song of the day – “Shout” | TEARS FOR FEARS | 1985.

This post is dedicated to my discontent with Ticketmaster, the memories of how easy and fun it used to be to get tickets to shows, and my love for Tears For Fears and this song.  #TearsForFears #HallAndOates #TDGarden #TicketmasterFAIL

Earlier this week, presale tickets went on sale for the highly anticipated Daryl Hall & John Oates / Tears For Fears show at Boston’s famed TD Garden for June 2017.  First, presale tickets went on sale for folks who have some sort of special membership or an American Express card.  Then there’s the general presale the day before the general public can get tickets, so if you have special presale codes from folks like Pandora or Ticketmaster themselves, you have a (small) chance to get good seats before the everyone else does.

I remember years ago, living in Portland, Maine – even just a few years before the Interweb became popular – when you could wait in line hours before the box office opens to be guaranteed a good seat at a show.  There wasn’t all of this presale bullshit or special VIP package nonsense costing one’s paycheck.  You could buy a ticket for $20 or $30 and have a great time.  For the “big” shows, most of the general admission seats are gone.  It’s all reserved seating, which in most cases, is a good thing (I left tenth-row RESERVED seats of a 2004 David Byrne show at Portland’s State Theatre because people started going crazy when he began singing Talking Heads songs, and everyone migrated to the front.  Did you really think I really wanted to leave a David Byrne show early?!  Of course not!  He was amazing to watch.  Well, after some asshat spilled beer on me, I was done.  Reserved seats are reserved for a reason, asshole.

Thank God for acts like The English Beat, who still have accessible prices for their shows, and their shows are always fun and memorable.  Club shows like that remind me of the concerts from the old days.  Mostly general admission, a great time and you’ll even have enough $$ to get a T-shirt or some swag.

I recently reconnected with my old friend Travis after way too long, and he was going to pay for our tickets to see Daryl Hall & John Oates and Tears For Fears.  When the general presale tix went on sale yesterday (3.9.2017), I was ready.  But I couldn’t get tix at the level we wanted.  The special presales before mysteriously snatched all those seats up?!  Not likely. 

Unlike getting tickets to see Cyndi Lauper in Bangor, Maine in July 2017, where I could pick my own seats, the only option I had was “Best Available” for each category.  And the seats offered were terrible.  Nothing close.  And this was the presale!  When my friend Shawn in NYC and I saw Duran Duran and Chic in Brooklyn in April 2016, I was able to get 16th row seats NON-PRESALE!  Granted, I spent a little more $$ for that, but it’s New York, at least twice the size of Boston! 

Fiction can be fun!

When HopeyT and I saw Peter Gabriel and Sting in Worcester, MA in July 2016, I bought those tickets – the most $$ I’ve ever spent on a show – five months in advance!  And they were THE WORST seats I’ve ever had for a show.  I complained to Ticketmaster and the DCU Center in Worcester, but to no avail.  Ticketmaster seemed to care at first (like today), but nothing ever came out of it, not that I expected it to.  WTF is it with Ticketmaster and Massachusetts shows?!

When the presale option for Hall & Oates / Tears For Fears show in Boston didn’t pan out, I was ready at noon today (3.10.2017) for the general public tix.  The option we wanted wasn’t an option, and I ordered tickets for us for a section we didn’t want, but didn’t want to miss out on the show either.  Had all of the information entered in on Ticketmaster’s website, hit “enter” to reserve the seats, and all that popped up was the next screen was not a confirmation of seats, but of gibberish, which looked somewhat like an error message.  The credit card and transaction did not go through.  When I went back to get similar seats, they were gone.  When I kept trying, the Ticketmaster site stopped working altogether.  I later learned that site was down.  When the site was up and running again, all they had left were balcony seats.  We were more than willing to pay extra for good seats, and they were gone. 

Sometimes I wish I could relay to Ticketmaster and the powers that be who organized these shows that I’m not just a huge fan of Daryl Hall & John Oates and Tears For Fears, that I’m also someone who hosted a little 80s radio show in Portland, Maine for almost 21 years, and 80s music is not only my passion, it’s a way of life for me, and it keeps me young.  The music of Hall & Oates AND Tears For Fears proudly made ALOT of appearances on STUCK IN THE 80s over the years, and will again once the show is back.  I was so looking forward to seeing this concert.  But, I’m not going to get balcony seats when I had reserved better ones just because Ticketmaster wants me to conform to their douchebaggery, elitist ways. 

I’m not a rich man.  I don’t get to see shows all the time.  It’s been great for the last several years, where I have been able to see some folks perform that I didn’t get to for whatever reason back in the 80s.  And I don’t think people should have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars just to see two of their favorite 80s acts from the third row.  It’s not right.

If you’re still reading, thanks very much for letting me vent.  And now on to a much better subject…

Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith formed Tears For Fears in Bath, England in 1981, and released a brilliant debut album in 1983 called THE HURTING.  But, it wasn’t until two years later when they were picked up on my music radar, with “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” from their also-brilliant second album, SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR.

“Everybody Wants To Rule The World” was enjoying its second and final week at No. 1 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in mid-June 1985 when the second single from SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR, “Shout,” debuted on the chart at No. 66. 

