Friday, 9 May 2025

Blue Friday: 1984

Whenever I run out of things to blog about (which is often, after twenty years of this digital guff) I take a look at my YouTube Watch Later list and see what I've saved for future consideration. Which is how I come to be blogging today about 1984 by Anaïs Mitchell.

I'll be honest, I don't know anything about Anaïs that can't be gleaned from her Wikipedia page. I don't know any other songs by her either, except the one that Billy Bragg covered. Blimey, I can't even remember what led me to this song, much less why I saved it in my Watch Later list. I wondered at first if I had heard it as background music in some television show or other but the always-excellent Tunefind tells me it hasn't been used anywhere I'd have heard it, so who knows? What I do know, though, is that (a) I rather like this, and (b) it has some well-crafted dystopian lyrics that seem very "now". There's a real kicker in the last verse too.

Anyway, however it found its way to my ears, here is 1984, from the 2017 album Hymns for the Exiled (the mere title of which is enough to pique my interest). And if all this floats your boat, you can find out more at anaismitchell.com.

Down at headquarters there's a big database
With black and white photos of the side of your beautiful face
And your library records and all your test scores
And an invitation to party like it's 1984

Baby don't look so nervous, they just want the facts
And it's all written out in the USA Patriot Act
'Cause we don't take no chances in a nation at war
So tonight we're gonna party like it's 1984

Oh baby what did I tell you about the house being bugged
They can hear us making breakfast, they can hear us making love
Excuse me a minute, Big Brother's at the door
And he's ready to party like it's 1984

You know you're my one and only, you always have been
Sure is gonna be lonely after I turn you in
So I'll wait 'til tomorrow to file my report
And tonight we can party, oh, tonight we're gonna party
Yeah, tonight we can party like it's 1984

8 comments:

  1. She's lovely, and it's an album I haven't listened to in ages but it's here on the shelves, entirely due to the fact that Mr SDS was driving home from somewhere one day and heard 'Cosmic American' on the Bob Harris radio show; he was immediately smitten and intrigued by the song and her sound (it was actually around 2004 when the album originally came out). After buying the CD on the strength of that, he wrote her an email to express this and they were in touch for a little while - I think you can tell a lot about a person if they reply to messages like that in the early days of their career.
    To see those lyrics again now too over 20 years later and here we are....

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    1. Lovely that she replied. And I can quite see how she could be ensmittening. And if that's not a word, it should be.

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  2. File under "Further Investigation Required".

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  3. I think I’ve got one or two of her songs, but I’m more familiar with her music as 1/3 of Bonny Light Horseman.

    Thanks for the prod, Martin, I will get my act together and start listening to her more!

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    1. Your act is already far more together than mine has ever been or will ever be.

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  4. I wish, Martin! If you ever meet me, that illusion will be dispelled almost immediately ;-)

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