For Smith and Orzabal, their third LP\u2019s long, and at times painful, genesis had tested their close bond. Their future plans as a creative unit would soon come to a dramatic halt, following a gruelling promotional world tour, and a furious dispute about their management. As a result, the pair wouldn’t speak for nine years. More on that at the end of this article\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Back to 1989, and the release of Sowing the Seeds of Love came four years since Everybody Wants to Rule the World<\/a> had impacted on the globe like a meteor. A monster hit, the song has now grown into arguably the decade’s defining song. <\/p>\n Their second album, Songs from the Big Chair became a must-buy for musos and chart-devotees alike, launching Tears for Fears into an unexpectedly astronomical league. <\/p>\n Although they had accomplished what they\u2019d dreamed of since first forming their creative partnership as teenagers in Bath, the weight of fame soon became unbearable for Curt. <\/p>\n \u201cAt the height of our fame was the unhappiest I’ve ever been personally,\u201d Smith told People<\/a> \u201cI mean, the lack of personal life, the fact that we were so young and didn’t really know how to say no, it was just not good for my mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Exacerbating the growing pressure on the two young men was increasingly frequent meddling in their music-making process by their record label Phonogram. Naturally, the label was counting on this pair of unlikely hitmakers to keep doling out commercially viable singles. Their interference was partly behind why album number three took such a long time to produce.<\/p>\n \u201cI’d made most of the music, so it was like I didn’t want anyone telling me what to do anymore,\u201d Orzabal told Tape Op<\/a>. \u201cCurt and I, from the age of 18, had sat in recording studios, always the guys at the front, behind the producer and engineer. Always the guys who never leave the room. Always the guys with opinions. All we needed with The Seeds Of Love was the confidence of the record company, which we didn’t get.\u201d<\/p>\n \n In 1989, Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal’s time as a creative duo was nearing its end – but years later, the pair would make-up, and produce some truly superb new material (Image credit: Brian Rasic\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n The label breathing down their neck aside, the album\u2019s production was beset with problems. <\/p>\n Although the Seeds sessions began in late 1986, numerous false starts, cul-de-sac creative directions and a rotating door of potential producers (including the return of trusted previous album producer Chris Hughes, for a while at least\u2026) had resulted in a protracted gestation.<\/p>\n The constantly shifting deadline, plus the group\u2019s penchant for inviting star-name session players, such as Pino Palladino and Phil Collins turned out to be costly. It would set the TFF enterprise back by at least \u00a31 million.<\/p>\n As the band\u2019s musical leader, Roland Orzabal had become increasingly wary of following the electronic-leaning trends of his contemporaries, and after the rigidity of relying on such tech during the lengthy Songs from the Big Chair tour, decided that it was something to be consciously shunned on the new album.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d toured around the world for eight months, and the technology meant we had to play backing tracks on a Revox tape machine, assembled in a way that we couldn\u2019t change our set for those eight months,\u201d Orzabal told Classic Pop<\/a>. \u201cThat drove us both mad. Whatever came next needed to get away from that, and we decided to go on a journey for the next record.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith and Orzabal agreed that The Seeds of Love should wallow in a more organic field, with real instruments and looser time signatures underlining the fact that Tears for Fears\u2019 musical range could be vast. It also showed that they were not afraid to ignore contemporary trends in pursuit of more worthy art.<\/p>\n At that time, in Britain, the preeminent \u2018Eighties pop\u2019 sound had slid into a faster-paced, high-energy, disco oriented mould, defined by the production-line of records released by Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Orzabal and Smith had little interest in entering that world. \u201cI love and respect Kylie,\u201d Roland told Classic Pop<\/a>. \u201cBut she wasn\u2019t who we wanted to compete with.\u201d<\/p>\n This urge to redefine the band ahead of a new decade was wholeheartedly supported by the record\u2019s initial producers, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. But disagreements about song structure and production approaches led to their being fired. <\/p>\n \u201cThe problem when you\u2019re working with producers is that you may like every record they\u2019ve made, but you don\u2019t know how much of that comes from the producer and how much comes from the artist,\u201d Smith told Super Deluxe Edition<\/a>. \u201cWhen you go into a studio with these people, you may love their work, but it doesn\u2019t mean it translates to working with you.\u201d<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \n It took years to make The Seeds of Love, and every hour in the studio was billed\u2026 (Image credit: Michael Putland\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n The band’s previous producer Chris Hughes returned to assist his former prot\u00e9g\u00e9es, alongside eventual (named) co-producer Dave Bascombe. But even Hughes would ultimately leave after ten months of work, during which he helped steer many of the record’s key cuts, such as the exceptional Woman in Chains<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amidst the drama of this roughly four-year period, Orzabal surmised that the band\u2019s lead single should clearly be a step away from the surrounding pop milleiu. Instead it would look back, to the more avant-garde attitude of on the pair\u2019s key influences, the Beatles<\/a>, in their later era.