they deserve and there probably isn't a big enough fan base to make it feasible.

Moonbeam said:

Maybe even at Record Time! Maybe, it's not time yet but I wish everything recorded and released before 1990 would be remastered. And there's that info Scott found about those mysterious Sweet Dreams and Revenge remasters on cdnow.

Here's a fun excerpt from the Annie Lennox biography:

"The overriding aftereffects of Eurythmics' work for their second album revolve not only around Annie's ever-improving vocal performances and Dave's growing ability as producer, but also around the couple's dedication to experimentation. It seemed there was nothing they were unprepared to try.

For example, the clinking counterpoint audible during the title track, 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)', is not an instrument of electronic or traditional origin- Dave and Annie resourcefully filled up milk bottles with different levels of water and tapped them in time to the chorus for that song."
[This message was edited Mon Jan 6 22:33:38 PST 2003 by Moonbeam]

What exactly is counterpoing?

Another fun excerpt:

"Of course, there as no way they were going to be able to lug the huge instrument [piano] up to the attic studio late every night and return it in time for the morning, so instead they hit upon the idea of suspending two microphones down through the ceiling on extremely long cables, and set up a talk-back system so that they could communicate from the different levels of the building. But their problems did not stop there, as the main power supply to the picture framers was shut down each night, and there was no electric light to play by. So not only would Annie be sent down a whole floor to play the piano beneath the dangerously swinging mics, she would also have to perform her part by torchlight, otherwise in total darkness. Dave winces, 'Sometimes we had the most outrageous connections. A real engineer would have been appalled.'"
[This message was edited Mon Jan 6 22:37:05 PST 2003 by Moonbeam]

Classic!

"'People think that album is so high tech. But we couldn't even afford a claptrap- the classic disco thing, you know , that goes ckkk-ckkk-ckkk!' Dave later confided. 'It's just me and Annie, banging on the wall with a handful of picture frames! If we'd had the money, of course we would have used a claptrap. But not having it made us a lot more inventive.'"

Clack Track anybody?

Moonbeam said:

I guess it's more like Clack Plaque then.

TRON said:

Pretty much!

On 'This City Never Sleeps':

"The final track, 'This City Never Sleeps' is based around Annie's time spent in a miserable bedsit when she left the Royal Academy of Music. Peter Ashworth recollects Annie writing the evocative words quite some time before her move to Stapleton Hall Road. 'That was in the little bedsit that we shared in Camden Villas. It was a tiny room, a bed in one corer and a sink in another corner. I remember her writing these lyrics while she was there. It was a very depressing place,' he says today.

Elaborates Annie: 'I'd regressed back to when you first come down to London and you have to rough it. That was happening in my private life- it was a telling strain on me, it was very hard to live with it. 'This City Never Sleeps' is sipmly to do with what was happening to me at the time. You know...the walls were so think that I could hear the girl coughing next door! It was very depressing and I thought 'Jesus!' There's millions of people all over the world who have this feeling where the city just hums all night and they don't know who the person is next door to them, and they don't evern wanna know because they treasure that tiny bit of privacy, that square box so much...'

When Annie presented Dave with her reflective, melancholic lyrics, he immediately seized on the imagery of the underground train rattling through the night and dashed off to nearby Camden Town tube station, where he recorded 15 minutes of train noises on Annie's small Sony walkman. Returning to the studio, Dave slowed down the tape until the recording was almost 'in tune' with the music, then literally held his electric guitar in front of the speakers so that it picked up on the squealing of the train wheels and began to noisily feed back into the system. In that way, the train sound effectively morphs into a screeching slide guitar, and the doctored sounds of the subway serve to highten the lyrics. Annie is double tracked and low in this reflective, attractive semi-ballad, and the ambient synths and repeated bass line well reflect the boredom and frustration of being a stranger in the neighbourhood."

Moonbeam said:

That's why it's their best song ever.

On the birth of the title track:

"'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)' had forced its way into the world at a particularly low period for Annie. It was conceived towards the end of the recording sessions for the album while RCA were expressing their concerns, and she was experiencing serious doubts about Eurythmics' future. 'Out of that terrible depression, songs came very easily,' Dave remembers. 'It was like dragging teeth because we would end up in tears most of the time, and then we'd do a brilliant recording and be laughing and getting completely pissed together on a bucket of margherita. Then the tears got less and a sort of positive side came out.'

'Dave and I almosst split up the day we wrote 'Sweet Dreams',' Annie revealed a year later. 'I'm very negative and he's very positive. But we were just having a terrible time and I couldn't talke it anymore. And he said, 'OK, fine, you don't mind if I go ahead and program the drum computer then, do you?''

