My inner jokester has taken control of the music again. If the subtitle of today’s MotD doesn’t give away what I did with my morning yesterday, it’s likely you aren’t an American; or perhaps you are and have some really good stuff that keeps you from focusing on how enshittified things are becoming, especially in politics. If it’s the latter, please pass some to me.
I’m mostly kidding about that. I drank way too much during grad school to cope with it as well as some other awful stuff that happened during those years, and don’t want to take up another chemical crutch. But holy flying fucksticks, it’s getting really difficult to maintain even a veneer of calm in the face of what’s going on.
Today’s MotD came to me as a snippet of lyric, which blossomed into the chorus. I was pleased to discover that it has an awesomely over-the-top music video, which I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen before today.
“The King and Queen of America” is a pitch-perfect sendup of the United States’ cult of personality, with Annie Lennox and David Stewart brilliantly satirizing several American couples in the video. The song is from the Eurythmics’ 1989 release, We Too Are One. “King and Queen” wasn’t released as a single in the US, but the video got a fair bit of airplay on MTV nonetheless. I wonder if anyone there twigged the irony of that.
In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, I was back in the land of no cable television, and listened mostly to the Cincinnati Z Rock affiliate, which played hard rock and metal, so I doubt that I heard this song then. My first clear memory of hearing it is from a visit to my kids’ father’s home; we were in a long-distance relationship with half the continent’s distance between us. He had the Eurythmics’ 1991 Greatest Hits compilation and played it frequently.
It’s still the only Eurythmics album in my library. And I really need to change that, because I strongly suspect there’s a lot of depth to their catalog that I’ll enjoy.
“Holy flying fucksticks.” I might have to start using that as a response to the nonsense in the UK. What a time to be alive. Oh.
You’ll be well rewarded if you explore the Eurythmics, as well as Annie Lennox solo.
Eurythmics are a favorite. Annie Lennox solo stuff too.