I am mesmerized by this song.  I have listened many time to the Eurythmics Ultimate Collection CD.  Love is a Stranger “knocks me out” every time that I hear Annie Lennox deliver the lyric with such a cold clear voice, like a rifle shot of a sniper, – “one shot, one kill.”

I am reminded of the Greek god of love, Eros.

Eros is represented as the son of Aphrodite, whose mischievous interventions in the affairs of gods and mortals cause bonds of love to form, often illicitly. Ultimately, in the later satirical poets, he is represented as a blindfolded child, the precursor to the chubby Renaissance Cupid, whereas in early Greek poetry and art, Eros was depicted as a young adult male who embodies sexual power, and a profound artist.  — wikipedia

Chubby Cupid? Hardly!  Has there ever been such a thing as “free love,” that is love without attendant danger, great hazard? Certainly not in our time.  Love is an illusion, a “game” played with desire.  A high risk of psychological wound of unmet expectations, a failed ideal.  Love is risky business, an understatement.

Annie Lennox says it better.

Love Is A Stranger

By Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics

Love is a stranger
In an open car
To tempt you in
And drive you far away

And I want you
And I want you
And I want you so
It’s an obsession

Love is a danger
Of a different kind
To take you away
And leave you far behind
And love love love
Is a dangerous drug
You have to receive it
And you still can’t
Get enough of the stuff

It’s savage and it’s cruel
And it shines like destruction
Comes in like the flood
And it seems like religion
It’s noble and it’s brutal
It distorts and deranges
And it wrenches you up
And you’re left like a zombie

And I want you
And I want you
And I want you so
It’s an obsession

It’s guilt edged
Glamorous and sleek by design
You know it’s jealous by nature
False and unkind
It’s hard and restrained
And it’s totally cool
It touches and it teases
As you stumble in the debris

And I want you
And I want you
And I want you so
It’s an obsession

Annie Lennox, David Allan Stewart

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The Backstory to the video:

The single was accompanied by a music video which saw Annie Lennox in a number of different character guises which she later became known for in subsequent videos. At one stage of the video Annie removes a curly blonde wig to reveal close-cropped orange hair underneath, which gave her an androgynous look. Said Lennox: “The video is basically a little cameo story. I would say ‘Love Is A Stranger’ is a song about love objects. The concept of love in relationships is very often a person projecting what they want onto another person. We are all in love with the idea of love but what we want is not always good for us. We might get obsessed with something very dangerous. I wanted to put these ideas into a pop song. In the video, a very expensive looking limousine draws up outside a house and very pricey-looking whore leaves the house, gets into the car and is driven away by the chauffeur. Obviously a whore is a very expensive love object for sale. In the car she pulls off the wig to reveal another personality. She arrives at another house as though she’s delivering something, like a dealer. The person in the house is very sadistic, there’s lots of leather around and strange things in the bathroom. When the person leaves that house and gets into the car, the person has become a man. The man turns into a dummy which you see is being manipulated by the driver of the car. That’s the idea behind it.”

(All quotes From the Mick Sinclair Archive, originally an article in Sounds.)