I'm listening to Eurythmics' Ultimate Collection to get ready for Monday, because if anyone can help you with that it's probably vocal powerhouse Annie Lennox. So much of their material still sounds so oddly original and fresh.
Whenever I want to know the story behind my favorite music I go to Songfacts, which not only can help you with the interpretation of the lyrics but give you great background.
"Missionary Man" is not my favorite of Eurythmics singles, but I've always been fascinated by it so I went online to see if Songfacts covers it:
The lyrics for this song came from a poem that Annie Lennox had written. Musically, her bandmate Dave Stewart wanted to create a song that would play well in an arena setting, as he was inspired by the concert films Under A Blood Red Sky by U2 and Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads. British synthesizer bands weren't crossing over to big arena shows, and Stewart wanted to buck the trend. He wrote in The Dave Stewart Songbook: "Missionary Man opened the album and became a lynchpin song on the Revenge tour. I wanted to create a spiritual feeling at the opening of the song. I felt like an alchemist cooking up a weird brew of Blues, Rock and Voodoo, with a strange mixture of guitars, synthesizers, backwards noises, and harmonica that spiraled toward the opening line, 'Well I was born an original sinner.' This was the perfect way to take our shows to another level."
You can also read what other people think of the song. And sometimes there's just miscellaneous 'I never knew that!' tidbits of stuff. I found the link to "Would I Lie To You?" (my favorite of theirs after "Here Comes The Rain") just as intriguing:
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