Annie Lennox

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Presenter0:08

The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand eight.

Presenter0:26

My castaway this week is Annie Lennox. As a pop star she has seen phenomenal success. Her extraordinary voice and stark glamour blazed a trail through the eighties when as one half of the group Eurystmics she co-wrote and performed hit after hit after hit. Going it alone, she has soared just as high. Three Grammys, six Brits and an Oscar provide convenient shorthand to sum up her solo achievements to date.

Presenter0:51

Yet it seems fame, fortune, and the adoration of millions isn't quite enough. Much of her time and energy these days is devoted not just to her two teenage daughters, but a clutch of humanitarian causes, from Live Aid to Amnesty International. She says I need to find meaning in my life to make me happy, and that has been an ongoing struggle.

Presenter1:12

Annie Lennox, you once described yourself this is an intriguing phrase as an elegant survivor. I wonder what you mean by an elegant survivor. That's an interesting question to land me with, first of all.

Annie Lennox1:19

Embankment survival.

Presenter1:25

An elegant survivor. Yeah, I think perhaps sometimes, you know, it's very interesting when you are someone in the public eye, you have to accept that there will be a certain erosion of your own sort of private, what would normally people would consider to be private. And I don't know why I said the word elegant, but perhaps I was trying to get the balance back, you know, sort of pull that back from myself from because, you know, the press will inevitably, and I don't blame them for this, they will look for the most kind of, well, if they can get lurid, hey, we'll have lurid. With me, it hasn't been lurid, but it, you know, whenever it's been something to do with

Annie Lennox1:54

Yeah.

Presenter2:00

You know, depression or the the kind of things that I have been occasionally tagged with, which is fine because I do get depressed and

Presenter2:06

Uh people do get depressed, but I did feel that I might have to claw a little bit back.

Presenter2:11

of the the labelling perhaps that's been put on me from time to time. Did you wish sometimes that you hadn't been quite as honest as you find yourself being as journalist? No, I don't mind being honest. You know, I just have to be myself. It doesn't matter. Some people have said I'm incredibly private.

Annie Lennox2:18

In this journal.

Presenter2:26

Person, I don't think I'm so incredibly private, I just think I'm normal.

Presenter2:33

I'm very happy to be honest, but there are certain boundaries that I need to protect. It was twenty-five years ago then with Eurythmics that you shot into people's consciousness. I'm thinking of that deep orange buzz cut, the the mannish suit, the very intricate macchiage, the make-up, and it was the time of MTV. It was a time when your image was just seared on certainly the teenage consciousness and probably beyond. It was Sweet Dreams was the first big hit. It was a very big hit in America, a big hit here too. Can you remember how it felt at the time? Yes, of course I do remember that. And yet it seems like a parallel existence now. It's so funny that, you know, if you see a snapshot of yourself when you were a

Presenter3:18

A teenager or a child, it's something so familiar to you, and yet com contrasted with what who you are now, it doesn't bear the faintest resemblance, you know. Can you describe this? This is maybe not possible to describe, but I'm wondering who you were then. If you say you look at that person and you can remember her and she's still in there somewhere. Who were you then? Well, it was before I had children, it was a long time before I had children, and I think that having children was a huge turning point in my world, you know, in my whole life, in the whole way that I see the planet. I was.

Annie Lennox3:33

person and you can remember her and she's still in there.

Annie Lennox3:37

Who would you then?

Presenter3:49

very focussed on music making. I wanted to be part of making great music. That that was always the the main motivation. There's so much to talk about. I want to ask you just briefly before we come to your first track, I noticed looking at all the tracks in a bunch here, your your eight pieces of music, that

Presenter4:06

None of them, almost without exception, is from now, and almost all of them are from before when you started making money. So why is that? I will well, you know.

Annie Lennox4:12

I do why is it?

