When Tears For Fears ruled the world of pop
While offering no shuddering revelations, this BBC doco offers a fascinating insight into the creation of an iconic album, writes James Croot.
I
t was New Zealand’s eighth biggest album of 1985. Beaten only by the
likes of Madonna’s Like a Virgin, Bruce Springsteen’s
Born in the USA, Talking
Heads’ Stop Making Sense and
Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms, it was the only one that spawned two hits that ended up in the year’s Top 10 singles.
Yes, as the new documentary Tears for Fears: Songs From the Big
Chair (which debuts on Prime at 8.30pm on Thursday) documents, the British band’s second studio album led to them briefly ‘‘ruling the world’’ of pop.
While offering no shuddering revelations, this BBC doco, made to celebrate the 35th anniversary of its release, offers a fascinating insight into the creation of an iconic album and the music scene at the time.
Joined by their producers and other collaborators, central duo Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith are more than happy to shed light on the highs, lows and key decisions that surrounded the creation of the eight-track Songs From
the Big Chair.
You’ll learn that it was nearly called The Working
Hour (a track inspired by the partly New Zealand-shot, David Bowie-starring movie Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence), how the lesserknown Mother’s Talk was an attempt at making a Talking Heads-style tune and the importance of its success to a band whose debut album The
Hurting had been a selfconfessed ‘‘tortuous journey’’ (‘‘By take 36 of Pale Shelter ,I was crying in the studio toilet,’’ confesses Smith).
That album also featured the band’s first United Kingdom hit, Mad World, albeit a very different version to the one covered by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack to the 2001 cult movie Donnie Darko.
Looking at the wider picture, Orzabal details the pair’s first meeting in their early teens, bonding over a shared love of Blue Oyster Cult. There are discussions of the parental neglect they both suffered (Smith’s retail and hospitality working parents were never at home, while Orzabal’s mum taught strippers and his father struggled to find work). It also covers the unlikely genesis of the band’s name.
But, of course, it’s the creation and evolution of the album’s three big hits: Head Over Heels, Everybody Wants to
Rule the World and Shout that naturally dominate this sober, but never dull story.
Heels was Orzabal’s homage to Talking Heads’ Take Me To
the River. Until it was turned into a proper song, Shout was envisioned by Orzabal to be their answer to the Plastic Ono Band’s All We Are Saying is Give Peace a Chance, its anthemic status assisted by producers ‘‘throwing the kitchen sink at it’’, including hitting keyboard stands with screwdrivers to create a particular background sound.
As for Rule the World? Originally called Everybody Wants to go to War, it started out as two chords Orzabal didn’t really want to turn into a song and eventually pitched as an album filler, rather than the crowdpleasing anthem it became.