the hurting

Tears For Fears poured their personal pain into the dark and primal psychological new wave textures of this daring and dramatic debut.  Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith met as teenagers and cut their teeth in bands like Neon and Graduate before forming Tears For Fears.  Orzabal reveals:    "If you listen to the very first Tears For Fears record, it was called 'The Hurting'. It was inspired by a California psychologist, Arthur Janov, who wrote about primal scream therapy and all of that kind of stuff. The record was accused of--at the time, I wasn't very happy about it, but it was absolutely right--as being very depressing. And as an adolescent I dropped out of school and became unemployed and yeah, I suffered from depression, big-time. And Tears For Fears for me was a journey out of depression and into mania. No--I became more of an extrovert, sort of masculine. Masculinity. So, again, I didn't want to write personally; I was tired of looking at my past and looking within and doing that kind of stuff. I had reached a part of my life where it was by far the most stable period, and all the volatility of my childhood seemed to be under control until last Tuesday. I mean, I always moved as a kid. That's one thing. Now, all of a sudden, I'm in my house 10 years, kids going to school doing the school thing...kind of all the things I really wanted."

'The Hurting' was produced by Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum with Roland Orzabal on vocals, guitar, keyboards, rhythm programming, and lead vocals on tracks 1, 4-7, and 10; Curt Smith on vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, and lead vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9; Ian Stanley on keyboard programming and computer programming; Manny Elias on drumming and rhythm programming; with Chris Hughes on rhythm programming, tuned percussion, and conducting; Ross Cullum on jazz high and dynamic toggle; Mel Collins on saxophones; Phil Palmer on palmer picking; and Caroline Orzabal doing the child vocal on 'Suffer the Children'.  Orzabal remembers:    "We recorded that mainly in Abbey Road Studios, and we were working seven days a week till 2 or 3 in the morning, and it was very difficult to make. The first hit single, 'Mad World', did very well in Britain, and that was pretty much the start of things. And it was an album very much inspired by the writings of Arthur Janov's primal scream therapy. In fact, some of the songs, like, like 'Ideas As Opiates' and 'The Prisoner', we directly lifted from some of his chapters in his book."

'The Hurting' made it to number seventy-three in the US, thirty in the Netherlands, sixteen in France and New Zealand, fifteen in Germany, and number one in the UK.   Smith explains how commercial success was not their priority:    "I think that was the record company people saying, 'Yeah this is going to be a single. This is going to be a hit.' We probably disagreed with them. I don't think you can have that mentality or, I should say, we can't have that mentality. That's just not the way we can work. The only way we can work is to go into a studio and record the best music we can. So in that sense there's no point to worry whether its going to be a hit or not. We just make the music we love making and do it to the best of our abilities. We're lucky enough that that ended up creating some hit records. It's sort of more by chance than anything else...I wasn't necessarily aware of that at the time. As most people know from the amount of time it takes us to make records, we do spend a lengthy amount of time to make a record the best that we can make it, and in the end it's really for our own satisfaction. We want to feel that we've done the best we can do in songwriting, craft, production and in performance, There's always room for improvement unless we reach that point in time where we feel that's the best we can do for now. If we're left with that feeling, then we're done. If you think you can still improve, then you're not done yet." 











http://tearsforfears.com/















"The Hurting" – 4:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiFV3QQmOZ0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahz_laxM6PU





"Mad World" – 3:35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFsHSHE-iJQ
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vz6i_tears-for-fears-mad-world_music#.UTbcgxw4HaE

Tears For Fears - Mad World by jpdc11




"Pale Shelter" – 4:34
http://vimeo.com/30169563
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zmg0_tears-for-fears-pale-shelter_music#.UTbdiBw4HaE

Tears For Fears - Pale Shelter by val6210

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccx0Iukv1qg





"Ideas as Opiates" – 3:46
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlD2jA_UO8A





"Memories Fade" – 5:08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtHjY3K5g1E


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=728o3osYo3o





"Suffer the Children" – 3:53
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTcIB0p5_Ms





"Watch Me Bleed" – 4:18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdvVkumBTuc





"Change"  – 4:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzphZSVYdY0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsQ7iA14ss0
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20x3l_tears-for-fears-change_music

Tears For Fears Change by Celtiemama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZWAqZN-uJo





"The Prisoner" – 2:55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hJH9iyku-M





"Start of the Breakdown" – 5:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ofV0oJSxm4




'The Hurting' 
full album:




All songs written and composed by Roland Orzabal, except "The Way You Are" written by Orzabal, Curt Smith, Ian Stanley, and Manny Elias. 

1. "The Hurting"   4:20
2. "Mad World"   3:35
3. "Pale Shelter"   4:34
4. "Ideas as Opiates"   3:46
5. "Memories Fade"   5:08
6. "Suffer the Children"   3:53
7. "Watch Me Bleed"   4:18
8. "Change"   4:15
9. "The Prisoner"   2:55
10. "Start of the Breakdown"   5:00
bonus
11. "Pale Shelter (Long Version)"   7:09
12. "The Way You Are (Extended)"   7:43
13. "Mad World (World Remix)"   3:42
14. "Change (Extended Version)"