Mad World

This morning I scanned Donnie Darko to find a clip that I never seem to remember. Ok, so I was looking to see what Donnie calls his sister while they're at the dinner table. Do you remember? Go ahead, say it. I would, but I try to keep this space respectable, in the event my ma ever stumbles onto it-- if she stumbles, I can handle it. But if she'd scrape her knee on some of my foul language, I couldn't bear it.

Anyway, so in scanning through the movie, I happen upon the awesome scene where the boys hop out of the back on the school bus and walk into school. It's all set to Tears for Fears's "Head Over Heals", which totally makes the scene; without that song, or at least another like it, they'd just be a couple of goofs walking into school. But the song, despite the precarious lyrics, empowers them and they are seemingly the hot shots, parading the halls of the school, perhaps really off in their own little world....

Or maybe that's just the way I see it.

It also reminds me of the awesome summer day that a friend and I rode back into our hometown after being gone to boot camp for two months and-- as if we were transplanted onto a Hollywood set-- Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" came on the radio. We took the scenic route, cruisin through the town, windows down, wind blowing through our buzzed hair, radio bumpin, high school behind us, a couple weeks of summer still ahead of us, feelin like a million bucks. No one cared to vocalize the glaring truth, lest he ruin the moment: exactly one person, save our parents, knew we had been gone all summer, and he was right there in the van with us, just as had been since he picked us up from the airport. No one else had known we left, and so no one really cared to notice that the boys were back in town.

But I digress.

Back to Tears for Fears. Because of Donnie Darko and "Head Over Heals", they're ruling my Last.FM right now, temporarily knocking other retrofaves Jefferson Starship back to the city they built. I love it when something makes me remember just how good a band is or how good some specific songs are. "Sowing the Seeds of Love" while perhaps not my absolute favorite, is, in my opinion, quite possibly the single best song of the 80s-- I've honestly felt that for a long time. Like they [erm, real critics?] say about the Beach Boys's "God Only Knows", the song has everything. It flows like a symphony. It's brilliant. As far as favorites go, it's maybe second only to Toto's "Africa".

So I kept exploring TfF, and I didn't really care for any of the new-to-me old stuff. "Seeds", "Heals", "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" are all killer tracks-- all the rest pretty much suck santorum. But then.. I heard familiar lyrics: "Mad World", which appears on Donnie Darko, sung very fittingly in a somber if not depressing manner by Gary Jules. I had no clue it was a TfF tune! Should I have? Did you? I've listened to the Darko/Jules version about six brazilian times, and completely love it. The original? Eh. Sucks.

Tomorrow I'll try to remember to post MP3 rips of the good songs off the Tears for Fears vinyls and cassettes I may have lying around. Oh, and maybe a bad song like "Mad World", too. But now, I need a nap.

=

UPDATE:

Tears for Fears - "Mad World"

Gary Jules - "Mad World"

Tears for Fears - "Sowing the Seeds of Love"