TEARS FOR FEARS
Songs From The Big Chair (Deluxe)
Songs From The Big Chair is one of the key albums, commercially and artistically, of the 1980s. It has a little something of all the period's signal music genres: the bright New Pop of ABC and Heaven 17, the mellow club sound of Sade and Simply Red and the widescreen anthemic rock of U2 and Simple Minds. It was this criss-crossing of styles that made Tears For Fears so unique around this time, and goes some way towards describing the trailblazing brand of stadium rock-soul as showcased on Songs From The Big Chair. Tears For Fears were a sort of Hall & Oates for angst-ridden students, a Righteous Brothers for the Filofax generation.
Not that Songs From The Big Chair was the first we'd heard of Tears For Fears. Far from it: they'd already had a big hit album under their belts in The Hurting by the time they came to record their sophomore collection at their own studio in Bath throughout late 1984 and early 1985. But what was so remarkable about this album was that, unlike many of their peers, who struggled to match the success of their debuts, it made their initial burst of glory, impressive enough in itself, seem quite modest by comparison.
In fact, of all the groups to emerge in the early '80s, Tears For Fears were virtually alone in making the transition from UK synthpop sensations to bona ride mid-'80s global megastars. With their initial trio of hit singles "Mad World" (Number 3 in October 1982), "Change" (Number 4 in February 1983) and "Pale Shelter" (Number 5 in April 1983) Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Curt Smith (vocals, bass) established themselves as one of the premier new electronic pop duos of the decade alongside Soft Cell, Yazoo, DAF and OMD.
Then came debut album The Hurting. Peaking at Number 1 in March 1983, this was a consistently satisfying first set that suggested these two 21 year olds were more than just three-hit wonders. Indeed, apart from the aforementioned Top 5 smashes, tracks like "Suffer The Children" (actually the band's first single release from November 1981, reissued on the back of the success of Songs From The Big Chair, charting at Number 52 in August 1985) and "Start Of the Breakdown" were such radio staples during this period they could easily have joined "Mad World", "Pale Shelter" and "Change" in the higher echelons of the charts. The Hurting was tantamount to being Tears For Fears' first Greatest Hits compilation.
Now how could they possibly follow such a hugely successful, era-defining record? With an even bigger-selling one that even more adroitly and poignantly captured the hopes and fears of a generation. That Songs From The Big Chair caught the mood of the moment, both in Europe and America, is something of an understatement. Titled after an Emmy award-winning TV mini-series called Sybil, about a woman suffering from a multiple personality disorder who only feels happy when sitting in her psychiatrist's big chair, and released two years to the month after its predecessor, it remains a statistician's dream.
It reached Number 2 in Britain and spent a massive total of 81 weeks in the Top 75, going on to earn triple-platinum status. In the States, where Tears For Fears spearheaded the second 'British Invasion' of the Billboard Hot 100, it enjoyed a five-week reign at pole position and went five-times platinum. Eventually, the album would enter more than 10 million homes worldwide and spawn four chart entries, three of them monstrous hits that became veritable world anthems.
"Mothers Talk" was actually the first single to be released in the UK from Songs From The Big Chair, reaching Number 14 in August 1984. An enticing glimpse of the panoramic pop to come, with its thrilling drum rolls, Britfunk-style slap bass and orchestral blasts, "Mothers Talk" was a superb collision of the soulful and synthetic, featuring real instruments as well as the latest state of the art hi-tech gadgetry. Meanwhile, the lyric offered a kind of call to arms - "It is time to put your clothes on and to face the world," it demanded - and suggested Tears For Fears had done some serious growing up and growing out, away from the insular concerns of The Hurting towards a more inclusive style of songwriting. So far, so promising.
But it was "Shout", the first of a new type of TFF fanfare for the common people, that marked a quantum leap in terms of the duo's ability to communicate their ideas to a wider public. Here was a piece of music that truly stood out - bold, brash, surgingly intense and immediately emotional. It worked as both a universal expression of emotion - shouting as catharsis or self-expression/assertion of self - and as a direct attack on a specific target: according to Roland Orzabal, it expressed the outrage he felt at the installation of American nuclear missiles in the UK.