'I was lying on the floor, curled up in a foetal position and he programmed in this rhythm. It sounded so good that in the end I couldn't resist it.' Uncurling from her ball, Annie went over to the synthesizer and, as if out of nowhere, the main riff of the melody came pounding out of her fingers. Forgetting their argument in an instant, Dave and Annie excitedly started the tape machine. But that wasn't the end of the magic.

'Annie said, 'OK, let me sing,' and she went downstairs,' smiles Dave. 'Annie sang the entire song off the top of her head except for the part that goes 'Hold your head up', which we put in later. Some things you don't know how you did. Half and hour later it was just there.'

The funny thing was, the sudden spate of genius that pulled Annie out of her foetal position had been inspired totally by accident. When Dave announced he was going to program the drum machine, the sound that came out was not what he had intended. 'I pressed the button on the drum machine, and the track came out back-to-front,' Dave finally admitted in 1999. 'It was no great genius there- I switched the worng switch! It had a mind of its own.'"

I remember the first time I heard the Eurythmics.I was watching MTV in the summer of '83 and they showed their "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" video.They had such a unique look and sound.The song became a huge smash hit.

The next year,I really became a fan when I heard "Here Comes The Rain Again" and "Who's That Girl (Hanging Around With You)".

I loved the song and video! For the time, it was really innovative. But, don't sleep on "Missionary Man!" I loved this one and the video rocked, too!

UptownDeb said:

Their entire career is great. "Revenge" which features "Missionary Man" will get its thread on its anniverary.

I remember seeing the video for the song "Sweet Dreams" and really digging it{as well as tripping out on it}. I still laugh when I see that close up shot of that cow. But anyway, I love that song{one of the best pop singles of the 80s..ya know} and the album.

But I really freaked out on the Eurythmics performance of "Sweet Dreams" on the 1984 Grammy Awards. Annie Lennox got TRULY androgynous on us... dressed up in like a 70's Elvis. With her hair slicked back and the Elvis-like sideburns pasted on her face and donning, I think, a black pinstripe suit. Truly a jaw-dropping moment.

Her and Boy George were going head to head for the androgynous crown on the awards show that year. Anybody remember her or rather the Eurythmics performance from that show???

Brother915 said:

What most people don't know is that her Elvis look was already over 6 months old at that point. It is first featured in the "Who's That Girl?" video, which was released in July 1983, but didn't get airtime in the U.S. until summer of 1984. Annie's Elvis look is also front and center on the cover of the 45 for "Who's That Girl?"

I love how unconventional she was. Annie rules!

I remember when this hit.

I remember seeing the video for the 1st time... man, who is that chick with the red, red short, short hair... and what a voice.

And damn, those eyes!!!

Then the video... in a black suit, in a field of cows, floating in a river while Dave was rowing - with one hand on her head, like a salute... man, I loved it.

I thought of her as the female David Bowie at the time.

Then they put her on the cover of Time Magazine with Boy George... he dressed as he did, her in the black leather outfit, complete with sideburns and a thin mustache

Yeah.. a great song, great band, great voice, great look and great story.

Thanx Moonbeam, 4 the memory enhancer

Brother915 said:

I remember all that&waht Moon&June7 said&I think until She came out Solo with "Diva" that the Iamge thing Hurt Her Creative Talent as a Artist IMHO.folks were so caught up on her Image She got forgotten as a Really Sharp All-Around Artist.Dave Stewart got all the Love but Annie fianlly connected with "Diva".

I was never too crazy over Sweet Dreams. My fave track on it is Love is a Stranger. I didn't really start appreciating their stuff until the album with Would I Lie To You came out. I loved that record and from then on I bought every release. I like their rock sound more than the synth. I love Revenge, We Two are One, and the last one...Peace (I think?)

Not crazy over Savage (but there are some killer trax on it...like You Have Placed a Chill on My Heart), Sweet Dreams, or 1984. They are a bit too cold sounding imo. To each its own. I am in love with Annie's voice though. I love her solo stuff more than anything she did with Dave Stewart.

Good thread...it makes me want to break out some of that stuff.

oh yeah, my fave track by them by far is "When Tomorrow Comes." Seriously one of my fave songs of all time.

Another great aspect to Eurythmics' career is their creative and stunning use of the video medium to add new meaning to a song. The cow in the "Sweet Dreams" video garnered nearly as much attention as Annie's orange hair! If you get the chance, go buy the Greatest Hits video or DVD. Not only is a better overview of their career, it serves testimony to their unique and incredible vision.