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Suffer the Children is easily one of my favorite Tears For Fears songs, perhaps only surpassed by Mad World (a quick aside–I know a lot of people love the slow version of that song, but it makes me want to hurl). I think it’s a great, sad song about parental neglect. I particularly dig the children’s voices singing “Na na na na na na na, na na na na na” in the background.

Here’s what Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal had to say about the song, from Wikipedia:

“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 Smith

The song’s title bears resemblance to a passage in the Biblical book of Matthew (19:14), in which Jesus Christ teaches on the innocence of children. According to Orzabal:

…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 Orzabal

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

It’s a sad affair
When there’s no one there
He calls out in the night
And it’s so unfair
At least it seems that way
When you gave him his life

And it seems so strange
That at the end of the day
Making love can be so good
But the pain of birth
What is it worth
When it don’t turn out the way it should

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We Love You was the first Psychedelic Furs song I really liked–well, really it was only the second one I’d heard. But I liked it!

I think what makes the song for me is Richard Butler’s sardonic vocals. He delivers each line with a feeling of boredom and ennui, not to mention shedloads of sarcasm. Given that the song targets trend-o-philes, I think he does a great job of skewering them right where they live.

Additionally, the song has a great pulsing beat, and Duncan Kilburn’s saxaphone really fits in well too. A really great song.

Here’s a link to a video

And of course, the lyrics:

I’m in love with Catholics
I’m in love with your blue cars
I’m in love with the words that scream
We are so stupid, we all dream
I’m in love with Frank Sinatra
Fly me to the moon
I’m in love with fools like you
I’m in love with doing the twist
I’m in love with the bodies that scream
They fall so far, they fall so far
I’m in love with the Supremes
Oh baby love
I’m in love with Sophia Loren
I’m in love with Bridget Bardot
I’m in love with the whole dumb scene
I’m so in love, you know what I mean
I’m in love with Anthea and Donna
All that shit that goes
Uptown top ranking
I’m in love with the factory
I’m in love with the BBC
I’m in love with your TV
They’re so in love with you and me
I’m in love with a nuclear bomb it falls
I’m in love with shopping city dreams
I’m in love with real men
They go through the
Air for oxygen
Love is just a car like you
That turns so blue and turns so blue
No blue cars will run my world
No playboys will black my word
I would walk a million smiles
For one of your miles Bob
Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop
We love you we love you we love you
We love you we love you we love you
We love you

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Turning Japanese is one of the most misunderstood songs of all time…or is it?

The meaning of the song is questionable. What is not questionable is what a great song this is. You hear it and it just lifts your spirits, makes you feel perky.

As far as the meaning, from Wikipedia

In the US, the song was believed to euphemistically refer to masturbation, specifically referencing certain facial distortions that may resemble the stereotypical image of a Japanese person. In fact, some US media outlets claimed that the phrase “turning Japanese” was a popular euphemism in the UK for masturbation; in reality, however, it has only become such a euphemism subsequent to the release of the song. Dave Fenton would alternately confirm and deny this suggestion in interviews, but admitted the phrase “turning Japanese” just popped into his head one morning when he woke up, and he viewed it as a love song when writing it. The song can be viewed as a love song or the ramblings of a man in a one sided relationship ostracized by society.

But from SongFacts

One of the more misinterpreted songs of all time, word was that “Turning Japanese” refers to the Oriental facial features people get at the moment of climax during masturbation. In a VH1 True Spin special, they asked The Vapors about this song, and they explained that it is a love song about someone who lost their girlfriend and was going slowly crazy. Lead singer Dave Fenton said: “Turning Japanese is all the clichés about angst and youth and turning into something you didn’t expect to.” It was inspired by Fenton’s relationship problems.

