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Curt Smith - Tears for Fears


CyberBass

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Was going through back catalogue of music and re listened to Songs from the Big Chair and have to admit I love Curt Smith's Bass Playing on Head over Heals. Never really gave it much thought before, but I really rate him. What do you guys think?

Edited by CyberBass
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I was never a huge fan of Tears For Fears, but liked them a bit
I have Songs From The Big Chair on vinyl,
and I think back in the time of that album,
I preferred other music, and was probably listening to the bass on other music,
and busy trying to emulate that....

But I agree, listening to the music a few years on,
I found the songs and bass more interesting than when I first heard it.....

EDIT: Of it's time, and yes, it worked in context

Edited by Marc S
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[quote name='DanR' timestamp='1415876189' post='2604685']
The Hurting is a great album. Easy to slate them for being overproduced but underneath it all is great songwriting and hooks
[/quote]

Yes, overproduction was possibly a part of that era & genre
But as you say, some good songs in there
Even if, like me, they aren't your favourite band,
you can easily find yourself singing along......

...and knowing a lot of the words etc

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I've been listening to a fair bit of TFF recently. I may be wrong, but I remember reading somewhere (or at least getting the indication) that as they went on he became a lot more 'overshadowed' by Roland Orzabal, in that Curt didn't even play bass on all the songs on their later albums and Roland did most of the songwriting/arrangements etc (I'm talking post-Songs from the Big Chair).

If you follow him on Twitter he occasionally does Q+A sessions with fans, usually giving very short answers!

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I used to be play the first two albums all the time & he was probably one of my influences (without realising it at the time).
Never bought any of their stuff after SFTBC for some strange reason.
I've been listening to those albums a bit recently too.

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  • 1 month later...

Songs From the Big Chair is brilliant and there's some lovely bass on it. It's also a very well produced album featuring some great keyboard programming.
My cousin was their monitor engineer for a couple of tours ages ago and we got into a conversation about bass, neither of us knowing the both played a bit. Curt gave him his Steinberger at the end of the Big Chair tour which he said was gathering dust under his nipper's cot! Bass crime.

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Classic album. It was in the charts in 1985 for what felt like forever. Wikipedia has it in the top 40 for the whole year!

Practically every track was released as a single.

I would say everyone aged between 42 and 50 probably has it on vinyl. Or did.

Floppy hair, big collared wooly jumpers tucked into peg trousers with a soul belt. :D

.

Edited by TimR
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  • 3 years later...

Resurrecting old thread alert....

This came up out of the blue on my You Tube feed. It’s from a Spotify special marking the 30th anniversary of Songs From The Big Chair back in 2014.

Small studio setting, small crowd but the quality of the performance is absolutely sublime. Superb, tasteful, restrained musicianship throughout and quite true to the original recordings. Roland Orzabal’s voice is in great shape, no sign of his pipes wearing out with age, and Curt Smith’s tasteful playing on a couple of nice vintage hollow bodies.

There’s a 40 minute set plus chit chat in the complete video but here’s Head Over Heels. The Working Hour in the same video is worth checking out too - a tour de force.

Makes me so grateful that we have music in our lives...Enjoy.

 

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