One of their best. I love the slow build up of simple layers one on top of the next to create what eventually becomes such a complex tour-de-force crescendo!
Great reaction to such an iconic song. It's majestic. The channel, Produce Like A Pro, did a piece on this song and mentioned that it is considered one of the ultimate best mixed songs ever and actually interviewed the man who mixed the album. Fascinating. TFF are played all the time in my house, all the time.
The story of how they first saw Ms Adams is really something you should look into. Two years later she went on tour with them. Ms Adams is an excellent pianist as well as singer. A live performance in California from the tour is on YT. I believe Roland said the first time they heard her sing she brought them both to tears. This is from a time when both men were feeling chewed up by the music business.
Oh wow, this is awesome, and yes, I clearly need to do a deep-dive on Oleta Adams. Especially given what a monumental impact she had on Curt and Roland! Cheers, really appreciate the comment.
Thanks for the shout-out and thank you also for your thoughts on this beautiful song. I think you hit the nail on the head with your comments. What struck me most in your take on this song musically is your description of the introduction as 'tender'. I had never thought of that before, but I can definitely hear it. It makes sense, due to the fact that Roland wrote this song with his mother in mind. My favorite line may well be, 'I will not accept the greatness of man.' For a man to say that is powerful. Roland had a rather unusual childhood: HIs parents ran an entertainment agency out of their home. His mother was a stripper and his father mentored singer/songwriters. When his mother would do the stripping, his father would feel intense jealousy and one of Roland's earliest memories is of his father falling into his mother's arms, weeping. At that point, Roland said that he came to realize man as 'impotent'; not all-powerful. Eventually, his mother left the marriage, taking her sons with her. At a recent concert, Roland said his mother, now 87 years old, was in the audience. He said she had walked him up the aisle earlier this year when Roland married his new wife, Emily. Since you enjoyed this version with Oleta Adams (an amazing talent in her own right), I suggest checking out this recent live performance from their 2022 tour. This version features a background singer other than Carina Round named Lauren Evans, who filled in for Carina for a few dates on the U.S. tour. I think she definitely has an Oleta Adams-Esque vocal style and it adds so much to the live version. You can tell Roland still feels close to this song: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HgopknJBM2o.html
Oh my gosh, that live version is beautiful! And WOW, can Lauren Evans sing! Also, you're right, there's a lot of feeling and depth in that performance, even all these years after the release of the song.
You need to hear the whole Seeds Of Love album, it is my favourite album of all time, you have to hear the second track on that album called Badman's Song, it is another duet with Oleta, TFF take you to church on that one. Roland was in the next room to the crew, one guy was bad mouthing Roland and that's how the song starts. The line 'here's to the boys back in 628' is a reference to the room number
They did this one on the latest tour and it was phenomenal. Live but album perfect. Their backup singer knocked it out of the park. I uploaded a video of it on my channel.
The toxic masculinity prevalent in patriarchal societies also results in men repressing the feminine within themselves, which is also what this song is about. "So free her."
It's so crazy! Someone mentioned that to me about a few days ago and my mind was blown. Big fan of some of his songs too so that' such a cool wrinkle to the history of Tears for Fears!