Presenter4:14

One of the reasons why there's nothing really from now is because I mean I didn't know this consciously, but at a certain unconscious level one identifies with music the statements, the sounds, the whole identity of music was hugely important to me. And now I've in my years of wisdom, profound, solid wisdom, you know, now that I've been through so much in life and I'm extraordinarily evolved, I no longer need

Presenter4:47

But um these songs that we're going to listen to the words are in my head, the arrangements are in my head you know, from the beginning to the end, I know these songs, they're part of me. Music after all.

Presenter5:01

It's so personal, and people hear music, they love it, they identify with it, they personalize, and it becomes.

Presenter5:09

Part of them, and that is the great potentiality that that music has. So, tell me about your first track then today.

Presenter5:17

When I hear this track I go to A Place in Aberdeen.

Presenter5:22

called the Beach Boulevard, and I remember walking down that street and singing that song over and over and over again.

Presenter5:32

It's a classic.

Presenter5:35

Very hard to put into words, but that kind of sadness, that melancholy, and it's a story about a person's life, and somehow I d I simply identify with this guy driving these long distances across a landscape.

Presenter5:49

Does that do it?

Presenter5:50

That'll do it for me, okay.

Annie Lennox5:51

Okay.

Annie Lennox5:53

I'm a lineman for the county

Annie Lennox5:58

And I drive the main road.

Annie Lennox6:03

Searching in the sun for another overload

Annie Lennox6:12

I hear you singing in the wire

Annie Lennox6:18

I can hear you through the wine.

Presenter6:23

Glenn Campbell and Wichita Lineman, and unfortunately, people were not treated as I was. There, to you singing along with that. And you said, this is so intriguing to me that.

Annie Lennox6:27

How long is that?

Presenter6:31

That you think you learned to sing. That's what you were doing when you were listening to that song and songs like it? Definitely. I think I was intrigued with music and songs and I would just learn them and learn them and learn them and hear the phrasing, but not because I was thinking I was going to be a singer. That wasn't the point.

Annie Lennox6:35

Listening to that song and songs like it.

Presenter6:50

I was just intrigued. And that is what it is to be a singer: that you learn all this, but then you have to imbibe it, and it has to be something.

Presenter6:59

It's got to be in your bone marrow because if you're thinking too much about your performance, it becomes mannered and stilted. It's just something that you do naturally. And what about this wee lassie in Aberdeen, then? I mean, you were an only child. What did you do apart from sing along to the children? No, there's lots of. I think because of the fact that I was an only child, there was so much time to kill. There was so much time to kill. So I just had to spend a lot of time alone. Were you away? I mean, you don't sound to me as though you were lonely. You were happy.

Speaker 37:16

But you can

Presenter7:31

Um

Presenter7:33

I wasn't unhappy, but there is a melancholy and there is a loneliness in it.

Presenter7:38

But I realized I felt lonely once I came down to London. But as a wee girl, y your your dad worked in the shipyards? Yeah, he did, yeah. Your mother was a cook?

Annie Lennox7:44

Yeah, he did.

Speaker 37:45

Dear mother

Presenter7:46

Yeah, well she worked she actually she was a cook, but then

Speaker 37:46

Well

Presenter7:49

She gave everything up and she just became a housewife, you know. I mean, we lived in a tenement house and we had a little outside washing an area where you there was like these big tanks of boiling water and you used to have to scrub everything. So that was common in the wash house, wasn't it? Yeah. Put it through the mangle. Yeah, put it through the mangle. It was hang it out to dry. A room and kitchen. Yeah, a two-roomed tenement house and um.

Annie Lennox8:02

So that was common.

Speaker 38:03

Yeah, through the mangles.

Annie Lennox8:04

Uh

Annie Lennox8:06

Uh

Speaker 38:06

It was time you

Annie Lennox8:06

Uh

Speaker 38:08

Yeah too.

Annie Lennox8:08

Uh

Presenter8:11

The the kitchen was my mother and father's bedroom, which was the sitting room, which was the dining room, which was everything. You know, a lot of things went on in that room.

Presenter8:21

And then the front room was where I used to sleep, but that was the best room, so that was kept for when they would have some visitors. And did they have visitors? Was it a single piece of visitors? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They did. Yeah, people would come.

Annie Lennox8:28

Oh yes.

Presenter8:31

What about school years then? It was Aberdeen High School for Girls. That sounds terribly proper. Was it terribly proper? Yes, terribly proper. What did you do?

Annie Lennox8:34

Also,

Annie Lennox8:35

Promoter

Speaker 38:36

Was it terribly proper?

Speaker 38:38

What did you learn?

Presenter8:42

And we had to curtsey to the teacher every morning and afternoon.

Presenter8:46

Ah, those were the days, yes, indeed. What was the uniform? Ah, well, in the summertime it was Panama hats, and it was very formal. Yeah, we had those old-fashioned navy tunics, you know. When did you begin to be musical? When did you take piano lessons? When I was seven, someone said, Would I like to have piano lessons at school? And I wanted to have them very much. Did you have to pay extra for them? £4 a term. But, you know, at the time, we didn't have much money to go around and it was looked on as, you know, that's a little bit, you know, getting something extra, you know, these music lessons.

Presenter9:22

You see, I think for a lot of that generation life was tough and there was poverty and, you know, hardship. And was there music at home? Did your parents play music at the moment? Well, I mean, but there was the radio, the wireless.

Annie Lennox9:31

Well, I mean there was

Presenter9:34

At some point we had a little dancette record player, you know, with the little pink pl plastic covering and things. My father was musical and he loved to sing and his family loved singing. They they were in choirs and things and then when he was a young man he picked up the bagpipes. Did he practise outside or did he practice? That's some noise in a two-room

Annie Lennox9:53

That's some noise in a two room.

Presenter9:55

Yeah. Did you enjoy it? Yeah, I loved it. I used to love listening to it.

Presenter10:00

Tell me about your next piece, which is not a piece of pipe music, incidentally. What have you chosen next? Well, um.

Annie Lennox10:02

Yeah.

Annie Lennox10:03

Yeah.

Presenter10:04

You know, the Beatles absolutely are intrinsically part of my life, and I've chosen Penny Lane because I think it's got all the characteristics of a uh of everything that the Beatles

Presenter10:15

Had to offer, and still offer in the in the most incredible sort of classic way.

Speaker 310:23

Five months our class.

Speaker 310:27

Fuck is a portrait

Speaker 310:31

Fire engine

Speaker 310:35

Machine

Presenter10:47

The Beatles and Penny Lane. I'm wondering around about that time then, did you feel the flavour of the sixties? Did you feel the sniff of something new in the air? Very much so. And it's so funny, isn't it, how things travel like that.

Annie Lennox10:53

You feel the sniff of something new in the air.

Presenter10:59

That music kind of informs you that things are changing. I mean, there was no such thing as a teenager when your parents were teenagers. And in fact, my father had said that to me several times, that he never had a youth.

Annie Lennox11:05

Parents were teenagers.

Presenter11:10

And that made me feel very sad. And so he must have presumably left school when he was about fourteen and gone straight to work. My father was very rigorous about the work ethic. He was one of those men that was the sort of very kind of righteous, you know. W was that tricky for him then to watch you go into your teenage years and and be I mean, a teenager in the sixties. There were all sorts of possibilities open to you.

Annie Lennox11:31

There were all sorts of possibilities of

Presenter11:34

I think that was the huge generation gap. It was probably the biggest generation gap of all time. So, did you have a hard time with each other? Yeah, definitely. Very difficult. Over what sort of things? Well, just, you know, my father was, understandably, you know, very protective of me as his only daughter. And it was all about boundaries, really, about what I was allowed to do and what I wasn't allowed to do. And I kind of didn't really appreciate being told what I had to do. And I mean, you know, I wasn't like a bad kid or anything like that, but I was desperate just to have my own independence, really, to be honest with you. So you were in a family where there was nobody else that you could compare to. To offset it from. Yeah, I was the focus, yeah. And you were also in a school where there were a lot of rules and regulations and very much so. It doesn't sound like you were having a great time. No, I hated it.