Personally, I dunno, but I always thought it was similar to the Who’s Pictures Of Lily, except a much better song.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

I’ve got your picture of me and you
You wrote “I love you” I wrote “me too”
I sit there staring and there’s nothing else to do
Oh it’s in color
Your hair is brown
Your eyes are hazel
And soft as clouds
I often kiss you when there’s no one else around

I really think so
I’m turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so, think so, think so
I’m turning Japanese
I think I’m turning Japanese
I really think so

Seedy Films was a huge highlight from Soft Cell’s Non Stop Erotic Cabaret. What really makes this song work–in fact, something that generally made Soft Cell work–is singer Marc Almond’s voice. He really does a great job of interjecting emotion and presence into his voice, and on this song he’s just dripping with sleaze. I love it.

The song itself is about a man whiling his time away in an adult movie theater (yes, they had those way back in the day–ask Pee Wee Herman), possibly with a prostitute soliciting easy favors from overworked, over-stimulated men. That being said, one of the other things that makes this song work is whomever is doing the female vocals (the only credit I can find is for Vicious Pink Phenomena). Whoever she is, she brings a nice casual, but equally sleazy counterpoint to the song, and their banter sounds almost natural. Throw in the cool saxaphones, and it’s really a winner.

Here’s a link to the video (I didn’t even know there was a video until tonight)

And of course, the lyrics:

Sleazy city
Seedy films
Breathing so heavy
Next to my neighbour
Let’s get acquainted
Getting to know you
Feeling sleazy
In seedy sin city
Feeling sleazy
In seedy sin city

Getting to know you
Getting to like you
etc…

This is another one of those songs that I really enjoyed from the first time I heard it. It’s a pretty basic song about finding and losing love, but what I’ve really always loved about it was Graham Maby’s bass. He’s a criminally underrated bass player, faster than lightning, and it shows on this track. It’s got a great beat, you can dance to it, or you can just sit and listen to the music. To me, that’s a great song.

You can listen to the song below:

And of course, the lyrics:

We walked out one autumn evening
Someone up there made a fair appear
Coloured light that caught our eyes
And reggae music caught our ears
We laughed as they played all the songs
We wanted least of all to hear
I guess that’s when I knew
That we’d be more than just good friends
It happened just by chance

Someone up there - someone up there makes the sun and sea
Someone up there - someone up there brought my girl to me
Someone up there - someone up there makes the wind and rain
Someone up there - someone up there took her back again
And just for once
You can’t fight back
No messing with the hand of fate
Oh no

Ah yes, this song.

Okay, this is just plain fun, primarily because of the delivery of the spoken word lyrics. The singer’s attitude comes out in a major way, and it’s just plain fun. The song is pretty funny too. Just one of those fun eighties throw-away songs, but I think it’s still fun to listen to now.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore….
I was walking up Broadway you know
and there’s this incredible looking Swedish girl having a
Cappuccino across the street from Lincoln Center, I started
talking to her you know - She said her name was Lola,
Her English wasn’t too good you know - but we wound up spending
about 5 hours together just hanging out you know.
So We go back to my place - we get high - we get really into each other man.
It was love about to happen…I’m serious.
And then all of a sudden she gets up and she says, she says “Hey, I really gotta leave”
Damn
A E I O U Sometimes Y
There are 178 parent languages on our planet with over 1000 dialects…
It’s amazing we communicate at all.
Languages and dialects - with this one thing in common:
A E I O U Sometimes Y
Ahhh!
A E I O U A E I O U A E I O U A E I O U
Sometimes Y!!
But you know I was really flipped out you know and she asked me
if I’m angry or something I said of course I’m angry man this
isn’t high school or anything you know so I’m feeling really
cavalier and I say ah…call me if you want to…
huh, yeah…call me if you want to
So she rang me up and she says, “Hey! Do you wanna go out?”
Huh, Do I wanna go out
A E I O U Sometimes Y
A E I O U Sometimes Y
Operator! Operator! What’s happening operator?!
Mommy? Mommy Mommy!! Where are you
Mommy? I can’t see you
I can’t see you Mommy!
All artists, potentially, are the victims of their desire to be unique
Just observe it
Don’t fight it
Work it. Work it. Work it. Work it. Work it.
Yeah she took me home man she threw me all
around the room man
I mean this chick was really hot she was nice
to me you know
She let me keep on my cowboy boots and everything…she was
Allright… oh! oh! yeah! oh! oh! oh! oh! ohhhhhh!!!
I dare you to play this record
A E I O U Sometimes Y
A E I O U Sometimes Y
Anyway so she took me home and she
splattered my brains
Yeah there I am there I am what happened what happened
Where was I oh here I am
I told her I wouldn’t sleep with her friends - she
Doesn’t sleep with my friends Anything else you do
You know…Don’t you tell me
Lola

