I
hope that all of you are in an eighties kind of mood this weekend, because
today's Sunday Jukebox entry will feature a song that hit number one on the
charts exactly twenty-nine years ago this week!
So,
doing some quick mathematics here...that means we're going back to the year
with Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana, there was U2 and Blondie,
and music still on MTV! I wasn't in
grade school, but who cares, that's still real cool, because this blog's preoccupied
with 19, 19, 1985!
(NOTE: Stop listening to Bowling for Soup while trying to write this Sunday Jukebox which unfortunately doesn't have anything to do with Bowling for Soup.)
(NOTE: Stop listening to Bowling for Soup while trying to write this Sunday Jukebox which unfortunately doesn't have anything to do with Bowling for Soup.)
Though,
the song that I have to present that hit #1 in June 1985 could be a song that
best describes the general attitude that a lot of people seemed to possess
during that time period.
Mind
you, I wasn't old enough to understand what that was. After all, in June 1985, I had just turned four years old, and my
only concern was having enough blue crayons to finish colouring the sky in my
colouring books.
But
if you were an adult - particularly in the world of business or commerce, then
the 1980s were considered a time period of huge excess. The bigger the house, the better. The bigger the car, the better. The nicer the clothes, the better. It was the decade in which people lived a
life of luxury whether they could afford to or not, and it was the decade in
which we measured people by how much money they made. To me, that part was the one ugly blemish on an otherwise
zit-free decade. By 1987, when the
stock market had a substantial crash, the greed is good mantra that Gordon
Gekko chanted in "Wall Street" began to fade slightly, but on the pop
charts, there were lots of references to the general mood of money being the
most important thing in the world.
I
mean, in the 1980s and early 1990s alone, we had the following songs
released...
Material Girl/MADONNA
I Wanna Be Rich/CALLOWAY
Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)/PET SHOP BOYS
(How To Be A) Millionaire/ABC
Material Girl/MADONNA
I Wanna Be Rich/CALLOWAY
Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)/PET SHOP BOYS
(How To Be A) Millionaire/ABC
Money
Changes Everything/CYNDI LAUPER
Big
Time/PETER GABRIEL
Dirty
Cash (Money Talks)/THE ADVENTURES OF STEVIE V
But,
all those things were all about money.
What about the other coveted thing that people wanted during the
1980s? What about power?
I
mean, certainly the 1980s introduced us to powerful business moguls such as
Donald Trump, and Leona Helmsley. We
also saw the rise and fall of some political figures who lived lives of excess
only to have their empire come crashing down.
(Just Google the words Imelda Marcos and shoes. You'll get the picture.)
(Just Google the words Imelda Marcos and shoes. You'll get the picture.)
And,
twenty-nine years ago this week, a group from Britain summed up the decade
known as the 1980s all too well with this single.
ARTIST: Tears for Fears
SONG: Everybody Wants to Rule the World
SONG: Everybody Wants to Rule the World
ALBUM: Songs from the Big Chair
DATE RELEASED: March 22, 1985
DATE RELEASED: March 22, 1985
PEAK
POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 2
weeks
Ah,
Tears for Fears! A group that I've
never done a spotlight for in the three years I've done this blog! Oh, well.
Better late than never, right?
So,
should I do a discussion on the band first, or the song? Ah, let's start off with the band.
The band was founded by childhood friends Curt Smith and Roland Jaime Orzabal
de la Quintana (though to save some space, let's just call him Roland
Orzabal). The two boys met each other
when they were thirteen, and by the time they were in their late teens, they
had already begun playing as session musicians for the band Neon. It was here that the two men met drummer
Manny Elias, who would become the drummer for the future Tears for Fears from
1981-1986. Also a part of Neon were Rob
Fisher and Pete Byrne, who would form their own New Wave band, Naked Eyes.
It
wasn't until the year 1980 that Orzabal and Smith would start getting
recognition, though it wasn't for their work with Tears for Fears - that group
wouldn't get started until 1981. It was
for their contributions to a group known as "Graduate". It's okay if you haven't heard of them. They were only really big in Switzerland and
Spain. But still, it got their names
out in the British music scene, and set the stage for the duo to break free
from Graduate to start something new.
After all, the year was 1981. New Wave was becoming the biggest thing on the music scene, and artists like Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, and Depeche Mode were already starting to dominate the British charts. It was decided by Orzabal and Smith that they would attempt to do the same.
Now, here's a piece of TRIVIA for you all. Do you know how the band got its name? Well, believe it or not, it was based from terminology found in primal therapy. Primal therapy was developed by American psychologist Arthur Janov, and the treatment received a lot of publicity after it was reported that John Lennon had become a patient of Janov's in the early 1970s. Janov argued that the reason why people had neuroses was because they had repressed pain caused by childhood trauma. I suppose that taking that into consideration, someone looking into their deepest fears could bring someone to tears. So, Tears for Fears.
