Shout….

Shout ….Shout …let it all out

Of course ,this could go either way …shout to the top ( Iconic Paul Weller and the Style Council …or TFF)

Yes , its TFF or as we know them Tears for Fears 😊

A Pictionary clue !!!!

I watched a documentary earlier this week during the late hours …was suitably impressed and learnt a lot of things I didn’t know about the history behind the band.

Of course TFF were a kinda anti new wave band…not the glamour boys as were Spandau Ballet or Duran Duran but what they lacked in the ego department they made up with pure soul. The classics will be remembered forever I’m sure . I’m talking about songs like Woman in Chains (with Oleta Adams ), Head over Heels and Shout (Mad World , Mother’s Talk….) , . Of course, the most well known is probably Everybody wants to rule the world …a hit that had them at #1 for a good many months in the mid 80’s.

Of course, this is all fairly well known but what I didn’t know was that these two musicians had a pretty rough upbringing…in fact Smith was bordering on becoming a “juvenile delinquent”. As fate would have it the duo became great school friends and Orzabal introduced him to the writings of …Arthur Janov.

Arthur who you may ask…I also didn’t make the connection . Arthur Janov was a psychologist – influenced by several others including Jung, but wrote a 70’s book called Primal Scream .

(Another name for a band of the 80’s …?)

Meet Arthur Janov … lets call him AJ for now ( no relation!)

Arthur Janov, was a psychotherapist (he unfortunately died at the impressive age of 93 a few years ago !) whose “primal therapy” had celebrities screaming to release their childhood traumas and spawned a bestselling book in the 1970s.

What I didn’t know earlier this week was the connection between Janov and music.

“Janov, a clinical psychologist, became an international celebrity with his idea that adults repressed childhood traumas, making them neurotic and leading to problems such as mood disorders, drug addiction and even epilepsy.

He believed that what he termed “primal pain” could extend as far as birth.

“Coming close to death at birth or feeling unloved as a child are examples of such pain,” he wrote.

“When the pain is too much, it is repressed and stored away. When enough unresolved pain has occurred, we lose access to your feelings and become neurotic,” he wrote. “The number one killer in the world today is not cancer or heart disease, it is repression.”

His therapy method involved having people relive their traumatic memories by “regressing” to infancy or childhood in order to confront and exorcise their demons. “

Treatment may sound a little strange but on reflection it makes sense.

 Patients would scream or shout as their supposedly pent-up traumas were revealed.

“Once you feel it, people just become themselves,” his wife said. “People don’t need the drugs, the smoking, the acting out … not to feel that pain.”

Janov contended the therapy contended the therapy could cure everything from stuttering to drug addiction to epilepsy, and might even lead to an end to war.

His 1970 book The Primal Scream made him an international celebrity. His patients included John Lennon, Yoko Ono and actor James Earl Jones.

*****As with many other emotional-release therapies of its time, primal therapy is today widely rejected by mental health professionals as unscientific and ineffectual.*****

No wonder then where the hit Shout got it’s inspiration from 😊.

Now that I’m a little more aware of the whole “Scream” thing …sorry Jake…neighbours …the postman that just fell off his bicycle …

Getting back to TFF , I never realised how deeply the lyrics really went until this week, I have a new found respect for them…inspiring indeed.

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places
Worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere
Going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression
No expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow
No tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
Cuz I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very very
Mad world…

Indeed it is but we have to make the most of what we have been given.

I do love this song though.

A little Stoic /Philosophy reflection, courtesy of both Goethe and the Stoicism page-a-day !

It’s been a rather testy week, balance, co-ordination, motivation all at a low …but the music has been awesome and the espresso strong.

A last word by Seth on Anger …and Wonder

It’s hard to imagine two emotions more different from one another.

And yet one can easily replace the other. A sense of wonder and grinding anger can’t co-exist.

Great innovations, powerful interactions and real art are often produced by someone in a state of wonder. Looking around with stars in your eyes and amazement at the tools that are available to you can inspire generosity and creativity and connection.

Anger, on the other hand, merely makes us smaller.

Here’s to an awesome week ahead ! Now…where’s my espresso …AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH