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Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2020 10:23:18 GMT
I noticed that the song pages over on memoriesfade.com don't work properly anymore. So while I'm waiting if that will be fixed, I thought I should save the quotes so they're easily accessible. Starting with Graduate: Mad One"Long before Graduate got a record deal we were doing gigs in all sorts of crummy places. At one gig a guy called Tony Hill saw us. He had a buiness selling individual car number plates. You may be aware that in the UK you have no choice in your licence plate, so some people pay considerable sums of money to buy an "individual" number which has come from an old car. Tony's plate was MAD 1. He approached us about managing Graduate but, although he was successful in his own business, we didn't think he had enough experience or "clout" in the music industry so we declined. He then suggested that, in order to promote his bisiness and also to give us experience in recording, we write a song called "MAD ONE", and he offered to pay for the recording studio. We agreed, and the result was a truly awful song." -Andy Marsden, Graduate drummer web.archive.org/web/20090208150900/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/madone.phpSomebody Put Out the Fire "Somebody Put Out The Fire" is an old,old song that we used to do. I think we recorded it along with another song back in 1977, long before Curt joined." -Andy Marsden, Graduate drummer web.archive.org/web/20090208150954/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/spotf.phpElvis Should Play Ska
"We happened to be around at the end of the 70's along with a number of ska influenced groups such as Selector, Bad Manners, Madness etc. but we were not "Two Tone" (as ska was called then). Roland had heard an interview given by Elvis Costello where he said that all ska groups at that time were simply "one hit wonders" trying to cash-in on the mod revival. Rol felt that his comments were sour grapes because a lot of the songs in the charts at that time were doing better than Elvis Costello's songs. Because of this, Rol wrote 'Elvis Should Play Ska'. In other words - stop moaning and write a ska song yourself." -Andy Marsden, Graduate drummer web.archive.org/web/20090309090151/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/elvis.php
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Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2020 10:45:29 GMT
The Hurting"Curt went to see the Thompson Twins when they were a seven-piece, and as he was telling me about it, I was playing it on the guitar - 'What? Like this?' - and that's how it started. The lyric? Typical feeling sorry for oneself and typical identification with the victim that runs throughout the album!" -Roland "'The Hurting' is really the thing that personified the whole record. If we're talking about the writings of Arthur Janov, that's the one that basically sums it up." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805065131/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/hurting.phpMad World"That came when I lived above a pizza restaurant in Bath and I could look out onto the centre of the city. Not that Bath is very mad - I should have called it 'Bourgeois World'!" -Roland "'Mad World' was the first single off the finished album. The intention was to gain attention from it and we'd hopefully build up a little following. We had no idea that it would become a hit. Nor did the record company. I remember rushing off to London to do "Top Of The Pops" and having to go shopping for clothes - things like that." -Curt "Lyrically the song is pretty loose. It throws together a lot of different images to paint a picture without saying anything specific about the world." -Roland "I forget the spelling but Hlaajian seems accurate enough. It was an imaginary planet dreamed up by Chris Hughes while recording The Hurting - blame him" -Curt, regarding the mystery word at the end of the song web.archive.org/web/20130325072539/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/mw.phpPale Shelter"It's a kind of a love song, though more referring to one's parents than to a girl." -Roland "Sometimes I can't finish a song but I've learned to leave it alone for a couple of weeks in such cases. For instance, for our second single 'Pale Shelter' I kept playing two chords for weeks and weeks, then one morning I woke up and sang the tune and the words, just like that. Then another day I was flicking through an art book and came across 'Pale Shelter' by Henry Moore, so that wrapped up everything nicely." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074956/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/ps.phpIdeas as Opiates"That's the chapter from Janov, and it's really a reference to people's mindsets, the way that the ego can suppress so much nasty information about oneself - the gentle way that the mind can fool oneself into thinking everything is great." -Roland "It really was all about that kind of thing - the psychological answer to religion being the opiate of the masses, whereas we thought ideas were, more than anything else." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090804074732/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/iao.phpMemories Fade"The whole notion of repression in psychology is that although things are shoved to the back of one's mind, they still exert a force on your behavior, creating phobias, depression, insecurities... You're using up energy when you're repressing things, which could be used for far better things, like a forehand volley!" -Roland "'Memories Fade' is an incredibly wordy song. It's got a good feeling, but I find the actual indulgence in the words a bit too much." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074838/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/mf.phpSuffer the Children"So they bloody should! No - we were really big on this at the time - we really thought children were born innocent and good and holy... When you've got kids of your own, you realize how bloody difficult it is. But it's that kind of thing - saying look at what you're doing with your child." -Roland "'Suffer The Children' was the first song we did together when we left Graduate. It was our very first experimentation with sequencers and drum machines, with a guy called David Lord, who worked with Peter Gabriel and different people down in Bath. So that was actually the first song we did as Tears For Fears." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090804075052/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/stc.phpWatch Me Bleed"Again, feeling sorry for oneself - I am a victim of a certain type. [Embarrassed laugh] God bless me!" -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075154/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/wmb.phpChange"It's not really about much. It's just one of those cheap pop lyrics." -Roland "A strange little pop song." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20100925105033/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/change.phpThe Prisoner[Donyo's comment] Described by Roland as "more just a collection of motifs" than a song, 'The Prisoner' is a short, noisy composition that is indeed probably the song on The Hurting least resemblant of a song. The original version from the Pale Shelter single is a bit different, but just as noisy. Interesting to note is that the lyric sheet for The Hurting lists a completely different second verse which has never been sung. The reason? According to Curt, the booklet was finished before the song, and the verse simply didn't fit with the finished product. "I liked "Gabriel III" - all the scratchy noises of "Intruder" and stuff like that, and that was our adolescent attempt at it." -Roland "There were certain times that we basically just got into musical atmosphere. That's what we did on pretty much all our b-sides early on - just a way of getting away from the actual lyrical content and melody and trying to create atmosphere." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090804074951/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/prisoner.phpStart of the Breakdown"It was a reference to my father, who had a nervous breakdown. 'Dry skin flakes when there's ice in the veins...' He had arterial sclerosis, and breakdown is the nervous breakdown. At the time there were certain bands that allowed you to be that morbid, and they were cool bands - people like Joy Division - who really glorified that kind of pain and suicidal instincts." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075042/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/sotb.phpChange (New Version)"It's a step backwards to what we were doing before Mad World... the version on 'The Hurting' is a vast improvement." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090804074545/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/change2.html
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Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2020 10:58:40 GMT
Shout"The song was written in my front room on just a small synthesizer and a drum machine. Initially I only had the chorus, which was very repetitive, like a mantra. I played it to Ian Stanley, our keyboardist, and Chris Hughes, the producer. I saw it as a good album track, but they were convinced it would be a hit around the world. 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. It was the first song where we started to poke our head outside the door and be a little less introverted." -Roland "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." -Curt "We were halfway through recording 'Mothers Talk' when Roland first played us a rough version of a new song he'd been working on. It was then very slow and very simple. I remember saying "this is so simple it should take about five minutes to record." Weeks later... We were halfway through recording 'Shout' when Roland had a birthday party. That evening I asked the four of them separately if they had any thoughts about sleeve notes for the record. Roland said "White text on black paper and say something about arguably the best offering yet." Curt said "You're probably the best person to make up some off the wall irrelevant drivel." Ian said "I don't like them, I'm not interested." Manny said "Did you know I used to play drums for 'Rocky Ricketts and The Jet Pilots of Jive?" -Chris Hughes web.archive.org/web/20130325072621/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/shout.phpThe Working Hour"The song was written, I would say, when I was feeling a lot of pressure from Phonogram and that kind of stuff, and that's why it's called 'The Working Hour'. We are paid by those who learn by our mistakes. You know what I mean? And it's a very sad song. It's about...when you feel pressure and you feel depressed because of external...messages you're receiving from outside telling you "you must do this, you must do that, you mustn't have fun," and it was just getting on top of me, and it came out in a song." -Roland "'The Working Hour' was talking about the amount of work we had to do after we were successful... We realized we'd become a business and that was certainly a complaint that we had. We'd been pulled in all directions and that's hard in your early twenties to deal with." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090804075118/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/twh.phpEverybody Wants to Rule the World"It was written and recorded in two weeks and was the final track to be added to the 'Songs From The Big Chair' album. The shuffle beat was alien to our normal way of doing things. It was jolly rather than square and rigid in the manner of 'Shout', but it continued the process of becoming more extrovert." -Roland "...the concept is quite serious - it's about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20130325084247/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/ewtrtw.phpMothers Talk"This was a taster for 'Songs From The Big Chair', the second album, on which we unashamedly tried to become more commercial. I was against it, but I was swayed by some of the people that I was working with. They wanted to come out all guns blazing, but I wasn't ready for that. It was from this point, though, that things really started to explode. The song stems from two ideas. One is something that mothers say to their children about pulling faces. They say the child will stay like that when the wind changes. The other idea is inspired by the anit-nuclear cartoon book 'When The Wind Blows' by Raymond Briggs." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074858/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/mt.phpI Believe"At the time it was one of my favorite tracks on 'Songs From The Big Chair'. It was originally written with Robert Wyatt in mind. I liked it so much, however, that we ended up doing it. I thought it was only fair to dedicate the song to him, which is what we did on the album. The song is simply about primal theory, particularly the last line." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074737/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/ib.phpHead over Heels"It was the oldest song on the second album and we had been messing with it for ages. It is basically a love song and one of the most simple tracks that Tears For Fears have ever recorded. It is a love song that goes a bit perverse at the end." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074727/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/hoh.phpListen"Listen was basically Ian's baby, he has to take credit for that. We sort of took it from demo to master, but it was his inspiration. He came up with that song while we were doing The Hurting. Ian was back in Bath mucking about, and he came up with that...and I came with a verse tune over the verse chords, wrote the lyrics, and Curt sang it, and I came up with all the vocal affectations at the end, which sound like a woman! That's actually me. I couldn't explain what the song is about emotionally because you have to listen to it. It's pretty obvious what it's about. It's a very nebulous, dreamy sound. A sense of loss, I think. Lyrically...our concerns at the time, I think a social anxiety shared by many people, was the whole nuclear threat...it was Russia versus America, and that's what that song is about. -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074807/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/listen.phpThe Big Chair 'The Big Chair' is an instrumental that served as the b-side to the Shout single. The only "lyrics" are dialogue samples from the movie Sybil, from which the song (and the album Songs From The Big Chair) gets its name. "The b-side of 'Shout'. This track was very much inspired by the film 'Sybil' about a woman suffering from multiple personalities undergoing psychotherapy. The big chair in her therapist's office is the place Sybil feels safest to recount the horrors of her childhood." -Roland "I always felt this piece was a soundtrack to the Middle Ages. Perhaps her childhood horrors stemmed from those times. Certainly the Fairlight II we used to make it did." -Chris Hughes web.archive.org/web/20090804075058/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/tbc.phpEmpire Building "Created almost entirely from an 8-bit, 2 second sample of an early 'Simple Minds' drum intro (the mind boggles!!!!). This was inspired by 'Breaker Morant', a film about the conduct of soldiers in the Boer War. I think I'd been listening to too much 'Art Of Noise'." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074621/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/eb.phpThe Marauders"So much of what we recorded in the early eighties was dependent on the emerging technology of the day. It was a very exciting time for 'knob twiddlers'. The Yamaha DX7 (which has no knobs) was a revolutionary new keyboard and was ripe for the plucking of various presets, giving you an instant b-side and an easy way to arrange Ian's sweet and doleful tune. This was the b-side of 'The Way You Are'." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074833/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/marauders.phpPharaohs'Pharaohs' is an instrumental that served as the b-side to the Everybody Wants To Rule The World single. The only "lyrics" are a sample in the background of some BBC guy reading the the daily weather forecast for the sea lanes around Britain. These "lyrics" have been transcribed here by Mrs Burns and a large bottle of white wine. "No matter how horrifying the conditions may really be, the voice reading the shipping forecast is deliberately calm and relaxed. Recorded at the Wool Hall for the b-side of 'Everybody' in a calm and relaxed way." -Chris Hughes web.archive.org/web/20090804074941/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/pharaohs.phpWhen in Love with a Blind Man "This song predates a track called 'The Working Hour' from the 'Big Chair' album. The motif is identical; it's something Ian came up with which I later put melody and lyrics to. It was recorded in The Wool Hall and was the b-side to 'Head Over Heels'." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075144/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/wilwabm.phpSea Song"This track was the b-side to 'I Believe', which was so clearly inspired by Robert Wyatt that I thought it would be a good idea to cover one of his songs for the flip side. His voice in my opinion is one of the best, not something I felt I could match, but if I introduced one person to his music then it would have been worth it." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075022/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/seasong.phpThe Way You Are"I think this was the point at which we realized we had to change direction." -Roland "The worst thing we've done. Although it took six months to complete, it was at a time when we weren't certain of our intentions." -Curt "A sort of sombre tribal dance with echoey voices and brittle instrumentation snaking in and out of the spaces between a bouncing drum pattern." -Melody Maker web.archive.org/web/20090804075128/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/twya.phpEverybody Wants to Run the WorldAccording to Roland, the song was re-recorded... "...to get Bob Geldof off our backs! He gave us so much gip for not turning up at Live Aid. All those millions of people dying, it was our fault. I felt terrible. I tell you, I know how Hitler must have felt..." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074632/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/ewtruntw.php
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Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2020 11:22:34 GMT
Woman in Chains"The song is an anthem for the women's movement, if a man can write such a thing... But the song is also about how men traditionally play down the feminine side of their characters and how both men and women suffer for it. I think that a lot of the spiritual side of men and man's soul are seen as feminine qualities. I think it's sad cos we miss out." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20130325084553/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/wic.phpBadman's Song"We were on tour in America and we'd just played Denver Red Rocks, where U2 did their 'Under A Blood Red Sky' video. We went back to the hotel. Now, generally we book a party room where everyone piles off to do whatever they do. And it just so happened that night that the party room was next to mine. About three in the morning I couldn't sleep because of the noise and I was getting really fucked off. I was gonna ring 'em up and tell 'em to shut up. So just to make sure it was that room - cos I didn't want to hassle anyone who might not be involved - I put my ear to the wall and heard fucking Roland this, fucking Roland that. Basically it was certain members of the crew bitching about the band with our management. -Roland web.archive.org/web/20100927015603/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/bs.phpSowing the Seeds of Love"I wouldn't take the credit for this one. A lot of it came and I just picked up on it and tried to assemble it the best I could. Basically I just unscrambled it for everybody else. For instance, here's an example. "I love a sunflower", right? "I love a sunflower" is a piece of graffiti on a wall near my home. I see it every day. I didn't know what to sing on a guide vocal for the track so I sang that instead of "dada dada dada". Then all of a sudden, "Sowing The Seeds" is just about to come out and the Ecology Party do really well in the Euro-elections and their emblem is the sunflower. I didn't know that, it all seems to be fitting in now. These things are synchronous. People say "Seeds" is a naive song but I don't have any problem with naivety. People, especially in England, have a tremendous problem with vision and creativity because it's intangible and because they may not themselves be able to materialise their vision, to earth their vision. So I don't have a problem with naivety or the archetype of love because from writing to recording, I'm turning the intangible into the tangible. So if something's naive and full of hope, then if you can make it happen it's fair enough." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804064524/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/stsol.php Advice for the Young at Heart"The song expresses a desire to grow up and get things together -to let go of the past. I think it's just an awareness of getting older, that's what it stems from. And also an awareness that certain aspects of you aren't getting older." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090805065108/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/aftyah.phpStanding on the Corner of the Third World"Let me explain this. It's another example of what I was saying earlier -the thing about womb-like containment, the oceanic realm of the imagination and picking up things in a subconscious manner. There's a line that goes -"Man, I never slept so hard, I never dreamt so well/Dreaming I was safe in life/Like mussels in a shell." The vibe is one of containment and safety and peace and solitude. "Rolling and controlling all the basements and the backroads of our lives", is a reference to how you get rid of all the s*** and the dirt of life -it's swept under the carpet, or, at the very least, out of sight. I think music is still cathartic for me. Certainly it's got me from A to B. It's been a friend. But what I've done in this case is use the Third World as a symbol for everybody's dumping ground. It's a place that's barren, without life and full of abuse and exploitation. The line, "Standing on the corner of the Third World" brings to me this feeling of containment, yet, just in the background you're slightly reminded that there's this massive grey and barren area that needs attention. -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075047/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/sotcottw.phpSwords and Knives "Nicky