In other parts of the globe, “Mothers Talk” was the first single released from the album (in August 1984; a U.S. remix was released in April 1986).  “Shout” was originally released in the U.K. around Thanksgiving 1984, well in advance of its U.S. release.  It was one of the biggest singles of the year, spending the first three weeks of August 1985 at No. 1 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100.  It also spent two weeks at No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s Dance chart, reached No. 6 on BILLBOARD’s Rock chart, and even peaked at No. 56 on BILLBOARD’s R&B chart.

“Shout,” with its strong lead vocals by Roland Orzabal, impressive guitar solo and keyboards, and that infectious pounding drum of producer Chris Hughes, was not only one of the biggest singles in America in 1985, it was one of THE biggest global hits of the year, and of the decade.  “Shout” reached No. 1 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand and Switzerland, No. 2 in Italy and South Africa, No. 4 in the U.K., No. 5 in Ireland and Norway, No. 6 in Austria, and high singles chart rankings in France and Sweden too.  It was a massive hit just about everywhere on the planet.

Roland Orzabal once said of “Shout” years after its release: “A lot of people think that ‘Shout’ is just another song about primal scream theory, continuing the themes of the first album.  It is actually more concerned with political protest.  It came out in 1984 when a lot of people were still worried about the aftermath of The Cold War and it was basically an encouragement to protest.”

Curt Smith added to that sentiment: “It concerns protest inasmuch as it encourages people not to do things without actually questioning them.  People act without thinking because that’s just the way things go in society.  So it’s a general song, about the way the public accepts any old grief which is thrown at them.”

As I lament (and protest, I suppose) tonight about the more-than-disappointing assjackery shenanigans of Ticketmaster, I couldn’t think of a better song to choose to highlight today than this kick-ass gem that will make me shout forever…

“Shout, Shout, Let it all out / These are the things I can do without / Come on, I’m talking to you, Come on…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfdUWOsWJss

song of the day – “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” | TEARS FOR FEARS | 1985.

The other night, I was at a get-together in South Portland, Maine, at the home of my friend Melissa, and there was a conversation going about The British (music) Invasion.  I chimed in and said, “Which one?”  They were talking about the one in the mid-1960s, while I was referring to the one in the mid-1980s.  When questioned about the 80s British Invasion, I then tried to remember all the big British hits in the U.S. during 1985, and had a huge gaping brain cramp.  So, I’ll properly answer that question here.

I’ve prolly said on the bloggy thing here that the New Wave era here in America started and ended with The Human League.  Their big 1982 hit, “Don’t You Want Me” spent three weeks at No. 1 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in July 1982, and for the next four years, New Wave artists were prominent on the Hot 100 singles chart.  In November 1986, their hit, “Human,” reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, and was replaced the following week by “You Give Love A Bad Name” by Bon Jovi.  I’ve also prolly said here (half-jokingly) that Bon Jovi killed New Wave.

Another interesting thing about The Human League’s two bookend reigns at No. 1 on the Hot 100 – not only did New Wave come into play (pun intended) during this time – with the tremendous help of MTV – it was also the time of the Second British (music) Invasion. 

On the BILLBOARD Hot 100 dated July 16th, 1983, British music acts shattered the record established in 1965, where 14 songs by British recording artists were in the American Top 40 at the same time.  On this July 1983 chart, HALF of the Top 40 were songs by British artists, and of those 20, seven of the Top 10 singles that week were by Brits: “Time (Clock Of The Heart)” – Culture Club (No. 10), “Is There Something I Should Know” – Duran Duran (once called The Fab Five; No. 9), “Our House” – Madness (No. 8), “Too Shy” – Kajagoogoo (No. 7), “Come Dancing” (The Kinks, who were part of the original British Invasion; No. 6), “Electric Avenue” – Eddy Grant (a Londoner from Guyana, which was known as British Guiana at the time of his birth in 1948; No. 2), and “Every Breath You Take” – The Police (for the second of eight weeks at No. 1).

In April 1984, 40 of the singles on the Hot 100 were by British acts, and on the Hot 100 chart dated May 25, 1985 (the year of the height of the Second British Invasion), a record EIGHT of the Top 10 singles that week were by Brits: “Things Can Only Get Better” – Howard Jones (No. 10), “Some Like It Hot” – The Power Station (No. 9), “Suddenly” – Billy Ocean (of British origin; No. 8), “One Night In Bangkok” – Murray Head (No. 7), “Smooth Operator” – Sade (No. 5), “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” – Tears For Fears (No. 3), “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” – Simple Minds (No. 2), and “Everything She Wants” – Wham! (No. 1).

For three months between May 18, 1985 and August 17, 1985, and starting with “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” songs by acts from Britain would rule the U.S. music world for all but two weeks – the aforementioned “Everything She Wants” and “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” plus “Sussudio” by Phil Collins, “A View To A Kill” by Duran Duran, Paul Young’s cover of the Daryl Hall song, “Everytime You Go Away,” and “Shout” by Tears For Fears.

