Stefan Grundlingh today gives us a very different perspective of Savage in light of the events surrounding him personally in South Africa.

 

As my fondness for all things Annie Lennox and Eurythmics is no secret among fellow fans, some of them may find my relationship with the Savage album a bit odd.

Dave and Annie’s work has always managed to cut to the core of some aspect of my identity. Savage was no exception.

 

The album was released during a particularly strained time in South African history.

 

As a university student, I had only begun experiencing a political awakening and an awareness of the savage state of affairs in my country. I rented a room from a professor whose pro-democracy views resulted in his house being fire-bombed. Such events, and others, played a role in keeping me from buying an album entitled ‘Savage’ at the time.

 

The images that this album title evoked in me made it difficult for me to relate to it.

I’m happy to say that not buying the album did not mean I did not listen to the tracks! I loved ‘Beethoven’ and to this day ‘Shame’ remains under my top 5 Eurythmics songs. Although I initially distanced myself from the album, Annie Lennox’s acoustic renditions of ‘You have placed a chill in my heart’ moved me to unpack the album over the years.

 

Just as ‘Savage’ spoke to my political identity, ‘I need a man’ addressed other aspects of who I am, but only when I listened to the song years after the album’s release.
I still consider Savage to be the step-child in my Eurythmics album collection.

I have a wonderful relationship with my own step-dad, so I don’t consider it a bad thing at all, just different.