(Though the band's original name - History of Headaches - would have also sounded cool!)
After all, the year was 1981. New Wave was becoming the biggest thing on the music scene, and artists like Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, and Depeche Mode were already starting to dominate the British charts. It was decided by Orzabal and Smith that they would attempt to do the same.
Now, here's a piece of TRIVIA for you all. Do you know how the band got its name? Well, believe it or not, it was based from terminology found in primal therapy. Primal therapy was developed by American psychologist Arthur Janov, and the treatment received a lot of publicity after it was reported that John Lennon had become a patient of Janov's in the early 1970s. Janov argued that the reason why people had neuroses was because they had repressed pain caused by childhood trauma. I suppose that taking that into consideration, someone looking into their deepest fears could bring someone to tears. So, Tears for Fears.
(Though the band's original name - History of Headaches - would have also sounded cool!)
The
original line-up of the band consisted of Orzabal, Smith, Elias, and Ian
Stanley.
So,
I don't really need to go into all of the success that the band had over the
next thirty-three years and counting.
The band broke out onto the music scene in the early 1980s with their
debut "The Hurting", which was a moderate success, but by 1984 with
their album "Songs from the Big Chair", they became an international
success story. Some of the group's
biggest hits include "Mad World", " Mothers Talk",
"Shout", "Head Over Heels", "Sowing the Seeds of
Love", and "Woman in Chains".
By the time the 1990s came around, the band was in a crisis. Stanley and Elias had departed the band shortly before the band began working on their 1989 album "The Seeds of Love", and after that album was released, several issues caused a strain between the partnership and friendship between Roland and Curt.
For
one, Roland's intricate, but frustrating approach to album production clashed
directly with Curt's more laid-back manner.
Another reason was that Curt was stressed out with the collapse of his
marriage in 1988 and wasn't in the right mood to continue performing. And, I suppose it didn't help matters much
that Tears for Fears manager Paul King was arrested for fraud following his
declaration of bankruptcy in 1990.
Curt
Smith would relocate to the United States in 1993 to start up a solo career
while Roland Orzabal would continue using the Tears for Fears name to record
music of his own (one hit being 1993's "Bring It Down Again", which
was a minor hit in the United States).
It
would take nine years apart before the Roland and Curt reunited with each other
again. In 2000, Orzabal had signed a
business document on Curt's behalf, which lead to a dinner date between the
two, which lead to discussions about recording a new album together.
(That
album, "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending" would be released in 2004.)
As of 2014, Tears for Fears is still touring around the globe and still making
music together, proving that you can go back home again after years apart.
So, now that you know more about Tears for Fears, let's talk about today's selected song, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". And how if it was up to Roland Orzabal, the song may not have even been included in the album at all! According to Orzabal, he didn't even want to record the song as he felt that it was too lightweight to earn a spot on the album which also contained the global smash "Shout" from late 1984. But producer Chris Hughes had convinced Orzebal to give the song a go, if for no other reason than to continue the band's success of breaking into the tough American music market.
So, now that you know more about Tears for Fears, let's talk about today's selected song, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". And how if it was up to Roland Orzabal, the song may not have even been included in the album at all! According to Orzabal, he didn't even want to record the song as he felt that it was too lightweight to earn a spot on the album which also contained the global smash "Shout" from late 1984. But producer Chris Hughes had convinced Orzebal to give the song a go, if for no other reason than to continue the band's success of breaking into the tough American music market.
With
Curt Smith on vocals, the song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
featured a whimsical music video featuring a road trip through Southern
California, a pair of men doing dance moves in front of gasoline pumps, and
shots of the band performing the song on a London soundstage. The video was directed by legendary music
video director Nigel Dick, and instantly became a classic on MTV during the
late 1980s.
As
for the concept of the song? Well, it
ties right into the discussion we had on the excess and wealth that the 1980s
seemed to epitomize. Curt Smith said it
best.
"The
concept is quite serious - It's about everybody wanting power, about warfare
and the misery it causes."
I
guess this is a good time to mention that the song was released at the tail end
of the Cold War, in which people were very concerned about the threat of
nuclear warfare, and how the nations that declared themselves the most powerful
could more often than not be considered the nations that were the most feared. Certainly this was the case back in 1985,
and some people are concerned that the recent happenings in Russia and Crimea
are going to reawaken tensions between nations. Here's hoping that it doesn't come down to that, but as I type
this out, the world continues to watch.
And, just think...that was the moment in which they ruled the music scene. Go figure.
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