Holland and I originally wrote this for Alex Cox's "Sid 'N' Nancy" film. I was inspired to write it after reading Deborah Spungen's book about Nancy -"And I Don't Want To Live This Life". In the book her mother draws an analogy between the syringe marks in her baby's heels when she was born and the track marks on her arm just before she died. Nancy was born with the cord around her neck, she was ABO incompatible with her mother and she was jaundiced. I mean she really came out screaming. It's not surprising what happened, there was so much pain she just couldn't handle it. The vibe is -"When life begins with needles and pins, it ends with swords and knives". There's also an analogy there with Sid -"Oh danger man, oh danger man, your blade fits like a glove"- the knife as the phallus. You could say that Sid and Nancy's love was very Plutonian -it was on a life and death level. In the end they rejected the song, simply because it wasn't punk enough. I think that was a real shame." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075012/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/sak.phpYear of the Knife"I think it comes from my childhood more than anything. There comes a point in your life when everything is turned upside down and everything becomes like a life and death struggle even though it isn't. In a way it's about how rejection can feel like you've been stabbed - 'See the mountains crumble/Feel the fire grow cold/Summer will turn to winter/Love will turn to stone.' Some people are born with conflicts which are dying to get out and I think your childhood often mirrors this into an uncanny degree. Don't ask me how but it does. That's really the point. This is where you get into the subjective view which is how you actually experienced it." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075209/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/yotk.phpFamous Last Words "The song was inspired by a book called "The Fate Of The Earth" by Jonathan Schell. I read it in 1986 when people were still a bit worried about the arms race -this was before the reduction, that's meant that now everyone can worry about ecology. In the book he talks about the facts of the arms race and how many mega-tons we've got to blow up the earth. He talks about what would happen on a small scale and what would happen on a large scale. So I wrote the song which is a scenario for a couple of lovers who have one night left before the bomb goes off. And they decide that instead of panicking they're just gonna stay in the real life situation for one last refrain. They light a fire -"I will decay, melt in your arms", they put on an album by the band that made them cry, Tears For Fears! -they listen to the album and then...BLAM! At the end of the song there's a line that goes "We will carry war no more", cos once everything has gone there will be no more war, no more destruction. But the song is also about making the record (The Seeds Of Love) as well, especially the middle bit -"All our love and all of our pain will be but a tune". It's about everything you do, everything we've been talking about for hours and hours. In the end it's a tune. That's it. It's something you can't hold, something you can't touch. It's all of your experiences, everything you've ever seen, everything you've ever heard, everyone you've loved, tasted, smelt, cried over. In the end it's all gone. It's disparate. What you've done and experienced has added to the world and one generation, but in a tangible sense, it's gone." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804064453/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/flw.phpTears Roll Down"The only thing I've ever done in 7/8. I came up with this riff while shooting the video for 'Sowing The Seeds' in Portland, Oregon, USA. Dave Bascombe's chord sequence enabled me to finish it. This song was later augmented with a verse and released as a single entitled 'Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)' to promote the Greatest Hits album." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075113/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/trd.phpAlways in the Past "A track that didn't make it onto the 'Seeds Of Love' album. It was passed between us from fairlight to fairlight until it ended up in this shape destined for the secret world of the b-side." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074510/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/aitp.phpMy Life in the Suicide Ranks"It was during the frustration of the initial sessions of 'Seeds Of Love'; we were working on the fifteenth version of a song called 'Rhythm Of Life' which later turned up on the Oleta Adams record; that this song was born. The drum track had been originally programmed for 'Rhythm', Chris (Hughes) was playing a prophet bass sound, Ian (Stanley) was playing pizzicato strings, Dave Bascombe on mellotron, and myself on a detuned electric piano; we just started jamming and what you hear is how it came out. I had always intended to record this song properly but somehow the original jam says it all." -Roland "Every once in a while i listen to the "Suicide Jam" tapes and dream of making a whole album this under-produced. There's more where this came from." -Chris Hughes web.archive.org/web/20090804074848/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/mlitsr.phpJohnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams "The b-side for 'Advice For The Young At Heart' from the 'Seeds Of Love' album. The title was stolen from a book of the same name by Sylvia Plath. At the time, I was curious to hear the verse of 'Sowing The Seeds' sung as a rap and it was this combined with a Talking Heads style chorus sung over the chord structure of 'Shout' that gave rise to the track. Due largely to the use of a rather fashionable (at the time) drumloop, the track received a fair bit of play in dance clubs where it caught the attention of a young band called Fluke who consequently remixed it into a much higher state. The remix was then released anonymously as a single in its own right and got to number 1 in the British dance chart." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074749/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/jpatbod.php