Annie Lennox12:11

To offset it from yeah

Annie Lennox12:13

Yeah.

Annie Lennox12:16

Very much so.

Annie Lennox12:20

I know

Presenter12:22

Hated it.

Presenter12:23

Yeah.

Annie Lennox12:25

Pointed.

Presenter12:27

you know, I thought London was where it was at.

Presenter12:30

You know, I I wanted to go to London. That was it.

Presenter12:33

We will talk about that in just a moment. Tell me about your next choice.

Presenter12:36

Well,

Presenter12:37

The reason why I went to London and my passport out of Aberdeen really in a way was that I got a place at the the Royal Academy of Music.

Presenter12:46

To study flute, and I loved flute. I used to play in orchestras and little chamber ensembles. And I thought I was a pretty good flute player.

Presenter12:54

God, help me.

Presenter12:56

And uh

Presenter12:57

I came down to London and realised I was, you know, completely average, and there were lots of other kids that were phenomenal flute players, and I was never going to reach that.

Presenter13:07

kind of peak of performance, and that was a bit of a dilemma for me because that was the thing that I had achieved, and then it wasn't going to happen. And I didn't know what the alternatives were going to be. And I actually can play the next piece. It's Debussy's Syrinx, and it's exquisitely played by James Galway.

Presenter14:23

James Galway playing Debussy's Syrinx and a piece you yourself say, Annie Lennox, that you can play, although you haven't picked up the flute for many years, and the flute was your

Annie Lennox14:29

And the flute was

Presenter14:31

It was your passport out of Aberdeen. You attended the Royal Academy of Music, and you very quickly realised it wasn't for you. No, it was terrible, really. I felt like.

Annie Lennox14:37

Uh

Presenter14:39

A complete fraud.

Presenter14:41

And I spent three years there. Afraid why? Because.

Presenter14:46

It didn't interest me and I was avoiding every single history of music lecture and I mean I didn't go to one of them. I was the worst student ever, ever. What were you doing instead?

Annie Lennox14:55

F Yeah.

Presenter14:57

Well, I got myself some part-time jobs actually, you know, because I had no money. I mean, the grant was so tiny, and I used to live on three pounds a week, and

Presenter15:06

It was, you know, it was limited. Were your parents contributing to any of this? No, no, no, no. I used to do it all myself. And I'm wondering what your parents made of you going to London?

Speaker 415:08

Yeah.

Presenter15:15

I think it just appalled them, really. I went, well, no, no, that's not true. I think if they'd known.

Presenter15:20

More about me they would have read a poll, but uh you know, I think they were proud of me because it was an achievement to certainly to go to the academy, but I think they didn't really know what was going on with me. I didn't really know myself. Did they give you any advice for the Big Bad City?

Presenter15:35

Well, I don't think you can really. I mean, you know, look right and left what before you cross the road. I think that's the b I think that's the best advice everyone can give you really in London.

Presenter15:43

And so there you were, not really attending classes, certainly avoiding the classes you really hated. And I'm wondering,'cause we all know what Annie Lennox looks like, of course. We've lived with your image for the last twenty five years. What did you look like then when you were a student? Um, just a I was quite shy and um

Annie Lennox15:46

Avoiding

Presenter15:57

Quite mousy, I think.

Presenter15:59

Couldn't afford clothes very easily, and there were these fantastic thrift stores in Scotland where you could buy old ladies, kind of like what you know, old ladies that had died.

Presenter16:11

And they had fabulous kind of shoes and jackets and blouses and dresses and everything. And, you know, you could you could pick up a fantastic jacket for about two shillings. Honestly, that was that's pre decimalization, folks. God

Presenter16:26

That's really telling.

Presenter16:29

And were you singing in your late teens?

Presenter16:31

Well, I always sang. I mean, I always always sang to myself.

Presenter16:35

It's weird, I just you know, looking back, it's really hard t to think of a of a moment when I I realized that my voice was actually really good, but

Presenter16:45

I wish I could tell you that there was a moment when I thought that, but there must have been.

Presenter16:51

'Cause I do remember going in for an audition for something once that was advertised in the Melody Maker.

Presenter16:57

And they said to me, What does your voice sound like? and I said, I'm a cross between Stevie Wonder and Johnny Mitchell, and I was being serious. How ridiculous And uh and they said Oh, well, you must be good then.

Presenter17:10

Did you get it? Did you get it? I bet you did. Right, tell me about your next piece of music then.

Presenter17:16

We're gonna play um

Presenter17:18

Hole in my shoe by traffic.

Presenter17:22

It really sums up the time that kind of

Presenter17:26

Exotic thing that I think I thought London would be, but maybe never really was.

Speaker 317:33

An elephant sign was looking at me from a purple country.

Speaker 317:41

And all the time you was the hole in my shoe, which was getting in water, netting in water.

Presenter17:58

Traffic and hole in my shoes. So, Annie Lennox, you met this chap apparently called Dave Stewart. I read that in the cuttings somewhere. Yes. And of course, you went on to form Eurythmics.

Annie Lennox18:04

I did

Speaker 318:05

Yeah.

Annie Lennox18:06

Uh

Speaker 318:09

Senator

Presenter18:10

You have spoken and certainly journalists have written exhaustively about how you met. But just briefly to remind people that myself. You were a waitress in a cafe. He came in as a customer.

Annie Lennox18:16

Remind people that it's not a problem.

Annie Lennox18:18

Buy it.

Presenter18:22

There you go. That's it. That's enough.

Annie Lennox18:23

That's it.

Presenter18:24

That says it all. That's a story. Did you instantly know that you had met somebody who was talking your language?

Annie Lennox18:25

That's it.

Presenter18:32

Yeah, I did. And that's a very rare occurrence. And when we formed the first band, it was the Tourists. And the Tourists made three albums. And that's why sometimes I refer to that part of my life as a rehearsal for what was to come. Because I got a lot of experience. We toured across America, we toured in Europe and Australia. I mean, we had a little bit of success, and I really learnt a lot. So the tourists broke up, you three albums, lots of touring, and you formed your rhythmics, and you knew at that point you were sort of honed by that in terms of what you wanted to do. Very much so. Very much so. And at that point...

Annie Lennox18:59

Yeah.

Annie Lennox19:04

Yes, in terms of what you wanted to do.

Presenter19:09

Synthesizers became affordable and available in stores, and there were these new things called drum machines.

Presenter19:16

And uh the the whole synth sound of the eighties came out. And by this stage you and Dave had gone out with each other, but had you broken up by the time your rhythmic started? Yeah, we were we just just about broke up about that time, which is, you know, very difficult because we both that's a funny thing that I think we knew that it wasn't going to work out as a partnership, but as a

Annie Lennox19:25

Do you

Presenter19:37

Musical relationship. There was never any question that we would be a part. That is an untypical maturity for people of that age. I mean, the music was so important. Yes. It superseded all of us.

Annie Lennox19:46

Yes, it superseded all that.

Presenter19:49

What did your parents make of this extreme and sudden fame?

Presenter19:54

Well, I think it's hard for anyone to handle, you know. A little bit concerned. I mean, on the one hand, proud, you know.

Presenter20:01

And on the other hand, like, ooh, what is this? When they came to see us perform in concert and they saw audiences really responding to the music, I know that they were hugely

Presenter20:13

Proud of it.

Presenter20:15

Tell me about your next piece of music, then.

Presenter20:17

Ah, this is probably one of my favourite songs of all time, ever and ever. I adore Aretha Franklin's voice and the arrangements and songwriting skills of Burt Bacharach are just just phenomenal, really hugely special. And right from the beginning of this song it just takes you into the special place that it is.

Speaker 320:39

Oh man, I wake up

Speaker 320:43

For I pull on my makeup, makeup, my sailing, pray for you.

