Timeless Gossip From the World of Music*

It would have been funny had it not been so witheringly embarrassing for the divine Annie Lennox.  On the final night of Eurythmics' triumphant Peacetour in 1999, Annie caught herself singing her song "I Need a Man" shortly after an audience-rousing rendition of "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves."  Though hardly the best Eurythmics song (by a long shot) and certainly not the greatest feminist manifesto ever penned, "Sisters" brought the house down in an explosion of equal-rights enthusiasm that beggared belief.  Imagine Annie's mortification when she later heard herself repeating the words "I need a man" in front of the fully-packed stadium.  It was as if she were lighting her voter registration card instead of her bra.  A mumbled negation at the very end of the song, stating that in fact she did not need a man after all, seemed too little, too late.  Luckily, this listener knows that a singer can play the role of actor, not necessarily agreeing with the words she communicates.  If one demands a political message in every lyric, there's always Bono.

*When a musical performance is recorded, it transcends the fleeting moment and becomes timeless—as fresh and exciting the next hour as it is the next day, month, year, decade, and so on.  Music gossip transcends time in the same way.