On both levels, "Shout" succeeded. No wonder it made such a giant impact on the national consciousness. Reaching Number 4 in December 1984, "Shout", Tears For Fears' seventh single, proposed a new direction for Roland and Curt and signaled a higher ambition. They had earned a reputation as earnest, introspective young ideologues reared on the primal scream theories and therapy of Arthur Janov, tentatively allying their pain and doubt-wracked thoughts to pristine electronic beats. Now it was time to do or die, sink or swim - the classic challenge presented by the second album. Curt and Roland chose to pick up the gauntlet and, with the confidence afforded them by early success, began to look less at themselves and more at the world. It was a shift from dark to light, from dour introspection to a series of assured meditations on the world and our/their position in it.
"Shout" brilliantly marked this transitional moment. Opening unusually, audaciously, with the chorus ("shout, shout, let it all out, these are the things I can do without"), it was like a latterday version of "Give Peace A Chance" or "Power To The People" by John Lennon (that other well-known advocate of primal screaming). Here was nothing less than a rallying cry for the children of the revolution - literally, since it was being bought by the kids of the "boomer"-counterculture late '60s hippie generation. In the States it was lapped up even more greedily than in the UK, reaching Number 1 in August 1985, Tears For Fears' second consecutive chart-topped.
Their first US Number 1 was, confusingly, the follow-up single in Britain: "Everybody Wants To Rule The World". Together, "Shout" and "Rule The World", the third single taken from the LP in the UK (where it got to Number 2 in March 1985), had the double whammy effect of proclaiming from the rafters just what a great album Songs From The Big Chair was going to be and propelling Tears For Fears onto the next level of fame and acclaim. Awesomely infectious and exquisitely melodic, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" was, astonishingly, initially considered by Roland and Curt to be too lightweight for public consumption. Certainly it was unusual in the way it was structured. And yet it was as accessible as pop music gets, with its circular motif and rousing chorus. Although it was kept off the top slot in Britain by USA For Africa's "We Are The World", it topped the US charts for two weeks, aided by a heavy rotation video on MTV, and would subsequently become the group's most played track on American radio, earning two million broadcasts over the next decade. It would also win a coveted Brit award for Best British Single.
Of the other tracks on Song From The Big Chair, "The Working Hour" had a dramatic, rich arrangement that built and built, instruments continually adding to the mix, over which the singer emoted impressively, as though to a stadium. The lyric ("we are paid by those who learn by our mistakes") expressed Roland and Curt's ambivalence towards mainstream pop success and the demands it made on them. It's no secret that the pressures of fame contributed to the breakdown of the pair's relationship. "I Believe" was slower, a haunting, plaintive ballad. And if it echoed Robert Wyatt's rendition of Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding", there was a good reason for that: it was originally written by Roland with the former Soft Machine singer/drummer in mind. The track would, in slightly altered form, reach Number 23 in October 1985 when issued as "I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording)". "Broken" featured quintessential big '80s drums and was almost prog rock-ish in complexity, matching producer du jour Trevor Horn for sheer scope and scale.
"Head Over Heels" was the fourth single to be lifted from Songs From The Big Chair (it reached Number 12 in the UK in June 1985 and Number 3 in the States that October). It featured pizzicato strings, an overwhelming chorus and a "la la la la la" refrain to match Simple Minds' contemporaneous "Don't You Forget About Me". Finally, there was "Listen", virtually an instrumental, with its neo-operatic vocal courtesy one Marylin Davis entering the mix at 1:25. It was yet another testament to Tears For Fears' experimental approach to song structure - clearly, these boys had been paying attention to lOcc, Talking Heads, XTC, Peter Gabriel and the rest of the art-rock fraternity.
Songs From The Big Chair was largely, like The Hurting, produced by ex-member of Adam & the Ants Chris Hughes (he was the Merrick of "Marco, Merrick, Terry-Lee, Gary Tibbs and yours tru-ly", "Ant Rap" fame) and featured arrangements by Ian Stanley. Hughes encouraged Curt and Roland to pursue a more organic feel on the record. As a result, far more than its predecessor - which actually wasn't created entirely in solipsist isolation and had its fair share of collaborators - it featured numerous musicians and backing vocalists.
According to Curt Smith, talking especially for this Deluxe reissue, there wasn't a set date when recording for Songs From The Big Chair began. "As usual," he explained in March 2005 exactly 20 years after the album's initial release, "it started with us demoing songs, but the demoing turned into the recording as we became attached to the original demos." The band started to generate new material around the beginning of 1984. The first song written for Big Chair was "Head Over Heels", which TFF played live during a tour undertaken between the two albums.