Speaker 320:51

I'm in my hand now.

Speaker 320:54

And wondering what dress to wear now I said a little prayer for you.

Speaker 321:04

Yeah.

Presenter21:07

Aretha Franklin, and I say a little prayer. And of course, U Sang Sisters are doing it for themselves. What was that experience like? Amazing, actually.

Speaker 321:12

Okay, yeah.

Annie Lennox21:12

What was next?

Speaker 321:13

Speed slide.

Presenter21:15

Went to Detroit, because Aretha doesn't really like to travel.

Presenter21:19

And uh she was

Presenter21:22

Exceptionally shy and quiet, quite withdrawn. Were you nervous to sing with her? No, I wasn't nervous to sing with her, because we'd written a song, and I thought it's fine.

Presenter21:35

Looking back at it, I really should have been more nervous. But curiously enough, I wasn't. Your voice has been described by some of your music industry colleagues as the greatest white soul singer alive.

Annie Lennox21:47

Very nice of you.

Presenter21:48

Well I wonder of course there is all of the the history that comes from

Annie Lennox21:52

Yeah.

Presenter21:53

The black soul singers, male and female, the the history of their race, the history of the generations, the struggles that have gone before.

Annie Lennox21:55

And the

Annie Lennox21:59

Before

Presenter22:00

In your voice, what do you think it is that's bringing out the soul? Because their struggles have not been your struggles.

Presenter22:06

But I think er

Presenter22:08

The human condition is the same no matter what. It doesn't matter the colour of your skin, you know, which school you went to. The human experience is pretty much boils down to the same thing. And the music it cuts through all cultures and all boundaries. And what about the intensity? Because you have the image of being an intense person. You're clearly somebody who's sort of quick to laugh and you have a sense of humour, but within those songs.

Presenter22:35

There is.

Presenter22:36

Oftentimes a lot of pain of intensity. There's a lot of pain in there. I don't think that people live pain free

Annie Lennox22:38

And a lot of intensity.

Presenter22:44

Lives. I don't know if it's chicken or egg. I don't know if the pain has to come first and then you c you have to be in pain before you write something of any value. I'm not sure about that, to be honest with you. But whatever, it's almost like you're a potter and that's the clay that you use, you know. This is this is spiritual stuff, really. Can I ask you about the way you look? I mean you are you're a strikingly beautiful woman and you have used your image over the years to promote your music.

Presenter23:12

You seem to have almost sort of relished that. And yet you have not done what o the few other women that are in your position have done.

Presenter23:21

who have decided to make their beauty their obsession. I mean, you're sitting there today. It doesn't look to me as if you're wearing lots of makeup. You seem to be. No, I really ever wear lots of makeup. How have you managed to resist that given that your image has been such a central part of who you have been to the public?

Annie Lennox23:28

No, I really

Presenter23:37

Gosh.

Presenter23:39

I did say to you earlier on that having children was a huge learning curve for me, kind of a very transformational part of my world.

Presenter23:49

So

Presenter23:50

Getting older?

Presenter23:52

That's you know, you start to value things like, well, do you have health? I mean, both my parents died of cancer, so I saw that and I saw a lot of things that made me change my perspective. You know, youth, beauty, that's all fine. But, you know, what really counts in the world is something that it's not about just the presentation. It's interesting you've referred to your children taking you beyond what was there before and how life

Annie Lennox24:19

And what was there before and how life

Presenter24:22

Before your children seems a very, very long time away. You had your first child was still born, and you've had the courage to speak about that. How much did that change you as a person at the time?

Annie Lennox24:23

It seems.

Annie Lennox24:27

You have

Annie Lennox24:29

But how much

Annie Lennox24:31

Yeah.

Presenter24:32

An immense impact on me.

Presenter24:35

Immense impact on me.

Presenter24:37

And what did it make you think? Did it make you want to turn your back on the the world you No, not at all.

Presenter24:42

It made me realize that we're all, you know, the human condition is immensely.

