ABC, hailing from Sheffield, experienced a phenomenal 1982. Their debut album, The Lexicon of Love, spawned three top ten hits in the UK – ‘Poison Arrow’, ‘The Look of Love’, and ‘All of My Heart’ – songs that arguably remain their most iconic.
While they never quite replicated that top ten success in the UK again, even their well-regarded 1987 Smokie Robinson tribute, ‘When Smokie Sings’, peaked at number 11, ABC’s discography is rich with overlooked treasures. These hidden gems, often found on studio albums and compilations, are ripe for rediscovery and a fresh appreciation, having perhaps been initially missed.
‘Be Near Me’ stands as a prime example. Despite its catchy melody and poignant lyrics, this single from their third album, How to Be a … Zillionaire!, only reached number 26 in the UK charts upon its release in 1985. Today, the tune and title might only resonate with dedicated ABC enthusiasts.
Lyrically, ‘Be Near Me’ appears deceptively simple, opening with the line “perfectly simple.” Though often perceived as a straightforward love song about closeness and intimacy, a deeper listen reveals a bittersweet, even subtly bitter undertone. Martin Fry, ABC’s lead vocalist and co-writer, delivers the lyrics with a voice brimming with longing, hope, passion, and sincerity. However, the object of his affection, the one he implores to “be near me,” is, realistically, unlikely to remain by his side for long. This inherent transience injects a layer of melancholy beneath the surface of his earnest plea.
The exact nature of the relationship hinted at in the lyrics remains ambiguous, yet the line about the addressee leaving, as “she often does,” paints a picture far removed from idyllic romance.
While the bridge offers a glimmer of hope with “dreams came true last night,” it’s crucial to consider the duality of dreams. Dreams can be wish fulfillments, but also harbor anxieties and nightmares. The singer’s “dreams” in ‘Be Near Me’ seem to carry this double-edged quality, hinting at a fleeting happiness intertwined with the fear of loss. The singer yearns for a connection with someone they struggle to hold onto.
1985 was a turbulent year for Britain. The Miners’ Strike, concluding in March of that year, coinciding with the release of ‘Be Near Me’, had ignited widespread discontent with Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. This was particularly felt in working-class communities in Northern England, including Sheffield, ABC’s hometown.
The Thatcherite ethos of free-market capitalism may have enriched London’s financial elite, but much of the country faced economic hardship. This stark divide between the affluent and the struggling was sharply satirized in ABC’s earlier single ‘(How to Be a) Millionaire’, released before ‘Be Near Me’.
While seemingly a more conventional love song, ‘Be Near Me’ can be interpreted as mirroring the themes of its predecessor, but applied to love and desire. It underscores the pervasive gap between longing and attainment, the space between yearning for connection and actually securing or maintaining it.
Echoing this sentiment, T.S. Eliot wrote of the space that falls “Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the Shadow.” Similarly, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in his poem addressing the loss of his close friend Arthur Henry Hallam, captured this feeling of longing:
Be near me when my light is low,
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick
And tingle; and the heart is sick,
And all the wheels of Being slow.Be near me when the sensuous frame
Is rack’d with pangs that conquer trust;
And Time, a maniac scattering dust,
And Life, a Fury slinging flame.
Tennyson’s plea to Hallam to “be near” him, knowing it was impossible, resonates with the core emotion of ABC’s song. Fry masterfully distills Tennyson’s poignant lines into the simple, repeated phrase “Be near me.” The chorus, largely instrumental, driven by the Fairlight synthesizer’s piano sound, becomes a powerful hook, arguably one of the most effective in 80s pop music. The object of Fry’s desire in ‘Be Near Me’ may still be alive, but the emotional distance and impermanence create a similar sense of longing and unattainable closeness.
Tennyson, in his elegy for Hallam, further wrote about sorrow:
Beneath all fancied hopes and fears
Ay me, the sorrow deepens down.
Whose muffled motions blindly drown
The bases of my life in tears.
Fry, too, rhymes “hopes and fears” with “tears” in ‘Be Near Me’, acknowledging the dual nature of tears – both of joy and sorrow. At its heart, “Be Near Me” encapsulates the joy of finding love and the underlying sorrow of its potential fragility, the fear of losing it. The lyric about the woman’s “reputation” for bestowing “ecstasy” subtly hints at a possible impermanence, suggesting she may have other admirers or fleeting encounters.
Interestingly, ‘Be Near Me’ achieved greater success in the United States than in ABC’s native UK. It climbed to number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and even reached number one on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart in September 1985. This success underscores the song’s universal appeal, proving that a song rhyming “ecstasy” with “next to me” can indeed resonate deeply with audiences.
