I woke up with a song in my head, that was from a 12 inch single, that I bought literally in the Last Place On Earth, 22 years ago. That was so long ago that "12 inch single" is now an anachronistic, almost meaningless term. Generous musical groups with great albums often provided extra treats from any particular album you may have been enamored with. We called such songs "B-sides" and they were such wonderful opportunities to hear even more songs from your favorite albums, often from the same sessions and time period. They were literally and physically on another side..
One such album for me, in that particular time and place was Tears For Fears "Songs From The Big Chair." By the time I bought the 12 inch single for "I Believe" it was already like their 5th single on an 8 track album.. Even the A-Side on this was was a "A Soulful Re-recording" of the ballad "I Believe" - A newer, live, more lounge-y and looser version than the album track, interspersed with brief free-jazz sax outbursts from "William...!" and a fade out homage to Carole King's "Too Late.."
The music video, unseen until years later, turns out to be relatively dull with incredulous shots of Curt Smith being relegated to second-tier triangle player. (well, the song does ask it's own self "is it absurd..?") My inner video was in the darkness, in late night contemplation, sitting before the record player..
I did not know who Robert Wyatt was at the time, but I do now. He was the drummer in the band Soft Machine, who were contemporaries of Pink Floyd back in the 1960's London psychedelic music scene. His drumming career was cut short due to an accident where he fell from a third floor balcony and lost the use of his legs. He continued with music by switching to piano and following a path as a solo artist, creating very original, some say "weird" songs.
He was the one who wrote "Sea Song" and Tears For Fears were covering it on this single. I found out that Roland Orzabal wrote "I Believe" and sent it to Robert Wyatt to be considered for him to record. When there was no response back from him, Tears For Fears recorded his song instead.
With the peculiar and affecting lyrics to "Sea Song" I decided to look further into the original by Robert Wyatt. YouTube had a very early recording of the song, almost a sketch in progress, with his wheelchair pulled up to the grand piano. Contrasting to that is a full band performance from his later most recent period. This live recording from the BBC shows him now as a revered elder musician, although mostly known just in the UK.
Somewhere between these two live performances is the original studio recording. On YouTube I also came across a short film by Olive Booger, set to the original version, that attempts to artistically render the surreal lyrics in a literal and unusual way..
I grew to love my growing collection of odd and cast off songs from the "Songs From The Big Chair" album. In fact the TTF Wikipedia page states about the extreme variety of songs presented: "The album's title was inspired by the book and television mini-series Sybil, the chronicle of a woman with multiple personality disorder who sought refuge in her analyst's big chair."
"The Big Chair" B-Side was a short avant garde sound collage, with samples directly from Sybil. "When In Love With A Blind Man" is an odd string based ballad, with lyrics that speak of a visually impaired romance conundrum.. "Empire Building" featured a dance-hop big beat style that was at least several dozen months ahead of it's time.
Beyond all these tangential obscurities, here were the other massively popular A-Side songs from that Big Chair:
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Shout
Head Over Heels
Mothers Talk
2 comments:
Your blog on Tears For Fears especially interested me. A few years ago, while staying at a semi quasi famous producers home, I found myself chatting with none other than Curt Smith. At the time, as unbelievable as this may sound, I had no idea who he was. I offered him some of the coffee I was making, and we both drank our cups while talking about the LA scene. I liked his accent and found him to be rather pleasant and insightful. Of course you can’t be in Los Angeles and not talk about music. We talked about how he recently sighted Annie Lennox from the Eurythmics at the Farmer’s Market. He mentioned her music briefly and made note of her appearance… that she looked “quiet good.” He went on to mention a few others from the time period. And then, I made a comment to him about a song I found annoying. Of course I couldn’t remember the name of the song, but just a few catchy words. I proceeded to try to sing some of the words in the chorus that I remembered. I felt awkward as my broken notes left my mouth. “You know… that song that goes, shout, shout” I prodded him hoping he could help me remember. “I just didn’t like the sound of it.” He smiled and said, “Yeah, Shout by Tears for Fears.” I didn’t acknowledge and he didn’t ask why I didn’t like the ‘sound of it.’ We kept talking about his upcoming trip to London (I think) and his upcoming performances. Of course, since musicians often frequented this producers home, I assumed he was another “I want to make it” with a dream. I wished him the best of luck on his upcoming performances. He smiled, and I left. It was only much later that I was informed as to whom I was speaking to. I smiled too… and walked away.
Very insightful post on TFF, thanks for bringing I Believe to my attention again. On the re-released album by Clare & the Reasons there's a very nice cover of Everybody wants to rule the world. Oh, and thanks for linking my blog, I will put you in my linklist too.
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