Tears for Fears: Mad World

Tears for Fears: Mad World [+ favourites]

The original and the best. Very dark song. Addressed depression before it was fashionable to be depressed.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

Nup, I think Gary Jules's version is incomparable.

"The summit is just a halfway point"

The original is bland and those who like it like it because of Donnie Darko without really realizing that it's an inferior version. It's not a question of tastes.

Also, these guys wrote the lyrics. As well, Tears for Fears (for those that don't know) were both guys that were abused as kids. They both joined this therapy that helps people deal with abuses (Primal Scream, i believe), and a lot of their songs are a result of these therapies.

It's pretty amazing that they became as insanely popular as they did (as they were one of the biggest bands of the 80s), yet a lot of their songs are all based on repressed emotion and trying to cope with it.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

Tears for Fears were pioneers of a genre that had yet to become popular. When early 90's grunge got trendy, bands like Nirvana got all of the credit for "inventing" a new kind of music that had lyrical themes involving depression and emotions. People soon forgot that TforF were working with these themes long before 90's grunge, and more effectively than Nirvana, who's themes and song direction were more similar to David Bowie (in MY opinion).

"In the beginning, night was memory was water, and in the cool aquamarine depths dreams swam freely."

It sounds like you guys are saying, it was original therefore it was better.

Kinda like when people say that Mario the best game ever because it revolutionized games forever.

When inactuallity, it sucked major ass, and the games today are at least 100 times better.

If you listen to the TforF sing, then the gary jules song, you would have to say that gary's voice is far more emotional. The other guy kinda seems a little lazy and I think the song progresses to fast. He doesn't really hold any notes ethier. And I prefere it when a song does that.

Not to mention they have a really ammature sound.

Just my opnion.

"Wht cry for those that often cry? Instead, help them smile, and smile for those that smile."

Original is not always better. But almost everything made in the 80s that was original was better. Even remakes in the 80s were better.

Emotional is a vague term and in this case it would seem you mean "tired and weak". Emotional can also be driven by anger and sadness. The lyrics and the song are more appropriately driven by anger and sadness and confusion than by weakness, from an artistic perspective.

The Donnie Darko version is miss-placed with the words, plain and simple. This is a song about depression. He sounds sad, not depressed, which is a state of anti-emotion.

This version is perfect in its application: It's dark, rough, and chaotically quick. Just like moments are when you're depressed.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

Ok. The words are a little misplaced.

But in the Donnie Darko version he sounds defeated. And I guess I like that sound better.

And the guy in TforF sounds kinda monotone.

I guess my main argument for saying that the song by Gary Jules is better is because when I sing it life the original ( I'm a prety good singer ) I don't feel too much. Yeah, a little anger. No depression. I have been seriously depressed before.
It just doesn't do the job well I think.

But if you do some extreme reading between the lines and change the meaning of the lyrics to being sad and defeated, Gary Jules brings so much of the "anti-emotin" to the table it is almost scary.

When I sing it his way, I get really into it and it makes me want to cry.

It "sounds" better from the Donnie Darko movie. It may meen more from TforF, but it sounds better in the movie.

"Wht cry for those that often cry? Instead, help them smile, and smile for those that smile."

So you like the slow dreary melody, not the words. And if it makes you want to cry, again, that is not anti-emotion, that's sadness.

Depression is a contradiction: It means your emotions are in pain and in order to solve them you must take a course of action that your sub-conscious is unwilling to do (or unable to do). As a result, depression follows.

Hence, anger, confusion, and the complete shutdown of one's emotions is the direct result of depression.

Which totally defies the Donnie Darko song.

I don't dissagree it is a good song for the movie, and if TFF hadn't created the original I'd like it. But the original is better, more fitting, and more accurate for the words.

There is a difference between something being better and the thing that is worse being bad.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

I would still play super mario 64 over many over-stimulating games of the new era...

But anyway, the point of MY particular reply was that Tears for Fears were among the first of their kind, as I stated in my very first line. I didn't say they were the best in their catagory of musicians, or in the catagory of music as a whole.

I agree with Decius that the theme of the lyrics mesh with the melody of the original song a whole lot better than any other variation I have heard, including the Donnie Darko version.

"In the beginning, night was memory was water, and in the cool aquamarine depths dreams swam freely."