The intention was to make a record that was less in thrall to modern technology. Curt: "The Hurting really was influenced by modern technology at that time. Songs From The Big Chair expressed our desire to move on from there." Big Chair saw a blend of the synthetic and organic and represented a sort of retreat from the hi-tech frontline. It also saw the band embracing the world at large. "It was an attempt to be less insular. We were very introverted on The Hurting; it was a very dark album. We found the need to be more outgoing on The Big Chair, and the use of big guitars and the things that we shied away from before allowed us to do that."
Had Tears been listening to U2, Simple Minds, Waterboys and those other exponents of The Big Music? "Some of that, and a lot of American music - I remember Chris Hughes bringing in more American stuff; that's when we started listening to Steely Dan - even, dare I say it, to Bryan Adams, before he took off. And Bruce Springsteen. It was really to broaden our horizons more than anything else." Was this an attempt to reach out to a bigger audience and invite stadium success? "Without question. That certainly was the plan, more of Chris Hughes and the record company than ours. They saw the capability within us to really reach a bigger audience. I don't think we ever were concerned with it. But we liked the idea of doing something different; we definitely embraced that. That conscious effort to bridge the ocean between here and America was really more down to Chris Hughes and Dave Bates [TFF's A&R man]."
What was it about these two West Country bedsit miserabilists that found themselves so readily embraced by Middle America? "Who can tell? We had no clue it was going to happen. We were on tour in Canada making a video the day 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' got to Number 1 in America - and this was before we'd set foot there to promote the record! It was a bit of a strange experience. I'll give Chris Hughes his due: he was a big supporter of 'Rule The World' and we weren't that sure of it, and in America that was the first single they really went for. And it broke the market for us."
Were the songs on The Big Chair specially designed with big audiences in mind? "Shout' is the obvious stadium thing. We consciously started with the chorus. It was kind of a singalong; a protest song - like 'Give Peace A Chance', or 'Hey Jude', even. It had a really in your face chorus. But we never imagined it would take off like that. We're from Bath. We're not part of any scene. We've never been fashionable, We're quite insulated when we make records. What happens afterwards is really out of our hands. It's not something you can really plan for. We certainly can't. I don't think we're that clever."
Songs From The Big Chair still had its share of tentative, inward-looking material. It wasn't all anthems. "There's some inward-looking stuff. 'Head Over Heels', which was a big hit in America, is a big love song. But 'The Working Hour' and 'I Believe' are definitely more insular. 'Listen' is just a wonderful piece of music, with a tiny bit of vocal but not much. 'Shout' allowed us to do tracks like 'Listen' and 'I Believe' that were definitely more insular and would never obviously be singles. 'Broken' came out of 'Head Over Heels': it was something we were doing live. Musically it was more complex and stronger than things we'd done before because it came from being part of a band and working it out as a band. It was definitely more experimental, angular and angry."
Were you angry at this point? "Well, there were things we were angry about. 'The Working Hour' was talking about the amount of work we had to do after we were successful: 'this is the working hour, we are paid by those who learn by our mistakes.' We realised we'd become a business, and that was certainly a complaint that we had. We'd been pulled in all directions and that's hard in your early twenties to deal with." Had it stopped being so much fun? "Recording the album was fine. It stopped becoming fun when Songs From The Big Chair took off worldwide and we had no time to really enjoy the success because we were working like you wouldn't believe: interviews in America all day long, and then a soundcheck, more interviews, then you play live, then you try and sleep for a bit. It was ridiculous; unbelievably hard." Plus they had to indulge the pop press... "It was weird - we always considered ourselves musicians first and foremost, so the kind of lightweight, lighthearted look at us, we never really appreciated. 'What's your favourite colour?' What's that got to do with our music?! We definitely found all that side of things really strange. Doing videos and promotions and talking to people and TV shows - it interferes with making music. It's a pain in the neck."
If the pair discovered that success had its drawbacks, the actual sessions that produced the album were relatively carefree. "They weren't bad. There wasn't any real pain involved in doing Songs From The Big Chair. I certainly think not being as precious and breaking out allowed us to relax a little. I don't remember it as particularly a painful experience."
