I always assumed that Missionary Man was meant to be a specific attack on people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell but, according to Annie Lennox, this song was actually inspired by her brief marriage to Radha Raman, a devout Hare Krishna. The missionary man of the title is meant to represent anything or anyone that demands total and unquestioning belief, whether it’s the leader of a cult or a televangelist. Still, when the song and this video originally came out, it was controversial because many interpreted it as specifically being an attack specifically on Christianity as opposed to an attack on fanaticism in general. Regardless of how you interpret it, it’s still a rocking song.
This video came out shortly after the monster success of the video for Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. Stop motion animation was all the rage.
Like Blue Monday 88, I’m not doing this because of Atomic Blonde (2017). Movin’ on.
Sweet dreams are made of these. Who am I to disagree?
Not me with this song or video. But I don’t think the 1985 biopic about Patsy Cline had the right to call itself Sweet Dreams.
It’s riddled with problems from the fact that it doesn’t have a story to tell to something as simple as continuity. It also has no dignity.
Sweet Dreams (1985, dir. Karel Reisz)
Sweet Dreams (1985, dir. Karel Reisz)
Yes, it really does cut directly from that sex scene to Patsy Cline ironing her husband’s shirt with a closeup of his last name–Dick. What a wonderful way to honor her memory. An obviously rushed production made to cash-in on the success of the producer’s 1980 film about Lorreta Lynn, Coal Miner’s Daughter.
I knew about this song beforehand, but I will give credit to the 1996 NBC TV Movie, Sweet Dreams, for reminding me it exists by it featuring Marilyn Manson’s cover version.
Sweet Dreams (1996, dir. Jack Bender)
Sweet Dreams (1996, dir. Jack Bender)
I do have a copy of this movie where then Tiffani-Amber Thiessen gets amnesia. I spent a decade looking for it after its original airing in 1996, and that 1985 film didn’t help my search when the TiVo was looking for movies with the title Sweet Dreams. It’s not weird!
Neither is the fact that the origin of this video begins with Dave Stewart having a lung that kept collapsing.
In the book, I Want My MTV, he states that he was quite ill at the start of the group because he had a lung that kept collapsing. I don’t want to paraphrase what he has to say about how he came to love mixing images with music, so here’s an excerpt from the book:
I had just gotten out of surgery, and they must’ve given me tons of morphine or something, because my head started to explode with the idea of visual imagery and making music. From then on, I was obsessed with videos.
Just before that, a weird thing happened: I was walking down the street in Australia and stepped on something quite hard. I looked down and it was a solid gold bracelet. I picked it up, and as I turned the corner, I saw a pawnshop. I swapped the bracelet for an 8mm cine camera. From that moment on, I was always filming. I started to understand about putting imagery together with music.
There are two obvious questions that come up when you watch this music video:
Why the cow?
How did they get away with Annie Lennox wearing a matching suit with Stewart?
Jon Roseman, producer: Dave had a tremendous feel for images. People often ask me, “How did you come up with the idea of the cow?” I tell them, “Dave just said, ‘Let’s have a cow.'”
If Stewart wants to be a smoking caterpillar, then he gets to be a smoking caterpillar.
Don’t Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers (1985, dir. Jeff Stein)
If Stewart wants a cow, then he gets a cow.
It doesn’t matter how difficult it may have been to do so:
Dave Stewart: I presented the treatment to the label, and they could not understand the bit with the cow. The cow was complicated, because we were in London, and the cow had to go down an elevator into the basement. The farmer who owned the cow was really agitated.
Annie Lennox: “Sweet Dreams” was shot in a basement studio in the middle of London. There was an elevator big enough to take the cow down from the ground floor. That was one of the most surreal moments I’ve had–being in a building with a cow walking around freely.
Little known fact, Dave Stewart is a Beastmaster.
Annie Lennox: During the scene where Dave is sitting at a prototype computer, tapping the keyboard, the cow’s head came really close to him.
