I feel Tears for Fears are masters at pushing repetition to the brink of tedium, adding elements at just the precise moment to keep forward momentum.
EWTRTW is short enough not to make it an issue, but Shout is about as long as they could push it.
Still prefer this one though. I'm a sucker for a good piano intro.
https://youtu.be/CsHiG-43Fzg
I got the job!
It's been a long and demoralizing 6 months (5 virtual years), but thanks to TNOCS for providing support and a welcome diversion!
Here's to future days⁹
Regardless of what anyone thinks of this song, Matt Bomer can sing "Heaven" to me any day.
P.S. Job interview went well. Hiring manager intimated that I've got the job pending the reference check. But I've done this long enough to not celebrate until an offer is in hand.
Not to bring anyone down, but job interviews today have nothing to do with rigorous insight or committed focus.
It's just another high school popularity contest and who can charm the hiring manager the most.
I don't play games so this is difficult for me, especially over video.
Ageism is also a factor. I didn't get any interviews until I deleted graduation dates and 10 years of experience.
Fortunately this company is very entrepreneurial and seems to value the unconventional.
My playlist for the plane trip inspired by you guys:
Don't You (Forget About Me)
Walking on Sunshine
Things Can Only Get Better
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Don't You Want Me
Wish me luck guys. Flying down to Florida tomorrow for a job interview. Bank account is starting to wear a bit thin.
I keep getting down to the final two during the process, but they keep going with "candidates that are a better fit."
Barnable’s Most 80-est Number One Songs of the ‘80s.
Not the brightest. Not the best. But the most-iconic examples of 80s sound, culture, and themes. Songs people immediately identify with the 80s and, perhaps, would never have been hits in any other decade.
No post-#1-reveal let-downs here! 1985 continues a strong year with its 2nd straight top-5 entry!
1. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” Simple Minds
2. “Don’t You Want Me” The Human League
3. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” Tears for Fears
4. TBA
5. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” Eurythmics
6. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” Bonnie Tyler
7. “Karma Chameleon” Culture Club
8. “Come on Eileen” Dexys Midnight Runners
9. “Down Under” Men At Work
10. “Time after Time” Cyndi Lauper
11. “Beat It” Michael Jackson
12. “When Doves Cry” Prince
13. “Careless Whisper” George Michael/Wham!
14. “The Reflex” Duran Duran
15. “Maneater” Hall and Oates
16. “Like a Virgin” Madonna
17. TBA
18. TBA
19. TBA
20. TBA
By mid-1985, much of pop music was becoming a tedium. The excitement, originality, and novelty of MTV was wearing off. In January of 1985, VH-1 premiered giving us TWO video-related channels which required filling 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And most of what we got was just that—filling.
Additionally, the novelty and originality of the synthesizer was wearing thin, and most artists were simply using synths as a means to an end—usually an economic, lazy end, as synth drum tracks and horns edged increasingly toward obligatory, synthetic, and cheap.
Enter Tears for Fears and “Songs from the Big Chair.” In an environment of increasingly generic synth-pop, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” exploded on the scene during the summer of 1985 and demanded your attention in what I would contend to be the apex of 80s synth-pop #1’s.
By 1985, Tears for Fears had become masters at combining repetitive synth musical motifs, pushing them right to the edge of tedium, into a surprisingly complex and unforgettable gestalt (see their next appearance in this column for the ultimate example). From what I can tell, almost all the sounds, except the guitar, of EWTRTW are synth-based, including a rather complex stuttered drum track and drum fills (supposedly inspired by TNO’s Mel Gaynor of Simple Minds).
And yet, the synths in EWTRTW are far from synthetic; they are organic and feel entirely realized. In the right hands, synthesizers had evolved from the sterile, cold, yet fantastic starkness of The Human League and Gary Numan, to the rich and propelling and propulsive “wall of sound” of Tears for Fears. Roland Orzabal’s guitar, instead of competing with the synths meld cohesively and organically into this complex tapestry of an arrangement.
And that’s not even mentioning Curt Smith’s soaring, angst-driven vocals and Cold War inspired lyrics. Who can’t resist joining in once Smith hit’s “There’s a room where the light won’t find you, holding hands while the walls come tumbling down.”?
So, as virtual summer 1985 fades into memory, Tears for Fears’ synth-pop masterpiece EWTRTW snags a coveted Top-3 spot on Barnable’s List of 80est Number One Songs of the 80s. Just like last week, we’ll be back . . . in a day or two.
I'll admit I'm rather pleasantly surprised as to the positive response to this song.
I was expecting a good deal of push back. But many of us seem to be on the same wavelength.
So far, Tom gave 10s to all 4 of the songs so far revealed in the top-6.
I'm curious to see if we'll go 6 for 6.
The reference to my "pitch perfect" hint last week.
A mashup from the movie "Pitch Perfect" featuring DY(FAM).
Never seen it, so don't know the significance.
https://youtu.be/vOTtCjGqXYo
Great list, thegue. I'm partial to a piano, so Alive and Kicking tops my list of Simple Minds songs
See the lights is a close second. I love how the song gradually builds to a crescendo.
https://youtu.be/V57anqKxoFs
Barnable’s Most 80-est Number One Songs of the ‘80s.