<\/p>\n It was a song that would eventually stand as one of Tears for Fears’ high watermarks. The beguiling turn of phrase that marked its anthemic chorus stemmed from a story Roland had heard on BBC Radio 4 concerning a collector of traditional songs.<\/p>\n Roland was entranced by the discussion of one such folk song, which the collector had learned of via a gardener called Mr England. It was dubbed \u2018The Seeds of Love\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought \u2018wow, Mr England, sowing the seeds of love\u2019 and from that I just wrote the thing,\u201d Orzabal recalled in an interview with Super Deluxe Edition<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cAlso, there was a piece of graffiti across from my house, in England\u2019s Lane (in North London) and all it said was \u2018I love a sunflower.\u2019 Don\u2019t ask me what it means or what it meant, but I managed to get it in the song.\u201d<\/p>\n The demo of the song was made on Orzabal\u2019s Fairlight, and was framed around an undulating, I Am the Walrus-evoking verse, and a lyric that was teeming with overtly political lines, including direct references to Britain\u2019s then Margaret Thatcher-led government. <\/p>\n Triggered by Thatcher’s re-election in June 1987, this marked another shift for Tears for Fears, becoming (overtly, at any rate) political for the first time.<\/p>\n Politician granny with your high ideals \u201cI was reading for the first time books like Marxism for Dummies, Thatcher for Dummies, all those \u2018\u2026for Dummies\u2019 books and A Brief History of the Working Class,\u201d Orzabal told Super Deluxe Edition<\/a>. \u201cI was getting a little anti-government and for the first time quite political, in a left wing way.\u201d<\/p>\n Whilst Roland was often the spearhead for the duo\u2019s music, the other half of the partnership was starting to become ticked off with Orzabal’s perfectionism in the studio. Roland sought to have oversight on every element of the production process. <\/p>\n Though this was still a few years ahead of their acrimonious split, the seeds of discontent were certainly being sown.<\/p>\n In the studio, though, Curt and Roland still behaved as professionally as ever, and their bond was strong. This was an important relationship, especially in the face of the external interlopers trying to steer the record into more profitable waters.<\/p>\n \u201cCurt and I always get on very well when we’re recording together. We talk to each other and listen to each other. We argue. I think both of us were ready to do something solo after [The Seeds of Love],\u201d Roland reflected in an interview with Tape Op<\/a>. \u201cIt was really the touring; that’s when we fall apart.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s contribution to the song was hugely important, understanding that what was needed following Roland\u2019s snarling whirlwind of a verse was a pivot into a simple, and easy to sing, chorus. A modern nursery-rhyme that would conclude this most selfish of decades on a utopian note.<\/p>\n \u201cI played [the demo] to Curt. He just started singing the backing vocal from nowhere, which was obviously way more than a backing vocal,\u201d Roland told Classic Pop<\/a>. \u201cAs soon as Curt began singing, I thought, \u2018That\u2019s it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Curt\u2019s idea – that singsong repetition of the titular line \u2018sowing the seeds of love\u2019 in the chorus had a beautifully naive quality that deftly counterbalanced the intellectual intensity of the verses.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Roland loved the fact that he\u2019d come in, in the middle of this big work, with something quite childlike. I don\u2019t mean that disrespectfully, I mean genuinely childlike and brilliant,\u201d said Chris Hughes in an interview with Super Deluxe Edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sowing the Seeds of Love\u2019s initial musical form was built using a drum machine, and had a (according to co-producer Dave Bascombe) much more \u2018hip-hoppy, Prince-style thing\u2019 about it, before being re-arranged to suit the pair\u2019s looser concept.<\/p>\n \n It was on the Seeds of Love tour when the pair’s relationship would irreconcilably break down (Image credit: United Archives GmbH\/Alamy)<\/p>\n To get that authentic ‘1967’-ness, a click-track free live band was recorded at London\u2019s Townhouse Studios. On the piano and Wurlitzer was Roland, on bass was Curt, Chris Hughes took up position behind the drum kit and Ian Stanley played the Hammond.<\/p>\n The four played through the basic track numerous times until Roland was satisfied they had it down. Orzabal had intended the arrangement to hark back to the Beatles\u2019 psychedelic maelstrom I Am the Walrus, and gradually increase in tempo. But, making that idea work was no small feat.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the best way to achieve that aim was to activate the dreaded click track, and make the tempo shift incrementally forward in BPM.<\/p>\n \u201cI Am the Walrus starts off at one tempo and ends up at another tempo,\u201d Roland told Super Deluxe Edition<\/a>. \u201cSo we programmed the click from 84.5 BPM to go all the way up right at the end when it\u2019s going mad to 88.5 beats! Then we recut it and then we had it.