"The Best of Tears For Fears: 20th Century Masters - The DVD Collection"

Features the third version of "Mother's Talk," the US Remix.

Happy Fourth of July!

No typos: You're reading it correctly. There are only a measly five tracks on this DVD. Given that it's a companion to the compilation release of the album CD, you'd wonder why wasn't there more stuffed onto this DVD. Nevertheless, it's the one and only DVD released here in America. For eighties music aficionados and/or Tears For Fears fans, this is a great start, but however, must venture out to find other DVDs that released other hard-to-find music videos.

"Shout" comes with the original title card in the beginning of the video, while strangely enough, "Everybody Wants To Rule World" didn't. However, the gold mine found on this DVD is the rare "Mothers Talk (US Remix)."

3. Mothers Talk [US Remix] (1986)
This is it: Version three of the "Mothers Talk" music video. The US Remix is far different than the original track used in the previous two videos. The video opens with a typical American family, shot in a Sepia-colored scheme. The kid watches Tears For Fears on TV, the mom irons clothes and the dad reads the newspaper. As the song begins, the kid watches a nuclear bomb video on TV while dad's newspaper is lit on fire (an idea previously shown on the second version of this song). The band members are all dressed in black performing on a white-colored stage. The TV unveils a message "We Interrupt This Programme." What is shown on TV are the "Inner Refuge" and "Heat - Flash," which are ideas the dad copies. The family then realizes that a nuclear bomb will be on the horizon very soon, while the kid doesn't feel any panic at all. While the band continues to play on and sing, the family pack all their belongings, run for cover then suddenly the song ends the moment the nuclear bomb goes off, as they wave their last goodbyes.

The lyrics of "Mothers Talk" seem rather interesting. MemoriesFade.com provides further information, along with quoting Roland's explanation behind the lyrics, which coincides with the depiction of the video:

'Mothers Talk' was the first single from the 'Big Chair' album throughout most of the world (though not the USA). Its vaguely anti-nuclear lyrics made this TFF's most political song to date when initially released in 1984. While the b-side to its single ('Empire Building') was comprised largely of samples, the a-side is no exception - those strings you hear in the beginning are taken straight off a Barry Manilow record!

The song was re-recorded after the Big Chair tour wrapped up and released as the fourth and final single in America in early 1986.

"This was a taster for 'Songs From The Big Chair', the second album, on which we unashamedly tried to become more commercial. I was against it, but I was swayed by some of the people that I was working with. They wanted to come out all guns blazing, but I wasn't ready for that. It was from this point, though, that things really started to explode.

The song stems from two ideas. One is something that mothers say to their children about pulling faces. They say the child will stay like that when the wind changes. The other idea is inspired by the anti-nuclear cartoon book 'When The Wind Blows' by Raymond Briggs."
-Roland

That's quite a chunk. Other than that, "Mothers Talk (US Remix)" is a rare video that was previously unreleased.

Other than the rare "Mothers Talk (US Remix)" video, there isn't much packed in, other than a bonus 20th Century catalog promoting other musical artists also available on DVD. I feel more could've been stuffed onto this DVD, despite being a companion to the audio CD compilation.

As mentioned before, there are still TFF videos that still haven't seen the sunlight on DVD:

The Way You Are
Everybody Wants To Run The World
Tears Roll Down
Famous Last Words
Johnny Panic And The Bible Of Dreams
Cold
Elemental
Raoul And The Kings Of Spain
God's Mistake
Secrets (version 1)
Secrets (version 2)
Closest Thing To Heaven

Personally, thanks to online video-sharing websites, I have seen all except "Johnny Panic And The Bible Of Dreams" (so can you). Even if I have already seen them, it'll be nice to see the full DVD quality of it. Looking at the list, that's quite a chunk that's never been included. Better days are ahead and I truly believe the companies will release all of these videos, but we may never know when. Mark this DVD review a huge reminder (hope you fans will speak out as well!).

Will we get to see the releases of the rest of the TFF video library? If so, I will be happy to review it here on our website. Please, feel free to contact me.

Kris Caballero

Founder and operator of KCU Network, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially retired from video production and going back to the computer sciences, Kris enjoys studying Math, Quantum Computing, playing old video/DOS games, and listening to sports radio.

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