The heavens part. Angels sing. Trumpets blare. The reveal is FINALLY here, halfway through 1985. Surprise, surprise! “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” is Barnable’s pick for the 80est Number One Song of the 80s.
1. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” Simple Minds
2. “Don’t You Want Me” The Human League
3. TBA
4. TBA
5. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” Eurythmics
6. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” Bonnie Tyler
7. “Karma Chameleon” Culture Club
8. “Come on Eileen” Dexys Midnight Runners
9. “Down Under” Men At Work
10. “Time after Time” Cyndi Lauper
11. “Beat It” Michael Jackson
12. “When Doves Cry” Prince
13. “Careless Whisper” George Michael/Wham!
14. “The Reflex” Duran Duran
15. “Maneater” Hall and Oates
16. “Like a Virgin” Madonna
17. TBA
18. TBA
19. TBA
20. TBA
One of the oddest career detours of mine was teaching high school biology a few years ago. The most emotionally, mentally, and physically challenging job I’ve ever had. But that’s another story. Each day, while the students completed their bell work/review, I would play a song. I wanted to expose the youth of today to many types of music. Some days it was a country song. The next a show tune, the next a jazz standard. For most songs, the students were utterly clueless. They had never heard the song before.
One day, I played “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” After just one drum beat and two chords, the entire class erupted in unison and began singing, “Hey, hey, hey, hey!” I was flabbergasted. Needless to say, no work was completed during this song.
Later that year at the prom, this song played and the dance floor filled immediately. A few couples, but mostly groups of friends hugging and dancing and singing along. Again, I was amazed. My 20-year-old daughter, raised with 80s music in the background, recently informed me that DY(FAM) is, hands down, her favorite 80s song. Really? What was it about this song, one that I thought was a rather esoteric 80s song by an obscure Scottish band, that connected with this generation, nearly 40 years later?? So, I started thinking . . .
One of the most common elements to an 80s song is belonging to a movie soundtrack. And what better way to claim 80-ishness than being the “de facto” theme song to one of, if not, THE most iconic movies of the 80s, The Breakfast Club.
Just like DY(FAM), The Breakfast Club has evolved into an 80s classic, endeared by subsequent generations, perhaps more so than Generation X, who were expecting another “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” What we got, however, was an intimate, almost theatrical character study, one whose message has endured.
And while many soundtrack songs appear tacked-on over the closing credits and arbitrary, DY(FAM) is organically intertwined with the story and themes of TBC. It is played at the beginning in demo form, and fully produced at the end. Five stereotypical high school students from different cliques come together for detention and learn that they actually share far more than they thought.
The key question at the end, what will happen on Monday morning? Will they still be friends? Will they take the risk of being ostracized by their peers by acknowledging each other? Will you call my name? or will you walk on by? The question remains unanswered, despite promises and platitudes. But we all deep down know the true answer, don’t we?
DY(FAM) manages the impossible. It is simultaneously joyful and sad; hopeful and melancholic. It captures the joy and hope of new-found friendship, but also captures the sadness knowing it won’t last. The hope of something better to come, and the melancholy of knowing, perhaps subconsciously, that it just wasn’t meant to be.
And as such, the message of DY(FAM) is timeless. It speaks to every generation. It is a message we have all written in high school yearbooks. Admit it. We had such great times. Don’t forget me. Keep in touch. Every generation, every high school student writes these same words time and again . . . knowing we won’t. Life happens. We will forget. We will lose touch. But, at least for the moment, we can hope.
This message, to me, also appropriately sums up the 80s. We were hopeful at the time that we were changing the world. We were going to make things better. New music. New TV stations. New artists! Oh, look, VJ’s not DJ’s! World premiere videos! Our parents simply could not understand.
It was all so . . . new. But, in the back of our minds, we knew the truth. The world doesn’t want to be changed. Behind all the glam and the glitter, spandex and big hair, synthesizers and drum tracks, we knew the truth. Nothing, really, would change. But for a brief, shining time, the 1980s, there was hope.
Musically, DY(FAM) can also stand on its own, separate from TBC and the movie soundtrack—a perfect balance of synth-pop and traditional instruments. The strength of the track in my mind is Mel Gaynor’s drums. The drum track alone is instantly recognizable by itself, and the EPIC drum fill at 3:43 is simply sublime, sending me into a happy air-drum frenzy every time.
Jim Kerr’s vocals are earnest and evocative, but not hammy or hokey. The upbeat and improvised “hey’s” and “La, la, la’s” provide the perfect foil to the wistful and more somber verses.
So, there is my explanation as to why DY(FAM) has endured throughout the decades, and, as such, represents the perfect ambassador to represent the 80s to the coming generations.
If I were to submit an 80s song for a time capsule, or a mission to space on Voyager-1, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” would be my recommendation, and, therefore, tops Barnable’s List of The 80est Number One Songs of the 80s. My daughter is pleased.
Thoughts? Comments? Surprised? Don’t you try and pretend. TNOCS always has an opinion. But it’s my feeling we’ll win in the end.
Comments