Presumably you had by this point exorcised the demons that led you to form Tears in the first place? "The Hurting was the Janov album - everything on that album was influenced by primal theory. I think songs like 'Shout' were, but they were far more general. A typical early 20s, 'I'm pissed about something and I don't know what it is; I just want to be heard' feeling. It was cathartic, us getting things out of our system. The title of the album was from a film called Sybil, so there's a psychotherapy aspect there - a woman with multiple personalities, one of which was a child who wanted to sit with the therapist in her big chair. So the title alone lets you know it's some kind of therapy for us." Were TFF schizoid in a way, with their multiple personalities: pop pinups, serious musos, widescreen MTV rockers...? "Absolutely! I think after The Hurting we definitely had to get our heads around the fact we were now multi-dimensional. There were demands on us, and people putting their two-cents-worth in every day of the week because they had a vested interest. But the only people who've ever really understood us are myself and Roland."
Roland would receive a prestigious Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Songwriter of the Year in the wake of the success of Songs From The Big Chair. It is widely regarded as Tears For Fears masterpiece. But which of their albums would Curt place in the pantheon? "It's hard to say - a combination of all of them. There are parts of Songs From The Big Chair that I don't like. I'm still not a big fan of 'Rule The World' - I wasn't sure it was completely representative of us. I'm not a big fan of 'Mothers Talk'. To me the best thing on there is 'Listen' - because it's musically the most interesting. 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love' is the closest we've ever come to perfection in our entire career; and 'Woman In Chains' is amazing. But in comparison to those the songwriting is a little substandard."
Were you staggered by the success of the singles and album? "Yes. I mean, no one thought we'd be selling that many records. I had no clue how many it would sell. We're the kind of people who try and make the best album we can at the time; the rest either happens or doesn't. There are times you think you've got a sure-fire hit and it's not, and others when - for example with 'Mad World' or 'Rule The World'; anything with 'world' in the title, basically! - we had no clue they'd be hits. We thought they were cool and maybe get us some credibility, but never thought they'd be hit singles." Did MTV play a part in catapulting the LP into the stratosphere? "In America to a certain degree, I guess. Having said that, looking back at the videos - god, they were awful! The way we looked. They weren't particularly clever. The 'Head Over Heels' one was, as far as videos go, the most interesting one, but it's full of frigging '80s cliches. If Roland and I had had our way, as far as art work and videos go, we wouldn't have been in any of it."
As documents of periods in your life go, how does Songs From The Big Chair make Curt feel today? Does he recognise the character singing the songs? "I recognise him a bit – I just think we're a lot better at what we do now. So it's like looking back at schoolwork you did. But basically when I've finished a record I don't listen to it again. I haven't played Big Chair in the last 15 years." Did you ever imagine that having a 10 million-selling album would cause you so much grief? "No. When you're young that's everything you dream of. Just be careful what you dream of... I remember having my shirt ripped off my back, people camping outside my hotel room - I don't know how they got in. That kind of thing I found very peculiar. You look at these kids and wonder - you don't know me! How can you feel this way, where does this emotion come from?"
On a happier note, what's been the greatest accolade anyone has paid you? "Other musicians telling you you've done something worth doing. We got a postcard, which I never kept - fucking idiot! - from Paul and Linda [McCartney] saying, 'Great record, congratulations!' When it comes from people like that you think, Wow! After we'd done Big Chair Elton John was like, 'What a record!' Even people you don't expect like D'Angelo - a lot of American R&B artists are huge Tears fans. Most R&B artists I meet, in fact. Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, when I was in Canada, literally got on his knees in front of me - apparently he's the hugest fan. That's far, far more important than any discs or trophies - I give them away."