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Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2020 11:35:00 GMT
Cold"Cold is the answer, the follow up to 'Woman In Chains'. Cold. There was a young lady in Germany, a photographer, who I didn't realize was a big fan. When we did the gig she was trying to take shots, but I was just turning my face away. She sent me a note and the note said, "How can someone who writes such beautiful songs be so Cold?" That's where the title comes from. I think its a mistake a lot of people make when they see me on TV. They think I'm a nice guy, when really I'm a bastard." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074555/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/cold.phpLaid So Low (Tears Roll Down)[Donyo's comment] The song is at least partially about the 1990 split with Curt. According to Roland, "so low" is a play on "solo". "The track first appeared on the b-side of the 'Seeds Of Love' single. At that stage, it was nothing more than a jam session, a groove that eventually hit a chorus before fading. I have since written a verse and a bridge section." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20130325084252/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/lsl.phpThe Body Wah"The Body Wah started life as the name of a 'wah wah' guitar sample, taken from the multitrack of 'Lord Of Karma'. We slowed the sample down and wrote a song around it which later became 'Elemental'. As we had already committed ourselves to the title due to artwork time restrictions, Alan and I built up a new track based around a new sample, taken from the radio, of a woman describing a well-known female politician - "Because she has power, she has personality". This along with 'Lord Of Karma' was the b-side of 'Laid So Low'." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075103/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/tbw.phpLord of Karma"File under 'Saturn(ine)'. With this track we were trying to get somewhere between The Happy Mondays and Jimi Hendrix's 'Crosstown Traffic'." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074813/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/lok.phpBloodletting Go "One of the first songs written with Alan Griffiths. It was kept on the back burner for a long time and was eventually released as one of the b-sides to 'Break It Down Again'." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074530/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/bg.phpSchrödinger's Cat"Schrodinger's Cat is a famous thought experiment attempting to clarify some of the vagaries of quantum physics. This track didn't make it onto the 'Elemental' album because Alan (Griffiths) and I had such a rambling arrangement which we couldn't rationalize until the time restrictions and relaxed mentality of the b-side enabled it to happen by itself. Musically, it's another attempt to rewrite 'I Am The Walrus' interspersed with a piano break reminiscent of 'Something In The Air'." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075017/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/sc.phpNew Star "Again, another contender for the 'Elemental' album which just refused to come together. This track, apart from becoming a b-side, was used as the opening track for a film called 'Threesome'." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074913/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/newstar.phpDéjà-Vu and the Sins of Science "From the same source as 'Schrodinger's Cat' in as much as it's an anti-science song. This track features a japanese monk and various samples of car doors slamming." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074616/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/dejavu.phpCreep
"You know, at the time I covered it, it was their only hit. I did it as a joke, and I enjoyed singing it, especially because I changed some of the lyrics. But my apologies right now to Thom Yorke. I do appreciate what they have gone on to do... immensely.. even though... even though I don't like them." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074606/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/creep.php
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Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2020 13:46:54 GMT
Raoul and the Kings of Spain"Tracing back the line of the father to Spain and Argentina, hence the flamenco, a nod and a wink. "The Kings Of Spain" refers to the fact that my father's father was given away, I think when he was about two or three, by his mother to his grandparents to be raised, because another guy came along and was interested in the mother and not the son. Partly because of that, he became obsessed with his roots. He was bom into a petit bourgeois home in Paris, but his father came from a little more glamorous and interesting background. So he would always try to latch onto his own father as a means of increasing his self-esteem, which I think was probably wrecked by his childhood experiences. When I was a child he used to make me write out my family tree, but only on his side, and he would say "your great-great-grandmother was the cousin of the president of Argentina." The whole idea is the divine right of kings, that you are noble by birth because your father was this or that." