When the Day Goes Down

I don’t usually post two songs by the same band in close succession. But then again, it’s well over a month since I wrote about the British new wave/synth-pop band Eurythmics’ blockbuster “Would I Lie to You?” (after you finish you’re here, check out that post; the song and video are amazing!).

While I worked on that post, YouTube autoplay served up another Eurythmics piece, the slower and contemplative “When the Day Goes Down.” I wasn’t a huge follower of the duo when they rose to popularity, and I don’t have any of their records, just digital singles. And it was not until the mid-1990s that I became enthralled with the music of Annie Lennox (b. 1954) in her solo career.

Anyway, today’s selection is a song I don’t recall hearing before January this year. It has stuck with me each time I’ve listened to it since then, and it is a perfect anthem of perseverance and reassurance. Songs like that are so essential; music has such power, and the right piece at the right time can bring a real lift to one’s spirit. I’ve found it to be a profoundly inspiring song.

“Well don’t you cry now
Don’t go drowning in your tears
Haven’t you learnt anything
After all these years?

All God’s little children
Are beautiful and pure
And you’re as good
As all of them
Of this you can be sure

And we are just the same
Underneath the shadows
Of the sun
And we are just the same
No more no less than anyone

All the people
Of this lonely world
Have got some pain inside
Don’t go thinking
You’re the only one
Who ever broke right down
And cried

That’s when the rain comes down
That’s when the rain comes falling down

And this is for the broken dreamers
This is for vacant souls
This is for the hopeless losers
This is for the helpless fools
And the burnt out
And the useless
And the lonely and the weak
And the lost and the degraded
And the too dumb to speak

And the day goes down
That’s when the day
Goes down”

“When the Day Goes Down,” by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.
Lyrics retrieved from AZLyrics.com.

Despite bits of dated language, the song is beautifully written, played, sung and produced. Every element is well thought-out and made; subtle instrumentation and treatments, and ethereal backing vocals support Lennox’s incredible, incredible voice. (And some of the slide effects on the electric bass remind me of similar sounds in Vangelis’s soundtrack to the 1982 film Blade Runner.) Coming near the end of Lennox and Dave Stewart’s (b. 1952) run as a duo before they took solo paths, I hear such a maturation in their sound in today’s piece. It’s soulful, deep, beautiful — in a way that reaches deep into one’s soul and reassures, “Everything will be alright. You are not alone.”

The imagery of the day going down with sunset promises that the sun will return the next day like it always does. And the rain, that divine cleansing washing from nature; at the end of the song, underneath the decaying sounds of the synthesizer, the snare drum roll transitions into a sound effect like a light rainfall. And the song begins with a similar sound, which visits again several times when rain is mentioned. Bliss.

“When the Day Goes Down” is the closing track on Eurythmics’ second-last album, We Too Are One (1989).

Now you know a little about why this is my Song of the Day for Today. Thanks for joining me here.

Please enjoy the audio from the Eurythmics YouTube channel:

With my best to you,

Steve