Annie Lennox: I could see that happening and I thought, Oh shit, what is the cow going to do? It was almost nudging him. And Dave is so intuitive, he just rolled his eyes, so it looks like there was some kind of understanding between him and the cow. Like the cow had been told, “Right, so you do this and then Dave’s gonna do this. And…ACTION!”
Look into the eyes of Dave Stewart!
Lennox explains the purpose of the cow:
In a way, the video is a statement about the different forms of existence. Here are humans, with our dreams of industry and achievement and success. And here is a cow. We share the same planet, but it’s a strange coexistence.
As for how Annie Lennox got away with wearing a matching suit with Stewart:
Dave Stewart: “Sweet Dreams” prompted a big argument with the record company. They were pissed off when Annie and I turned up in matching suits, with Annie’s hair cropped off. They wanted her to wear a dress. They were like, “We don’t understand. Annie is such a pretty girl.” Then MTV got the video and it just went mad. It didn’t look like anything else. Annie’s hair was so different, and the colors in the video looked amazing. It was shot on 16mm film, but it was very rich. It became a phenomenon.
It’s not mentioned in the book, but I’d like to think that the ending was inspired by the ending of Jacques Rivette’s film, Celine And Julie Go Boating (1974).
Celine And Julie Go Boating (1974, dir. Jacques Rivette)
After that, Lennox is shown waking up in bed with a book on her nightstand with the same title as the song. It goes to black when she turns off the light.
Celine And Julie Go Boating cuts back to the beginning of the film where Celine wakes up, and she and Julie have now switched places. It’s Celine who ends up following Julie after she drops a book in a park. Before, it was Julie who followed Celine after she dropped something in the same park.
If Going Back To Cali by LL Cool J was inspired by the likes of Godard, Chabrol, and Antonioni, then it’s not a stretch to think that Stewart saw that movie, and thought to mimic that shot which shoots us out of the film to simply repeat the same movie with the characters switched. Much like you can imagine that Lennox is going to sleep to end up back in the same dream she just had, based on what she read in the book–the cover appearing to show one Annie reaching out to touch another Annie.
Chris Ashbrook produced the video.
Enjoy! And for all of us who have misheard lyrics at one time or another: Sweet dreams are made of cheese. Who am I to disagree?
For the first Horror AMV of the Day we go back to good old Another. Those not well-versed in the world of anime this series is literally titled Another.
Another is one of the best horror anime to arrive in years and it combines elements of the supernatural ghost story, mystery and, most important of all, enough gore to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty fan. What better way to advertise some of the highlights of Another than by making a video to the tune of Marilyn Manson’s cover of the classic Eurythmics song “Sweet Dreams”.
Horror anime is quite a tough thing to pull off well. Either one goes full-on gore but sacrificing a coherent narrative or going for characterization and a great story yet lacking in the blood and gore. Another is able to accomplish both and amv creator S&D Productions does a great job of making sure this comes across in the video simply titled “Sweet Dreams”.
After having just seen Zack Snyder’s latest visual extravaganza with Sucker Punch my next pick for “song of the day” comes courtesy of that film’s eclectic soundtrack. The one song which stood out the most and set the tone of the film for me has to be the one which starts the film: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)” covered by the film’s lead, Emily Browning.
“Sweet Dreams” was an instant classic when Eurthymics first unleashed it upon the music world and it continues to do so even after countless bands and artists covering the song. One cover which seems to get the most press has been Marilyn Manson’s version which helped propel the shock rocker into prominence (and helped launch an uncounted number of “goths” to the world). In Sucker Punch the song once again gets covered but this time by Emily Browning. This English actress’ haunting and ethereal rendition of the song with a symphonic rock tempo and melody to match her voice has made this cover of the song my favorite.
This cover opens up the film and almost gives the opening scene a silent film quality as the song plays over a dialogue-free sequence. It also gives the whole proceeding a dream-like quality that helped set the tone of the film. The song pretty much said that what one was about to see may or may not be real. The rest of the film’s soundtrack just got better as the film went forward, but it was the strong beginning with this song that turned a very good soundtrack into a great one.
Through the Shattered Lens 