So I just got the Tears for Fears greatest hits CD, and it tells a story. My story. They started out, as some eager readers know, back in the 80s, filled with angst, angular haircuts, and sad, sad stories of loss, broken hearts, and accompanying stark videos on MTV, back when videos were shown on MTV. (When did they ban them again?)
Their name really said it all. We were all young then, and life sucked. Especially in England. I remember seeing the album with their bleak photo on the cover. A friend of my sister's who had an uncanny ability to spot the next big trend in music had "discovered" them and told us that they were going to be really popular. She was really right.
When you listen to the songs on the CD in sequence, you hear their evolution from depressed teenagers to relatively groovy and well-adjusted middle-agers. It's nice to know some bands age well.
Their sound remains more or the same throughout: heavy on the electronica, with soaring vocals and decent harmonies.
The content is what's different. Life used to really suck (Mad World, Pale Shelter, Suffer the Children) , became anthemic and a little pissed off (Shout) then started to improve (Mother's Talk), became briefly blissfully perfect (Sowing the Seeds of Love), and then, well, you just deal with it as it comes (Break it Down Again*).
Hey, they just described my college years and the ensuing staggeringly slow emergence from an arrested adolescence!
How did they know?
Sure, they're still scowling on the cover, even in their most recent picture, but I know that underneath all that angst, there just might be someone, kinda, normal.
And that's kinda nice.
*If you haven't heard this one, give it a listen. It is by far the most cheerful, dare I say, joyful, of all their songs. And has a great huge enormous multi-octave vocal leap for Kurt, or is it Roland? I never remember. But it's impressive.
And the Oscar Goes to. . . .Yawn
2 years ago
Back in college, we used to play this game with out roommate--sort of a theater game: One of us would give the other a topic. Then, the one who provided the topic would choose a song without disclosing the title. The "responder" would then have the length length of the intro. to come up with an improvised song on the topic. Our roommate gave us the topic, "constantly being hit on by men even though you're not gay." The song he chose was "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." We came up with this (remember, this is totally off the cuff):
ReplyDelete"I don't understand
Don't know what to do
It's so very hard
Why can't these guys see
A world of gay men 'round the corner
Keep your hands off [insert Solipsist's real name]
Every gay man wants to sleep with me."
Good times.