When Bon Jovi claimed their first No. 1 song on the Hot 100 in late November 1986, and in the process signaling the end of the reign of New Wave and the Second British Invasion, the No. 1 songs for the better part of the rest of the 80s were dominated by Glam Metal and Dance acts, though in 1988, many songs by Brits did manage to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100.

One of the British acts who had a banner year in 1985 – in the U.S. and all over the globe – was Bath, England’s Tears For Fears.  Led by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, Tears For Fears had been around since 1981, but despite a brilliant debut album (THE HURTING), they hadn’t been able to break through to the U.S. market until the success of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” their third single from their second album, SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR.

“Everybody Wants To Rule The World” (with vocals by Curt Smith) was the first single released here in the U.S., and for awhile in the Spring and Summer of 1985, Tears For Fears did rule the world with their incredible hit.  It spent a couple of weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in June 1985, as well as reaching No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s Dance chart for two weeks.  The love for this song was felt through many different genres, and it reached No. 2 on BILLBOARD’s Rock and Adult Contemporary charts – no easy feat.  Here in America, it rightfully ranked at No. 7 for all of 1985.

Around the globe, it reached No. 1 in Canada and New Zealand, and the Top 10 in the U.K., Australia, Belgium, Holland and Ireland.  A year later, Roland and Curt returned to the Top 10 of the U.K. and Ireland charts with a rework of their big hit, titled “Everybody Wants To RUN The World,” in support of Sport Aid, which was a sports-themed offshoot campaign of Live Aid, to aid in the effort to help the famine problem in Africa.  The highlight of this campaign was the Race Against Time, a 10K fun run simultaneously held in 89 countries.  $37 million was raised for Live Aid and UNICEF.

For many years, Roland Orzabal kept performing under the Tears For Fears name while Curt Smith had left the band, but they have been together again since 2000, released an album in 2004 (EVERYBODY LOVES A HAPPY ENDING) and are currently on the last dates of their rescheduled U.S. and Canada tour. 

Though overall Tears For Fears may not be the household name they were in 1985, it’s great to see them still together and so wonderful to hear their songs like “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” on the radio.  It’s one of those songs I have always loved from the start and a song I always love driving to.  One of the lyrics of the song goes, “Nothing ever lasts forever.”  Clearly, Roland and Curt aren’t referring to their own song, as this song will live on in radio eternity, and as I’ll love this song forever…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST86JM1RPl0

song of the day – “Mad World” | TEARS FOR FEARS | 1982.

Being an almost-exclusive listener of Top 40 music in the first part of the 80s, I missed out on some really great albums.  Though I would find out about these albums eventually (of which I’m eternally grateful), sometimes I wish I could take the ol’ DeLorean and go back to discover them at the time of their actual release dates.  One of those albums is Tears For Fears’ debut album, THE HURTING.

1983’s THE HURTING was discovered long after I had been loving Tears For Fears’ second and third albums, 1985’s SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR and 1989’s THE SEEDS OF LOVE, respectively.  And, I instantly loved the songs from THE HURTING, like “Change,” “Pale Shelter” and the brilliant “Mad World.”

Released as a single in September 1982, sung by Curt Smith and written by Roland Orzabal, “Mad World” is this hauntingly stunning song, inspired by the theories of Arthur Janov, a Los Angeles psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author of the 1970 book, THE PRIMAL SCREAM.  In the 2005 book, 1001 SONGS, author Toby Creswell examines the “Mad World” song lyric, “the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had.”  He “suggests that dreams of intense experiences such as death will be the best at releasing tension.”

Tears For Fears and their record company had no idea how mad the world would be for their third single, but mad they were.  The song was their first big U.K. hit, reaching No. 3, becoming a Silver-selling single (250,000 units) and ranking at No. 12 for all of 1982.  It gave the Bath, England band their first of 17 U.K. Top 40 hits between 1982 and 2005.  Elsewhere, it reached No. 2 in South Africa, No. 6 in Ireland, No. 10 in Switzerland, No. 12 in Australia, No. 21 in Germany and No. 25 in New Zealand.

Nearly 20 years after the original release of “Mad World,” the song resurfaced in the 2001 film, DONNIE DARKO, a supernatural psychological thriller starring siblings Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wylie and Drew Barrymore.

The version of “Mad World” used for the film was a cover version by San Diego multi-instrumentalist and film score composer Michael Andrews, with vocals by Fresno, CA native Gary Jules.  It was a stripped-down version of the song, and became a classic in its own right, though not instantly. 

For some places throughout the globe, the cover of “Mad World” took several years for it to become a hit, but for most places, it was a hit in 2003, reaching No. 1 in the U.K. in time to be the coveted “Christmas No. 1,” and it stayed on top for 3 weeks.  It also reached No. 1 in Portugal, the Canadian Digital Songs chart, and the Top 10 in at least 6 other countries.  In my 2006 STUCK IN THE 80s list of the 80 BEST 80s COVERS (1980-2005), this version of “Mad World” ranked at No. 2 on the list (behind Swans’ 1988 cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”).

Though I’m not as familiar with their newer work, I’ve been a Tears For Fears for a great number of years, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world it is to have this “Mad World” in it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFsHSHE-iJQ