It's a Mad Mad Mad "Mad World"

 

So I'm not going to be "that guy" but that picture did make me laugh.

Picture? Meme? Let's not split hairs.

This is not a "get off my lawn" post.

I've talked many times about my inability to find much in the world of contemporary music that grabs me. Of course, a large chunk -- perhaps all -- of the blame falls on my shoulders. I've sort of given up. Radio is far too rigidly formatted to the point where it's easier to just say "forget it."

Therefore, I listen to talk or The Beatles Channel. Or some other station. Or a podcast.

Older radio formats were a little wider, for what it's worth.

So, yes, I blame myself.

But, sure, I could see that being me in the picture above.

I'm not going to further my cause with tonight's tale. My friend of a year or 40, Jeff Terranova, reposted a video of Curt Smith -- part of the duo Tears for Fears -- playing the 1982 song "Mad World" with his daughter.

First, the original song is great. But this was just fantastic. It was clearly posted during the time when so many musicians were resorting to uploading DIY versions of their music as the pandemic intensified.

Here I was, listening to it on my MacBook which has fairly decent speakers for what it is.

But I also had a new pair of noise-canceling headphones, purchased primarily for my upcoming trip to London (among other things). This seemed like a good time to try it out. I could listen to the original "Mad World."

Which I didn't have.

So, sure, I went for the version on YouTube.

OK, cool.

Then I read more about the album it came from, "The Hurting." Let's just call it dark.

In the middle of the New Wave and the New Romantic movements, this was was different. This was more like Joy Division or Ultravox as opposed to OMD or Spandau Ballet.

So I, who still appreciates buying an album, began to dig. Now, I will also gladly cheat for financial purposes and buy a hits album. In fact, that's where the confusion came in. I have a Tears for Fears hits disc that I bought in the late 90s and, yet, "Mad World" wasn't on it. In fact, every other hits disc I looked at had "Mad World" on it. But it also had every other song that I already had: "Shout," "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," the Beatlesque "Sowing the Seeds of Love," etc.

OK, then, I'll buy the single. Come on! It's $1.29!

I strolled to the computer. 

I bought the song.

The computer looked at me.

"Buy the rest of the album for..."

A classic album, I thought! Deep! Dark! Dig in!

Damn you, marketing.

Damn you, Jeff.

I bought it.

And so, friends, as I write tonight's love letter to a Sunday, I'm listening to Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal sort through childhood trauma as inspired by the work of American psychologist Arthur Janov. His patients included John Lennon, who took what he learned and turned that into the primal screaming found on the "Plastic Ono Band" album of 1970 (just listen to "Mother" or "Working Class Hero" as prime examples).

Deep stuff. 

Nobody said music had to be pretty or happy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Curt Smith in the "Mad World" video