This Charming Man is a high energy, terribly catchy pop song, with some of Morrissey’s best vocals. It’s a great pop song, with a great beat and fun to dance to, not to mention the great sound of Johnny Marr’s guitars. From Wikipedia:

I’ll try any trick. With the Smiths, I’d take this really loud Telecaster of mine, lay it on top of a Fender Twin Reverb with the vibrato on, and tune it to an open chord. Then I’d drop a knife with a metal handle on it, hitting random strings. I used it on “This Charming Man”, buried beneath about 15 tracks of guitar … [it] was the first record where I used those highlife-sounding runs in 3rds. I’m tuned up to F# and I finger it in G, so it comes out in A. There are about 15 tracks of guitar. People thought the main guitar part was a Rickenbacker, but it’s really a ‘54 Tele. There are three tracks of acoustic, a backwards guitar with a really long reverb, and the effect of dropping knives on the guitar – that comes in at the end of the chorus.

It’s also a great song about–well, love, or at the very least the feeling of being overwhelmed by emotion.

Feeling detached from and unable to relate to the early 1980s mainstream gay culture, Morrissey wrote “This Charming Man” to evoke an older, more coded and self-aware underground scene. The singer explained of the song’s lyrics, “I really like the idea of the male voice being quite vulnerable, of it being taken and slightly manipulated, rather than there being always this heavy machismo thing that just bores everybody.”

The song itself is about an encounter between a young man whose bicycle has broken down, and the handsome stranger who picks him up and seeminglyl seduces him. The lyrics are provocative, heartfelt and just very nicely written.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

A punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet?

A jumped up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said “return the ring”
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things

Yes, those fun boys from Germany are at it again.

Drei Mann Im Doppelbett is one of those songs that seems like an afterthought on the album, but it’s really one of the centerpieces. It’s a simple four-chord song with a nice melody that’s extremely hummable. Gotta love that Casiotone.

You can listen to the song below:

And of course, the lyrics (few though they are):

Drei Mann im Doppelbett
Drei Mann im Doppelbett
Drei Mann im Doppelbett

For most people, True was how they first encountered Spandau Ballet, and that’s the impression that most people have of them. True is a great song, but well before then they had a slightly different sound.

Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) is a really well executed piece of pure funk. It’s one of those songs that makes you want to free your ass and your mind at the same time. I love the opening with the guitar quickly followed by the congas, and the trumpet solo in the bridge really just makes this song so much fun.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course the lyrics:

I checked the time, it was almost time
A curious smell,an intangible crime
I’m washing my clothes,but the stain still grows
cover your eyes,the stain still shows

I don’t need this pressure on
You go down,down
Pass the talk of town
You go down Greek street
Then it’s underground
Well it’s Soho life
For this mobile knife
It’s the place to shoot
Friday night Beat Route

The Bed’s Too Big Without You was always one of my favorite Police songs, for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s about a subject that pretty much anyone can identify with–at least anyone who’s ever been dumped. Secondly, it’s got that cool reggae beat–Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland really mesh well here despite a rhythm that almost sounds like each is playing a different song. Also, I really love Andy Summers’ guitar work here–as always, subtly brilliant. Finally, Sting’s slightly off key plaintive crooning really gives you the feel of someone in pain.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

Bed’s too big without you
Cold wind blows right through my open door
I can’t sleep with your memory
Dreaming dreams of what used to be
When she left I was cold inside
That look on my face was just pride
No regrets, no love, no tears
Living on my own was the least of my fears

Every day just the same
Old rules for the same old game
All I gained was heartache
All I made was one mistake
Now the bed’s too big without you
The bed’s too big without you
The bed’s too big without you