B-side "Live Now" Format 7" single, 12" single | Released May 1984 Recorded September 1983 | |
Length 5:05 (Album Version)3:38 (7" Version) | ||
"Rough Justice" is a song written and recorded by English girl group Bananarama. It was the third single released from their self-titled second album in 1984.
Contents
The song is one of several composed by Bananarama at the time which lyrically addressed "serious" topics, in this case societal injustices towards children, poverty, starvation and innocent bystanders who are given "no time to smile before they die". Although the music was upbeat, the heavy lyrical content did not prove to be as successful as their prior single ("Robert De Niro's Waiting..."). It peaked at number 23 in the UK singles chart. In Australia, the song failed to chart and it was not released as a single in the United States.
"Rough Justice" was remixed slightly from its album version when released as a single, most notably in the track's introduction.
Music video
The music video features the girls preparing for an appearance on a show at a TV studio. The video begins with a young boy dressed in a tuxedo entering the girls' dressing room to give them congratulatory flowers only to sneakily take pictures of them and quickly flee as Keren tries to chase him out of the room. As soon as the boy is gone, the girls see a TV news report on poverty situations which is actually being made in the studio next door, and presented by BBC newscaster Peter Woods, who made a cameo in the videoclip. The studio director comes by and leads the girls to the studio where they will be filming their appearance but as he is looking away, the girls head into the other studio. They end up hijacking the news broadcast in order to get their message out to the public.
Track listing
UK: London Records NANA 7 / NL: London Records 820 081-7
- "Rough Justice (single version)" 3:38
- "Live Now" 3:31
+ some copies of the 7" came with free poster
+ some copies of the 7" came with a 3D sleeve NAND 7
London Records NANX 7
- "Rough Justice (12" Version)" 5:13
- "Rough Justice (Album Version)" 5:05
- "Live Now" 3:31
+ some copies of the 12" came with three 3D cards NAND X7