Presenter24:47

Fragile and strong at the same time. You know, you always have the polarities that coexist. So, um, at the same time that, you know,

Presenter24:57

I lost my son.

Presenter25:00

you know, hundreds of thousands of people died in a

Presenter25:03

In a village somewhere in a remote part of Turkey after an earthquake. And curiously enough, I just felt so identified with those people because I saw, wow, losses all around me. You know, it's informed me that my, you know, real, very painful, difficult personal experience and loss, it's hard to put it into words, but it made me realise that life truly is temporary. You know, and when I hear about other people's tragedies and losses, I so, so, so empathise and so, so, so identify with them.

Presenter25:40

Tell me about your next piece of music then.

Presenter25:42

Ah, we're going to listen to the Blue Nile now. They are.

Presenter25:46

An extraordinary phenomenon.

Presenter25:48

And uh the people that love the Blue Nile

Presenter25:50

Will relate to this because we're almost like a little cult. We wait for years for Blue Nile records to come, and occasionally they do.

Presenter26:00

And now I'm going to play um a walk across the rooftops.

Presenter26:34

Blue Nile and A Walk Across the Rooftops. So, Annie Lennox, in nineteen eighty eight then, you married the Israeli filmmaker Uri Fruchman and you have two daughters, Lola and Talia, and once they were born, I read at the time that you said you you wanted to go inside and close the door.

Presenter26:51

Yeah, you wanted to stop what had been happening and to have a private experience of motherhood.

Annie Lennox26:51

Yeah.

Annie Lennox26:53

Yeah, I think it's a very good idea.

Presenter26:56

Did it work? Yeah, it did. I mean, I

Presenter27:00

It's tricky, isn't it? Because if you're well known it's difficult to show up at the crash and crouch end and

Presenter27:06

For people not to always recognise you. And did you do that, though? I did, yeah.

Annie Lennox27:09

And did

Presenter27:12

I did that and um

Presenter27:14

There's innumerable ways of having kids and having families, and as a now divorced single mother, which I am really, I appreciate

Presenter27:24

The incredible sort of devotion that women in particular and dads as well, dads, it's hard for dads. You know, I think sometimes we forget that s some dads very, very much want to be with their kids and sometimes they're prevented from getting access to their kids too. Your marriage broke up after twelve years and and you wrote the album Bear, which is, as I was sort of leafing through the lyrics of that, it's raw stuff.

Presenter27:49

Were you always sure?

Presenter27:51

I mean, I'm sure you would say to me that you had to write it. Were you always sure you wanted to release it, to to make those things public?

Annie Lennox27:55

To make the

Presenter27:57

But to me, when I write, you know, it's not so super specific, and I think, to be frank, the issues that I write about are m more about my own internalized

Presenter28:10

Contradictions and struggles and confusions and whatever, whatever, yearnings. And they are part of all of us. I mean, anyone who writes books or makes music or songs or, you know, they have to take the material from somewhere. And what about your teenagers? Given that you had your own version of Teenage Rebellion in Aberdeen all those years ago, I mean, are you a lenient parent? Do they have to be home at a certain time, wear certain things, do their hair in a certain way? No, I'm not like that.

Annie Lennox28:41

Thank you.

Presenter28:43

I'm not lenient and I'm not strict. I try to draw the f the balance between the two things beca I mean I've always brought my kids up in a way to be their own people. They're not an extension of me.

Presenter28:56

And therefore, I will listen to them and respect what they have to say and give them space.

Presenter29:02

To be themselves. Are they musical? Have they inherited your voice? Yeah, yeah, they're both musical.

Annie Lennox29:05

Do you hear a voice?

Presenter29:07

My elder daughter uh actually wants to

Presenter29:11

She wants to develop as a classical singer, so we'll see. She's only seventeen, she's got plenty of time. Tell me about your next piece of music then.