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075007/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/ratkos.phpFalling Down "It's such a simple song, I don't even know what it's about! The hardest bit was the lyric that goes "Well, I lied to the nation while my reputation ran dry." It's one of the more self-deprecating songs I've managed to do, but it's a little more jolly, not taking itself too seriously." -Roland "Falling Down is about fucking up. It's about doing something predictable like slipping on a banana skin and realizing that at that point, one is merely human." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074637/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/fd.phpSecretsWhen asked about the song's meaning, Roland replied: "Not telling you! (laughs)" -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075027/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/secrets.phpGod's Mistake"Well, it's true, isn't it: "Love is God's mistake." I think the whole cosmos would run more smoothly if God hadn't invented this terrifying emotion. Another fascination I have is the new physics, hence the line "He said that God does not play dice." Again, it's kind of humorous. It doesn't seem that clever to me compared to the books from which it's gleaned, and it's a lot easier than the theory of relativity!" -Roland [Note; the line comes from Albert Einstein.] web.archive.org/web/20090804074706/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/gm.phpSketches of Pain"Obviously the title's a twist on Miles Davis' Sketches Of Spain, and again it's to go with the Spanish theme, also the flamenco section. It's really a reference to when people want pop just to be a thing that doesn't interfere with them emotionally. "Sketches Of Pain" is about music that "only a fool would frame." There are so many things waiting to be born, and it's only our lack of imagination that prevents them from being so. I'm coming to believe that we really fundamentally limit our experience. That's about as deep as I get on this record..." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804075037/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/sop.phpLos Reyes Catolicos "It means "the Catholic kings." There are as many references to God on this album as there are references to pain in The Hurting. The notion of faith is being introduced to my music pretty much for the first time on this album." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074818/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/lrc.phpSorry"Hard to explain without getting myself into deep sh*t! It's a very aggressive love song." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804064514/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/sorry.phpHumdrum and Humble "Simply a battle between two perspectives." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074722/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/hah.phpI Choose You"Written when I first arrived in France to begin working on the album. I wrote it on acoustic guitar - it was quite simple, really." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074742/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/icy.phpDon't Drink the Water"Water being emotion. Don't drink the water - don't be taken in by your immediate sensations." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804074610/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/ddtw.phpMe and My Big Ideas"Yet another love song. What can I say, the album's about families and how to survive them, and this business doesn't make it easy. There's a lot of regret. I like that emotion." -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804064458/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/mambi.php
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Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2020 13:50:25 GMT
From Curt's solo albums: Still in Love With You
"Phil (Lynott) was one of the biggest influences on me, growing up in Bath, because I was a bass player, singer and songwriter and he was exactly the same," he says. "When was 13 and in a band, before even began writing my own songs, we'd do loads of Thin Lizzy tracks. Phil just seemed to personify what rock/pop should be, because he wrote these great pop songs, but with a rock band and he had that lyrical tilt to his personality. And 'Still In Love With You' I took from the Live And Dangerous album, partly as a tribute and partly as self indulgence!" -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805094459/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/silwy.phpWhat Are We Fighting For
"I was writing a song and Charlton Pettus and his wife were having some kind of fight. She actually turned around and said, 'What are we fighting for' and that's how it started. I guess the song depicts how a two-person relationship works." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805082236/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/wawff.phpSorry Town
"The whole thing about 'Sorry Town' is how messed up people can get when they're just trying to be cool. They're usually very sorry individuals in their private life, but they just come over as these cool and together people in public. Yet put them in their own little home and their own environment without anyone else to impress, and they're left with themselves to work out what their life is all about. In the end, if they find out their life is only about how cool other people think they are, then it's not much of a life." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805094509/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/st.phpJasmine's Taste
