20 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Listen Lyrics
Mother Russia badly burned
Your children lick your wounds
Pilgrim father sailed away
Found a brave new world
Your children lick your wounds
Found a brave new world
Song Info
Submitted by
ruben On Jun 11, 2002
More Tears for Fears
Mad World
Head Over Heels
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Shout
Woman In Chains
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
This song is just amazing.Post-rock a decade before anyone knew what that was.
If you have ever brushed off Songs From the Big Chair as a relic of the '80s, give it a close listen. It is a masterpiece of any era of rock.
The entire album 'Songs From the Big Chair' is about the therapist's chair and the issues dealt with.
"Shout" - primal scream therapy "The Working Hour" - the time spent in the therapist chair during a session "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" - ego and power "Mother's Talk" - fairly obvious "I Believe" - another obvious one "Broken" - ditto "Head Over Heels" - Unrequired love and the causes, the song includes references to mother and father, expectations ("Dreaming I'm a Doctor") and if you listen closely the countermelody in V2 is "Nothing ever happens when you're acting your age, nothing gets done when you feel like a baby, nothing ever happens when you're acting your age" "Listen" - is the final analogy, the pain of the individual juxtaposed with the pain of the world Russia (Mother)/America (Pilgrim Father) and the album ends with him singing "... soothe my feeling... " in Spanish, Orzabal is of Spanish-Basque descent. It's obviously about him personally.
The entire album is one giant therapy session and the issues that arise from it, in other words... Songs From The Big Chair.
Ta-da!
@ZenithOClock Excellent but I would dispute that "Mother's Talk" is obvious, it is an oblique reference to nuclear war and an anti war song, they have said so in an interview.
@ZenithOClock Excellent but I would dispute that "Mother's Talk" is obvious, it is an oblique reference to nuclear war and an anti war song, they have said so in an interview.
There's a whispered "listen" in there too
This song is an emotional trip to me, and the lyrics bear Rolands trademark: Saying a lot with so little words.
Critics cite Two Tribes (Frankie goes to Hollywood) as one of the best anti-cold war songs, but this is way intenser and breathtaking.
@OldSkool on the same album, Mother's Talk is also an anti war song. "weather starts to burn" refers to nuclear warfare, and "your features form with a change in the weather" refers to if you make a bad face mothers used to say if the weather changes your face would get stuck that way, but the weather change now is nuclear winter
@OldSkool on the same album, Mother's Talk is also an anti war song. "weather starts to burn" refers to nuclear warfare, and "your features form with a change in the weather" refers to if you make a bad face mothers used to say if the weather changes your face would get stuck that way, but the weather change now is nuclear winter
Now, having said that, can anyone explain why Tears For Fears would care to chant "birthday girl is not to blame" in any language (English included)? There seems to be an extreme lack of context here for that particular phrase to bear any meaningful meaning.
Where do you get Spanish from, not a chance. Its an African language but no idea what one, you have only to listen to the rhythms in the song to tell this. A Wonderful end to a Wonderful album. :-)
@Ryanadamsfan Good theory and I might agree but it is the official lyrics to the song. It comes up if you play the song on an iPhone and turn on the lyrics which syncs with the actual song. It is not impossible that the official source of the song put in the wrong lyrics but unlikely.
@Ryanadamsfan Good theory and I might agree but it is the official lyrics to the song. It comes up if you play the song on an iPhone and turn on the lyrics which syncs with the actual song. It is not impossible that the official source of the song put in the wrong lyrics but unlikely.
Ok, here's the thing. I'm a born spanish speaker, and I've listened to this song since it was released back in 1985. Honestly, I don't find any hint of spanish language in the verse that it's repeated over and over in the last part of this song. I've always assumed that it was a dialect o language unknown to me. As someone has pointed out, there's one (even three) too many syllables to fit what's supposedly being sung. It's now that I got (at last) a little curious that I find the theory that this is spanish spread all over the internet. Until someone comes up with an official source for this, I'll think that this was just someone making up the words and so starting the wrong theory.
I agree with ben6821 that it's an instrumental song. More on this point later.
I agree with ben6821 that it's an instrumental song. More on this point later.
I also agree with @donaldheil–I've never thought it was español (or any actual words) being sung–I always thought it was silly, onomatopoeic, nonsense sounds. Nonsense, but specifically attempting to mimic the rhythm of the percussion being played–sometimes simultaneously while the onomatopeia was being spoken:
I also agree with @donaldheil–I've never thought it was español (or any actual words) being sung–I always thought it was silly, onomatopoeic, nonsense sounds. Nonsense, but specifically attempting to mimic the rhythm of the percussion being played–sometimes simultaneously while the onomatopeia was being spoken:
boom-dee-al-uh-chick-uh-nack-uh-ko-ko-say boom-dee-al-uh-chick-uh-muck-uh-ko-ko-say boom-dee-al-uh-chick-uh-nick-uh-ko-ko-say (I can't quite make out the 'nack,' 'muck,' 'nick' sound)
boom-dee-al-uh-chick-uh-nack-uh-ko-ko-say boom-dee-al-uh-chick-uh-muck-uh-ko-ko-say boom-dee-al-uh-chick-uh-nick-uh-ko-ko-say (I can't quite make out the 'nack,' 'muck,' 'nick' sound)
The percussion, playing over and over, has the same number of counts, and has much the same rhythm as the spoken onomatopoeia. The...
The percussion, playing over and over, has the same number of counts, and has much the same rhythm as the spoken onomatopoeia. The percussion riff rarely changes throughout the last half of the song.
Think this through, too: were they real words, in any language, there'd be a good chance they'd have been listed with the four lines of published words (plus the missing "listen...") on the song's lyric sheet, but they're not listed, which could make an argument for their not being real words.
Then there's the (more or less) instrumental intent of the song. As ben6821 mentions, he believes it's an instrumental song, and instrumental songs, well, they, er, don't have lyrics. True, there are four official lines of lyrics, but pretend for the sake of the argument that they're insignificant for the moment, and let the non-lyric-ness of the song wash over you. Instrumental songs engage a different part of the brain than songs with words. In this way, the nonsense sounds support the song's being instrumental.
The female voice (?) toward the end of the song sings portions of the onomatopoeia, singing different portions at different times. (Who's voice is this?)
My official source is me. I just hope I don't end up on www.amiright.com. :-P
DP Las Vegas, NV Oct 2014
I challenge anyone to find out the following:
Where in this (admittedly awesome, spacey) 6-minute song do they say these words? And the refrain at the end - is that in another language? If so what are they saying?
@stoolhardy if you play the song on an iPhone from Apple music they sync the lyrics to the song. It is the chant at the end spoken over and over.
@stoolhardy if you play the song on an iPhone from Apple music they sync the lyrics to the song. It is the chant at the end spoken over and over.
ok bad question but, is it Roland or Curt singing?
@tifnz I believe it is Curt singing.
@tifnz I believe it is Curt singing.
Thanks for detailing the Spanish stuff at the end people.
Why is it called "Listen"? Title/lyric mismatches always pique my interest...
If you listen to it very carefully you'll know! :)
If you listen to it very carefully you'll know! :)