Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Hello dear Subscribers,

Welcome back to Sunday Song. In this semi-regular series, to commemorate all of us getting through another week more or less intact, I present you with a short song.

Today’s selection is Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” released in 1985, a pivotal year for me.

For most of the mid-eighties, I was untethered from television, and didn’t listen much to NYC radio, so I can’t tell you when I first heard “EWTRTW,” or saw the video. I worked in East Village bars, so I’m guessing this tune entered my life via cassette or perhaps LP on the King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut stereo.

I’d been aware of Tears For Fears since their 1983 debut album The Hurting, which my best friend Todd owned. In my last year as an Atlantan, the year we graduated high school and played in a band with RuPaul, Todd spun The Hurting incessantly at top volume on his dad’s vintage hi fi. I’d enjoyed the pretty boy gloominess of “Mad World” and “Pale Shelter,” and the unhinged nerd drama of “Shout!” but the waltz-y pop shuffle of “Everybody Wants To Rule the World” I loved. Sunny, synth-y, lots of big major chords, a rich vocal melody wedded to dark lyrics of love defying corruption and apocalypse. Crucially for me, an excellent bassline anchors it all. Also, not one, but two killer guitar solos for my rocker side.

Quite the smorgasbord.

I wouldn’t need to purchase TFF’s ‘85 album Songs From the Big Chair, which featured “EWTRTW.” The song would lodge indelibly in my mind, as do most songs I love. Only when I became a functioning adult did I discover not everyone has such a steel trap mind for song as I do.

Not bragging, god forbid, just reporting.

At the time of this recording, I’d planned to be on tour in Australia and California as bass player for The Mammals, but was instead hunkered down with my wife and son, giving guitar and bass lessons on Zoom, writing, and fretting in the gorgeous green of my weirdest Catskills spring yet. Losing that tour ranks as one of the biggest disappointments of my life, and I grieved hard for it, but my country home, my loved ones, music, and film helped me through. Songs particularly helped.

I used lockdown to learn more tunes on acoustic guitar and send them out via social media, to which, you may recall, we were more glued than ever. I coined this endeavor “The Bathrobe Sessions.” Folks were appreciative, especially of “EWTRTW.” I asked for tips, and people were generous.

I’d been amassing a “campfire repertoire” for decades. While my memory for things like names and titles had begun to deteriorate, my recall of lyrics and chord sequences was as good as ever. (Knock on wood, it still is. I don’t understand, but I’m not asking questions.)

As often happens when I teach myself a song, my simple love for “EWTRTW” morphed into fascination with the skeletal structure, how it flies with just voice and guitar. “EWTRTW” is a particularly lush 80s production, courtesy co-writer Chris Hughes, expertly crafted for radio, featuring Linn drum, walls of synthesizers, wind tunnel reverb, crystalline guitar, and layers of lead singer Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal’s impassioned vocals. Stripped of all that, however, the song still works.

In a comprehensive Wikipedia entry, I was pleased to learn “EWTRTW” was a last-minute addition to Songs From the Big Chair, and expectations for it were not high. I love that “ya never know” aspect. In hindsight, of course, it’s hard to believe Tears For Fears’ signature tune was initially not as highly thought-of as, say, “Shout!”, but there you go. I also like giving props to unsung co-creators, those who do not hunger for the spotlight: Tears For Fears keyboardist Ian Stanley, and producer Chris Hughes.

Lastly, Curt Smith’s choirboy tenor is higher than my baritone, so I changed the key from D to G, which is also easier to play on guitar. As often happens, the key change alters the feel a wee bit, making it more… mine.

I recorded this iPhone video in the spare bedroom/study of our 1910 Victorian in Phoenicia, NY. Watching it now, I can tell you: I’ve just had my coffee. I have nowhere to be. I need a shave, a shower, a hug. I mistakenly omit a few lines towards the end, so maybe that aforementioned memory isn’t quite as stellar as advertised. Natural light through vintage window glass illuminates all. I look a little raggedy, but for the duration of the tune, I’m free of anxiety and depression.

I still bust this out on occasion, and without fail, someone hollers “I love that song!” Here’s hoping you feel similarly.

Thanks for listening, subscribing, sharing. Comments welcome.

RBW

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Everybody Wants to Rule the World

by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, and Chris Hughes

Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you

Acting on your best behaviour
Turn your back on mother nature
Everybody wants to rule the world

It's my own design
It's my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help me make the most

Of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world

There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do I'll be right behind you

So glad we've almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world

I can't stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the world
Say that you'll never never never never need it
One headline why believe it?
Everybody wants to rule the world

All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world