'Jasmine' was the first song Curt wrote after the abysmal Soul On Board album caused him to briefly give up music. The title, according to Curt, was inspired by a character in the Douglas Coupland book Shampoo Planet, but the lyrics have nothing to do with the premise of the book. web.archive.org/web/20090805094431/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/jt.phpReach Out
"Curt once said this song is about shallow people, sort of like people from L.A." -Smartass CSZ.com Webmaster web.archive.org/web/20090805094449/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/ro.phpMother England
"Speaking of Mother England, from what I recall Curt stating in an interview, it isn't about a dislike for England, it's about carrying nationalism too far. Basically, it's speaking out against a belief like "America: Love it or Leave it." and that blind faith in one's country as being perfect is a poor decision. If your country behaves poorly (radiation experiments on an unsuspecting public, killing off the elderly and disabled, etc.) you shouldn't continue to believe that your country is still perfect." - Travis Sonsalla web.archive.org/web/20090805094436/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/me.phpSnow Hill
"It portrays my life growing up in Snow Hill, the area where I spent the first 13 years of my life." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805094454/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/sh.phpI Don't Want to Be Around"It's about a manic depressive." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805094420/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/idwtba.phpSun King'Sun King' is Curt's response to the TFF song 'Fish Out Of Water', in which Roland ridicules him mercilessly. "The thing you have to remember about "Sun King" is that it's so tongue-in-cheek. I was amusing myself really. (Roland) wrote this song called "Fish Out of Water" which was about me in very unflattering terms. But it was in his normal cerebral sense that he does everything...overthinking and overintellectualizing whatever he does. It's an incredibly intelligent way of dissing me. I try to think about the best way to respond to this. I can't do it on his terms because it's not in my nature. I used to do it and we'd get into these arguments about what's right. There is no right and wrong - it's just one of those endless arguments that go on and on. That's what happens when you get in a fight with Roland. You can never win. The best you could do is not lose. "Sun King" is my response to someone intellectually dissing me. It's so blunt and to the point. I was always a lot more direct." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805094504/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/sk.phpGone Again
"It's just me and an acoustic guitar. It's an incredibly personal song about my father--which is why it's so stripped down. There's no way to gloss that. It's just so personal that all it can be is me, an acoustic guitar and a little bit of an accordion. There's no production to be had here because the whole song lives or dies on the merit of the lyrics and the meaning of the song." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805094410/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/ga.phpWhere Do I Go
"Impaled by trust: messed up by a previous relationship; Shot up with your four in the morning eyes: the new drug is the person who looks so vulnerable and innocent in the morning, someone you cannot distrust. She looks four years old in the morning!" -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090805094524/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/wdig.php
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Post by Jules on Dec 26, 2020 14:11:22 GMT
Everybody Loves a Happy Ending"This album was written from the perspective of encroaching middle age. Quite often, I say that Curt and I are in the car pool lane of life now. Obviously, life has been pretty good to us. However, along with that comfort zone comes the sense of running out of time. Hence the first lyrics on the album: 'Wake up, your time is nearly over/ No more the supernova.'" -Roland web.archive.org/web/20090804064448/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/elahe.phpClosest Thing To Heaven"The lyrical content of ‘Closest Thing To Heaven’ is very much tied to ‘Sowing The Seeds of Love.’ Our politics haven’t changed that much in the time we’ve not worked together - we’re certainly still left of center. [But] I don’t think we ever feel comfortable thrusting our politics down anyone’s throat because politicians do that enough.” -Curt web.archive.org/web/20130325084236/http://memoriesfade.com/songs/ctth.phpCall Me Mellow"All our early records were full of teenage angst, but this is full of middle age angst, Basically the lyrics were Roland's, in this case his experience with a girl he knew since she was very young. And she turned up like this 18-year-old gorgeous woman. There was a mixture of lust and guilt, because even at 40, or whatever, you still lust after 18- or 20-year-olds but you don't take it any further because there's too much guilt. My God, that's my child. It's a very conflicting emotion in that it's like, oh my God how sad, but then again you're grateful for it, because it's a sign of maturity." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090804074551/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/cmm.phpLadybird 'Ladybird' was the first song written after Roland & Curt reunited. "The first track we did was 'Ladybird,' I'd written the chorus and I couldn't find a verse. Roland came up with a verse to it and we both said, 'This sounds really good' kind of like Tears for Fears, strangely enough." -Curt web.archive.org/web/20090804074757/http://www.memoriesfade.com/songs/ladybird.php
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