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| "Mothers Talk" | ||||
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| Single byTears for Fears | ||||
| from the albumSongs from the Big Chair | ||||
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| Producer | Chris Hughes | |||
| Tears for Fears singles chronology | ||||
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"Mothers Talk" is a 1984 song by the British bandTears for Fears. Written byRoland Orzabal andIan Stanley and sung by Orzabal, it was the band's seventh single release (the first to be taken from their second albumSongs from the Big Chair (1985) and fifthUK Top 40 chart hit. The song was released six months in advance of the album, and enjoyed moderate success internationally.
Orzabal notes that while "Mothers Talk" helped move the band in a new creative direction, he does not like the track. ProducerChris Hughes considers it important to the band's development, although he and engineer Dave Bascombe agree that the song is not one of Orzabal's best.[3]
This was a taster forSongs 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.
— Roland Orzabal
"Mothers Talk" was written in 1983 and was first publicly performed during the band's late 1983 tour. Orzabal describes it as an unsuccessful attempt to mimic the sound ofTalking Heads.[3] In early 1984, the band went into the studio and recorded it as their next single with Jeremy Green as producer; Orzabal found this version to be "incredibly crafted and interesting" with a drum pattern resembling "Teen Town" byWeather Report, but the record company disliked it.[4] The band's previous producer, Chris Hughes, was then brought back into the fold and the song was re-recorded and finally released as a single in August 1984. Hughes stayed on with the band to record their second album,Songs from the Big Chair.
Along with its B-side, "Empire Building", "Mothers Talk" was one of the first Tears for Fears songs to demonstrate a creative use ofsampling. Thestrings at the beginning of the song were culled from aBarry Manilow record,[5] while the drum sample around which "Empire Building" is built was lifted from theSimple Minds song "Today I Died Again". This was the second Tears for Fears single for whichPhonogram would use thepicture disc and coloured vinyl gimmicks as a promotional tool, as well as the first one to feature multiple 12" releases offering different remixes of the track. Limited quantities of the 7" single also came with a free Tears for Fears window sticker of the band's new logo.
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 anti-nuclear cartoon bookWhen the Wind Blows byRaymond Briggs.
— Roland Orzabal[6]
While North America saw "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" as the first single release from theSongs from the Big Chair LP, "Mothers Talk" was eventually released there as the fourth and final single from the album in April 1986, peaking at no. 27 on theBillboard Hot 100. Although labeled as a "remix", this version of the song is actually a complete re-recording, done by the band after theirBig Chair tour wrapped up. It was mixed by the award-winning producerBob Clearmountain, who would go on to mix the band'snext album with them. In addition to a different picture sleeve, the single featured the band'scover ofRobert Wyatt's "Sea Song" as the B-side (this had been released as the B-side to the single "I Believe" in other countries in 1985). This version was also released inCanada andJapan at the same time.
Cash Box said that the single "features classic TFF synth moorings but a much grittier overall approach."[7]
Three separate promotional clips were filmed for the song in total. The original version, directed by photographerLaurie Lewis, was a performance clip set in a blue toned room and interspersed with shots of a young girl being studied by scientists. The band disliked this version and quickly disowned it, although it had already aired on various British television shows by this point. A replacement video (directed byNigel Dick) was then filmed on a shoestring budget, featuring the duo in a rural location (some of which was filmed inCurt Smith's back garden) and interspersed with news and sports footage from a TV set. Both clips were released to UK and European markets in mid-1984. The third and final video, again directed by Nigel Dick, was made for the "US Remix" of the song in early 1986 and portrayed a family preparing a bomb shelter fornuclear fallout, in keeping with the theme ofRaymond Briggs' graphic novelWhen the Wind Blows. An extended mix of the song, featuring an extra verse at the beginning, was exclusive to this video until it was issued as a bonus track on the 2015 deluxe reissue ofSongs from the Big Chair.
CS: Vertigo / TFF 4 1 (Canada)
Tears for Fears
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...the track's electronic churn builds into a thump somewhere between circa '84 acts Art of Noise and Run-D.M.C.
