The King and Queen of America
Eurythmics
1989: RCA DACD23
See No Evil is one of my favorite Eurythmics B-sides, possibly even more cherished than Babys Gone Blue or Grown Up Girls and maybe even surpassing the acoustic versions of &147;Don&146;t Ask Me Why and When the Day Goes Down on the DACD 20 release of this same vintage, because of the purity and clarity of its cold attitude interwoven with brooding doubt (or maybe just dangerously unresolved ambiguity still toying with a yet-unused weapon). The surging/receding tonal keyboard chords and their emotional connotations, the semi-distinct overlapping rhythmic keyboard bursts, the detachedly arpeggiated odd piano chordsall that complicates an otherwise machine-like structure in some ways its a reprise of Paint a Rumour, from Touch, I suppose, but with a mood thats a touch darker and a sense of calm threat as opposed to Paint a Rumours risky fun. It has a certain Tarantino ominousness, unhurried and impeccably armed, that reminds me somewhat of the film To Live and Die in L.A. In that sense, its redolent with a hybrid Paris/LA vibe, obviously on the cool side of the equation. Plus which both Stewart and Lennox are delivering overlapping multitracked vocals that seem almost monotone at face value but vary with slippery nuance in a looser way than, say, the similarly deceptive tricky notes of their not-so-simple Sweet Dreams riff does.
If you wanna get up you better cool down.
If you wanna get up you better cool down.
If you wanna get up you better cool down.
If you wanna get up you better cool down.
As for the other tracks on this single (oh yeah, its actually a King & Queen single I tend to forget that), theyre O.K. but fade by comparison to See No Evils solid dark presence. I would probably be more charitable about Ball and Chain here but for some insane reason the track fades out just at the climax of the song.
And of course I must mention the singles great montage of the twelve couples Dave & Annie portrayed in the King & Queen video. The full glory of this can only be appreciated by having the 12" single, and I have both of the versions released (DAT 23 and DAT 24) as well as the poster that was included with the latter. I understand by the way that the Ultimate Collection compliation scheduled for release in November 2004 will include almost every B-side from the singles, but if the pre-release reports are correct this might not include the hilarious dub mix of King & Queen which, being mostly a mix of an odd snippet of the main King & Queen mix, contains almost no part of the original song but still bops along like a silly hip-hop/techno production. And thats a pity, because Ive loved that goofy track ever since the first time I heard it (Paris, 1989).
The same CD single was also released as DACD 24, in a latched & numbered wooden box (shown belowmines #008050, by the way), but the CD inside was just DACD 23 with the tracklist above; this was a disappointment for me, as I truly was hoping it would have DAT 24s tracklist (including that silly remix). Anyway, its a cute packaging gimmick.
Comments © 2005/2018 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.