![]() (I’m guessing it’s “ Seen And Not Seen,” though I guess it could be “ Crosseyed And Painless.” Talking Heads’ highest-charting single is 1983’s “ Burning Down The House,” which peaked at #9. Orzabal has said he took the beat from a song on the Talking Heads’ Remain In Light, though he hasn’t said which one. It took months for Tears For Fears to finish recording “Shout.” Orzabal came up with the chorus and the idea for the song while working with a cheap keyboard and a drum machine in his room. Instead, “Shout” merely says: Fuck this shit. “Shout” never presents itself as a philosophical argument or a statement on how the world is. I’ve never had that issue with “Shout,” even though it’s just as vague. On that one, the group seems to be singing about the nature of power, but they offer no examples, no specificity. I have problems with “ Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” Tears For Fears’ previous #1 hit, because it’s so fuzzy and indistinct. So “Shout” is a liquid protest song, one that can adapt to any environment. Everyone has their own things that they can do without. Instead, the song is built around one big, repetitive, mantra-like hook: “Shout! Shout! Let it all out! These are the things I can do without!” Orzabal and Smith never specify what these things are. Instead, it’s their idea of a protest song - one driven particularly by the governmental policies of the late Cold War, especially by the American nuclear weapons that were installed in the UK.īut “Shout” never tells you what it’s about. ![]() But they’ve also said that “Shout” isn’t a song about primal scream. They took their band name and many of their ideas from psychological theory. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, the two leaders of Tears For Fears, were both great admirers of Arthur Janov and of primal scream therapy. “Shout,” Tears For Fears’ second American #1 hit, is a great moment for the fuck this shit sentiment - a rare moment where fuck this shit is the entire message of a big pop song. When enough people decide, at the same time, that this shit needs to get fucked, the world changes. It can just be a feeling, and that feeling can be enough to fuel you, to help you feel like you have some kind of power. ![]() It doesn’t have to have a specific target. The sentiment doesn’t have to be any more nuanced or focused than that. There is great power in simply saying fuck this shit. ![]() In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. ![]()
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