desire to be repeated as often as desired

As this weekend has turned out to be an unexpectedly and unpleasantly stressful one, I decided to make use of this b-side Sunday to take a deep breath and relax a little...

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax (Instrumental) (the b-side of 1983's "Relax" 12" single)

...though perhaps not in the manner Frankie suggests.

Depending on what story one chooses to believe, wouldn't the instrumental version of "Relax" actually be a Blockheads, Art of Noise, or Trevor Horn track? (Actually, considering the amount of production spit and polish Horn lavished on the recording, the latter essentially applies regardless of the version in question.)

The single wasn't so much a pop record as a meticulous marketing stratagem calculated to maximize publicity, and therefore sales, through the MacLarenesque technique of epater-ing the bourgeoisie. While the psuedo-decadent sexual window-dressing seems transparently pretentious and absurd in hindsight...


...it did pay off very handsomely for a short while, at least.