\u201d<\/p>\n Beginning with a wash of oddly-phased drums, the song leapt straight into Orzabal\u2019s Walrus-recalling, lyrically-dense verse. It was housed within a cloudy, complex (for the charts) G minor key. <\/p>\n As the track marched through the morass of Orzabal\u2019s stream of consciousness tirade, the clouds sonically parted to usher in the warm glow of Smith\u2019s gorgeous chorus. Musically, this was sold by an ascension to C major.<\/p>\n The duo\u2019s stacked vocals made for a gorgeous and uplifting contrast. It was a chorus that summoned the revolutionary spirit of the sixties and reframed it as an optimistic riposte to the selfish avarice of the have-it-all ’80s.<\/p>\n The protracted bridge sections developed into an extended outro, that featured further musical colouration, harmonic shifts and counter melodies atop the established hooks. It grew from irresistible pop hit into, ostensibly, a mini-prog epic.<\/p>\n In these sections, further instrumental flourishes added to the psychedelic euphoria. Most notable was the French horn part, being quite the most conspicuous nod to the Beatles. Penny Lane and For No One in particular.<\/p>\n Although by now the track had grown into something quite majestic, Phonogram wasn’t entirely satisfied. They found it tricky to make their mind up as to which version of the track they preferred.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Sowing the Seeds of Love was mixed – just before Christmas 1988 – we were happy. Curt was happy. I was happy. [Co-producer] David Bascombe was happy,\u201d Orzabal told Tape Op.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe took it away. It was called the \u2018overnight\u2019 mix. This will give you a bit of history. We came in the next day, and all we did was edged down Curt’s chorus vocals about half a dB. It was nothing. That mix was rejected by the record company. We then spent six months remixing that song.\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of this gruelling remix process, much to the duo\u2019s chagrin, that same label executive astoundingly pointed back to the original \u2018overnight\u2019 mix as his favoured one. \u201cHe said, \u2018That’s the one.\u2019 Did he think about how much money we spent – or was charged to us – because he had no confidence?\u201d, Orzabal continued in his Tape Op<\/a> interview. \u201cHe had no confidence, and he couldn’t deal with us as individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Roland Orzabal continued under the Tears for Fears name as a solo artist in the 1990s, before reconnecting with Curt in 2000 (Image credit: Martyn Goodacre\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Released as a single on the 21st August 1989, Sowing the Seeds of Love narrowly missed the top spot of the US Billboard Top 100 Chart on its ninth week, held at bay by Janet Jackson\u2019s Miss You Much. <\/p>\n Despite this being an enviable, huge success that many UK pop artists would be delighted with, for Tears for Fears it was a notable drop down from the group\u2019s gold standard pair of US chart toppers Shout and Everybody Wants to Rule the World.<\/p>\n \u201cOur single was No. 1 in sales, but Janet beat us on airplay,\u201d reflected Roland in his Classic Pop interview,<\/a> blaming label Phonogram for a lack of promotion. \u201cAt one point, we had to go round checking to see if the album was actually in the stores in certain places in America and it was all getting a bit nasty,\u201d Orzabal told Super Deluxe Edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n Outside of the politics of the industry, contemporary listeners were absolutely head over heels in love with this bizarre, bucolic, extraordinary modern hymn. It soon became one of the group\u2019s most cherished cuts.<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Alamy)<\/p>\n Its effect was perhaps best summed up by The New York Times\u2019 Stephen Holden; \u201cThe song, which lovingly imitates the treadmill rhythms, trumpet-laced textures and exhortatory mood of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, updates the Beatles’ utopian sentiments to the present by proclaiming ‘an end to need and the politics of greed with love.’ At the same time time it recreates the childlike playfulness of late 1960’s pop psychedelia.\u201d<\/p>\n Falling short of the number one spot was perhaps an indication that momentum was slowing, and the record\u2019s promotional tour would serve as the group\u2019s final act before their bitter split.<\/p>\n Although Curt and Roland went their separate ways in 1991 – and didn\u2019t speak for nine years – Roland continued to make music under the Tears for Fears moniker until, after a surprising reconciliation, the pair came back together as a considerable creative force once again. <\/p>\n 2004 saw the release of the aptly-named Everybody Loves a Happy Ending and, most recently, the duo released The Tipping Point, an inspired return to form for one of the UK\u2019s greatest pop exports.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the big lessons, which really I think we knew at heart anyway, is that there\u2019s no one better to produce our music than us,\u201d Curt told us in an interview<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n![\"TFF\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6TeKRozFjHpMddHzMNLAmd.png\")
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Have you no idea how the majority feels?
So without love and a promised land
We’re fools to the rules of a government plan<\/p>\n![\"Tears](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PrwTTXm7qMewfhZmJ9e32P.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n![\"Sowing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/7NEbffYjXeaxF4TFy4AaWk.png\")
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