Paul Lester
Deputy Editor
Uncut
__________________________________________________
DISC ONE
THE ORIGINAL ALBUM
PLUS THE B-SIDES
01. SHOUT
Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Sandy McLelland - Backing vocals
Chris Hughes - Drums
02. THE WORKING HOUR
Emmanuel Elias, Eliane Elias, Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Manny Elias - Drums, Drum Arrangement
Jerry Marotta - Drums, Saxophone Arrangement
William Gregory - Saxophone Solos
Mel Collins - Saxophone
Andy Davis - Grand Piano
03. EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD
Christopher Hughes, Ian Stanley, Roland Orzabal
Amusements Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Neil Taylor - 2nd Guitar Solo
04. MOTHERS TALK
Roland Orzabal, lan Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
Stevie Lange - Backing Vocals
05. BELIEVE
Roland Orzabal
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Dedicated to Robert Wyatt (If he's Listening)
William Gregory - Saxophone
Roland Orzabal - Grand Piano
06. BROKEN
Roland Orzabal
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Neil Taylor - Guitar Solo
07. HEAD OVER HEELS/BROKEN
Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith
EMI Virgin Music Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Andy Davis - Grand Piano
Sandy McLelland - Backing Vocals
Annie McCaig - Backing Vocals
Marilyn Davis'- Backing Vocals
08. LISTEN
Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, Paul Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
Marilyn Davis - Operatic Vocal
Roland Orzabal -Vocal Stylings
Arranged by Ian Stanley
09. THE WORKING HOUR - PIANO VERSION
Emmanuel Elias, Eliane Elias, Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
10. THE MARAUDERS
Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1983 Mercury Records Limited
Produced by: Tears For Fears & Ian Stanley
11. EMPIRE BUILDING
Roland Orzabal. Curt Smith. Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
12. THE BIG CHAIR
Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
13. PHARAOHS - SINGLE VERSION
Christopher Hughes. Christopher Merrick Hughes,
Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, Ian Stanley
Amusements Ltd., Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
14. WHEN IN LOVEWITH A BLIND MAN
Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Produced by: R.Orzabal/C.Hughes/I.Stanley
15. SEA SONG
Robert Wyatt
Virgin Music Publishing Ltd
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Was not produced. Was recorded by Nicola Holland, Ian Stanley, Roland Orzabal & David Bascombe
16. BROKEN REVISITED
Roland Orzabal
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1983 Mercury Records Limited
Produced by: Tears For Fears & Ian Stanley
__________________________________________________
DISC TWO
RARITIES 1983 – 1985
01. THE WAY YOU ARE
Manny Elias, Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal, Ltd.
(P) 1983 Mercury Records Limited
02. MOTHERS TALK – SHORT VERSION
Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal, Ltd.
Was not produced
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
03. SHOUT - EDIT
Christopher Merrick Hughes, Roland Orzabal, IanStanley
10 Music Ltd.,Virgin Music Publishing Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
04. EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD - 7" VERSION
Christopher Merrick Hughes, Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
10 Music Ltd.,Amusements Ltd.,Virgin Music Publishing Ltd.
(P) 1990 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
05. HEAD OVER HEELS – DAVE BASCOMBE 7" N. MIX
Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith
EMI Virgin Music Ltd
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
06. I BELIEVE – A SOULFUL RE-RECORDING
Roland Orzabal
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
Produced by: Tears For Fears
07. MOTHERS TALK - U.S. MIX
Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
08. SHOUT – U.S. REMIX
Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
09. SHOUT - US DUB VERSION
Roland Orzabal, Stanley
Virgin Music Ltd., 10 Music Ltd.
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
10. EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD - URBAN MIX
Christopher Merrick Hughes, Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
10 Music Ltd.,Virgin Music Publishing Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
11. MOTHERS TALK - BEAT OF THE DRUM MIX
Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley
10 Music Ltd.,Virgin Music Publishing Ltd.
(P) 1984 Mercury Records Limited
Produced by Chris Hughes
12. BROKEN / HEAD OVER HEELS / BROKEN - PREACHER MIX
Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith
EMI Virgin Music Ltd.
Broken
Roland Orzabal
Roland Orzabal Ltd.
(P) 1985 Mercury Records Limited
__________________________________________________
Original Album Credits: TEARS FOR FEARS:
Curt Smith – Bass Guitar, Vocals
Roland Orzabal – Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Ian Stanley – Keyboards
Manny Elms – Drums.
Produced by Chris Hughes.
Engineered by David Bascombe.
Cover Photography by Tim O'Sullivan.
THANKS Eric Stanley, Neil Taylor, Dave Bascombe, Holly Hartley, Mary McGuffie, All at Outlaw.
Deluxe Edition compiled by Patrick Bingley and Bill Levenson.
Project co-ordination for Universal by Joe Black.
Digitally Remastered from the original master tapes by Gary Moore at Universal Mastering, London.
Tape Research by Zoe Roberts at the Universal Tape Facility
Universal would like to thank: Patrick Bingley, Sue Black. Andy Griffin, Steve Hammonds, Paul Lester, Paul Reidy, Neil Simpson and Mike Storey.
Design by Green-Ink, London.
Photography by Tim O'Sullivan, Brian Aris, Laurie Lewis.
All efforts have been made to contact copyright holders: Please contact Universal Music Catalogue if you have any information about missing credits.
