Tears For Fears benefits from its first album release after "Songs from the Big Chair" and conquers all the charts with a Beatles-esque rebuke of Margaret Thatcher and conservative politics.
You covered all the bases, Matt, on TFF's "Sowing the Seeds" (and there are many...bases, that is)! You nailed the reason for its lack of hitdom....despite the fan-starvation for their music, the song was not of the era....and TFF knew it! The old "art vs commerce" beast raised its head. "Should" they have written an '80s-specific song, appeasing both fans and Fontana? Or, do what they did, and compose an anthem that, as you nailed it, Matt, places it smack dab in the late-'60s?
I'm a sucker for evocative songwriting, and I even got the 12" single of the song, in '89...I think it was an extended version of the song! Here's what I wrote a year ago about late-'70s L.A. band, The Last, and their incredibly of-the-era mid-'60s-ish "This Kind of Feeling" (it sounds nothing like "Sowing," by the way--it's all about evoking an era, in a song written by the band's Joe Nolte): "Like the unselfconscious, late ‘60s psych-pop triumph of Tears for Fears’ “Sowing the Seeds of Love” in 1989, pens a remarkable tune that sounds shockingly of the time, here, about 1966…and, all without a knowing wink."
They did to "This Kind of Feeling" what, in my opinion (and yours, as we've seen) TFF did to "Sowing the Seeds of Love," and I think you'd agree, it takes at least as much talent and songwriting acumen to compose a song sounding like a particular era than writing a song your label suits will find easy to push up the charts!
What a fun read Matt! I was raised by 80s MTV and this video was on constant rotation when it came out. Dare I suggest that it might’ve flamed out in comparison to their other hits because the hook just isn’t as catchy as “Head Over Heels” and “Everybody Wants To Rule the World?” It’s a solid hit but not quite as cool in my personal opinion. Besides, who could compete with Janet Jackson’s “Miss You Much?!”
I agree. The hook, which is really the only redeeming quality of the song, is decent but not quite up to par with what came before.
I also wonder if it gets left off '80s lists because it straddles the line between '80s and '90s, though admittedly I don't hear it on '90s channels, either.
I'll definitely be less sour about their next MRT chart topper. 😁
You covered all the bases, Matt, on TFF's "Sowing the Seeds" (and there are many...bases, that is)! You nailed the reason for its lack of hitdom....despite the fan-starvation for their music, the song was not of the era....and TFF knew it! The old "art vs commerce" beast raised its head. "Should" they have written an '80s-specific song, appeasing both fans and Fontana? Or, do what they did, and compose an anthem that, as you nailed it, Matt, places it smack dab in the late-'60s?
I'm a sucker for evocative songwriting, and I even got the 12" single of the song, in '89...I think it was an extended version of the song! Here's what I wrote a year ago about late-'70s L.A. band, The Last, and their incredibly of-the-era mid-'60s-ish "This Kind of Feeling" (it sounds nothing like "Sowing," by the way--it's all about evoking an era, in a song written by the band's Joe Nolte): "Like the unselfconscious, late ‘60s psych-pop triumph of Tears for Fears’ “Sowing the Seeds of Love” in 1989, pens a remarkable tune that sounds shockingly of the time, here, about 1966…and, all without a knowing wink."
If you'll pardon my presumptuousness, Matt, here's the link that includes that Last song in question (and more about the band too few have heard, much less heard of): https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/audio-autopsy-1979-the-last-la-explosion
They did to "This Kind of Feeling" what, in my opinion (and yours, as we've seen) TFF did to "Sowing the Seeds of Love," and I think you'd agree, it takes at least as much talent and songwriting acumen to compose a song sounding like a particular era than writing a song your label suits will find easy to push up the charts!
What a fun read Matt! I was raised by 80s MTV and this video was on constant rotation when it came out. Dare I suggest that it might’ve flamed out in comparison to their other hits because the hook just isn’t as catchy as “Head Over Heels” and “Everybody Wants To Rule the World?” It’s a solid hit but not quite as cool in my personal opinion. Besides, who could compete with Janet Jackson’s “Miss You Much?!”
I agree. The hook, which is really the only redeeming quality of the song, is decent but not quite up to par with what came before.
I also wonder if it gets left off '80s lists because it straddles the line between '80s and '90s, though admittedly I don't hear it on '90s channels, either.
I'll definitely be less sour about their next MRT chart topper. 😁