Presenter29:21

I love the Valdi, I love all this kind of early music, I love Couperin and Purcell and

Presenter29:27

Mozart and Handel and, you know

Presenter29:30

We're going to listen to Winter from the Four Seasons because

Presenter29:34

It's exquisite. Yeah, it's it's quite exquisite.

Presenter30:37

The First Movement of Winter from Vivaldi's Four Seasons played by Michael Schwalbe with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Kerrjan. So you spend your life being a parent and also pursuing your music. You were on tour at the end of last year. How do you find touring now? Because for a long time you wouldn't do it. Yeah, uh well I didn't want to do it when my kids were little because I just couldn't bear to be apart from them.

Annie Lennox30:51

Do you

Annie Lennox30:53

How do you find

Annie Lennox30:55

Yeah.

Presenter31:03

You know, you want so much to be all things to all people, and it's difficult because I feel obliged to give way over 100% every night. It's very important that I give everything I can to the audience and to the situation. And you have to take care of your voice. My voice and the songs that I've written over the years, they're quite challenging technically to sing. So you have to be in very good voice to sing these songs, especially for one and a half hours, you know. And what about? I mentioned in the introduction the humanitarian work that you do. You played a blinder at Live 8. You held those tens of thousands of people in the palm of your hand. You've spoken for Amnesty International, for many, many various different causes.

Speaker 331:39

Some people

Presenter31:48

Why do you bother doing that?

Presenter31:50

Well, first of all, I'm very often invited to do those things, and I think that music is a wonderful platform for the focus of issues that are over and beyond our immediate personal interest. One of my passions is the issue of the HIV AIDS pandemic in South Africa. I've been working on this for several years now.

Presenter32:12

and I've started my own campaign called Sing.

Presenter32:15

And I'm trying to raise awareness about the issue that is very often sidelined. You used this illuminating word about your father's character. You said the righteousness that that he had.

Presenter32:27

I wouldn't imagine that you think you have too much in common with your father, but I'm I'm wondering if that's one of the things you might have in common with your father.

Annie Lennox32:32

One of the things

Annie Lennox32:33

I think

Presenter32:36

Some kind of sense of injustice in the world. We can distribute Coca-Cola all around the world, but we can't seem to get medication to save a child from something as simple as diarrhea. And I think that that is wrong. You know, you have a choice. You either get involved with it with an issue or you walk away from it. I think it is a human rights issue, and I feel very passionately about human rights.

Presenter33:00

Tell me about your final piece of music then. Okay. Well, this is just a classic. I mean, this is just this is perfect. This is Otis Reading, Dock of the Bay. I mean, that's another one of my all time favourite songs. And um, yeah, that's uh, you can't say a great deal more about it, just have to list put it on, quick.

Presenter33:20

And then

Speaker 433:20

The morning sun.

Speaker 433:24

I'll be sitting in the evening calm

Speaker 433:29

Watching the ships rolling

Speaker 433:33

Then I watch him roll away again

Speaker 433:37

Yeah.

Speaker 433:38

I'm sitting on a dock of pain

Speaker 433:42

Watching the tide roll away

Presenter33:47

Otis Reading and The Dock of the Bay. So I'm going to give you the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare, Annie Lennox, and you can take one other book along with you. What will that book be?

Presenter33:57

As well as the Bible? Yes. I've never even got my head round the Bible. That's never my Shakespeare.

Presenter34:05

Um, let me think. Oh, I know. I'm going to take Eckhart Toll's Power of Now just to get me in the mood, just so I don't stress while I'm on the island, like, get me off! Okay, you may have that. And you're allowed a luxury, too. What would your luxury be? Well, it'd have to be sun cream, like really top-of-the-range sun cream with a high SPF factor. Like a fifty. Yeah, really, yeah, a hundred or something like that, because I've got you know easily burning skin. That good Scottish skin. And if you had to save just one of these eight records, which one would it be? It's got to be Aretha Franklin. Yeah, she makes it to the top.

Annie Lennox34:27

Yeah.

Presenter34:41

Annie Lennox, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you, it's been lovely.

Presenter34:52

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.