Every Beatles song referenced by Tears for Fears in ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’
It’s impossible to count the number of artists and songs that have been influenced by or paid tribute to The Beatles down the years. The band’s unrivalled impact on modern music means that almost every pop or rock act out there owes them a debt of gratitude in one form or another, even if they’re several degrees removed from the Fab Four’s direct influence.
One artist that owes more than most, though, is 1980s new wave duo Tears for Fears. The pair went as far as openly paying tribute to The Beatles with the composition of their 1989 single ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’.
Lyrically, the song is a call to arms against Thatcherite and Reaganite political policies while also calling out former Jam songwriter Paul Weller in the process. But musically, it’s unmistakably Beatles-oriented, to the extent that elements from several Beatles songs are openly lifted and inserted into the track. While there’s no actual sampling involved, the blatant examples of musical quotation are clearly a homage to the biggest band in rock history and their role in 1967’s ‘Summer of Love’.
Tears for Fears members Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were upfront about their use of Beatles tunes in the single, as Paul McCartney acknowledged at the time of its release. “When I first heard it, it was a bit of a shock,” McCartney admitted to a Canadian press conference in December 1989. “It was like, who are they kidding?” he said. But after he heard the band explain their intentions, he understood. “They’re quite open that it is a tribute to The Beatles and it’s purposely that kind of ’67, Sgt Pepper kind of style.”
So, which Beatles songs feature?
‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’ features musical nods to no fewer than eight Beatles songs, all of which were originally released in 1967. Clearly the music that The Beatles were creating around that period of their career chimes with the single’s principal message of peace and love.
It kicks off by quoting Ringo Starr’s legendary drum part from ‘A Day in the Life’, a reference which returns around four minutes into the song. That call-back happens immediately after another hat-tip to the legendary Sgt Pepper closer, with a section ending that mimics its historic final chord, preceded by an ascending orchestral crescendo just after three minutes.
The most obvious repurposing of a Beatles song in the track is the staccato electric piano stabs, which form the basic backing track for the verses and are a like-for-like copy of the same instrumentation in ‘I Am the Walrus’. The tempo and vocal rhythms are virtually identical to the Beatles classic, too. And the second-verse couplet “I spy tears in their eyes / They look to the skies” is an allusion to the ‘Walrus’ rhyming scheme that invokes ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ in one of its own verse stanzas.
The chorus for ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’ is a markedly different affair from its verses, with washed-out harmonies decorating a blissfully sunny refrain which borrows chord patterns from both the end ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ and the chorus of ‘Hello Goodbye’. The extended final section of the song is even more similar to ‘Hello Goodbye’, and its structure clearly draws on the “Hey-la” coda from the 1967 Beatles single, to the point that Orzabal does a reasonable impression of McCartney’s scat improvisations while repeating the phrase “love power”.
That impression could also be referencing the coda of ‘All You Need Is Love’, which has to be the definitive blueprint for what Tears for Fears were aiming at with ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’. The ‘All You Need Is Love’ coda gets a further nod in a trumpet line just after three minutes as well, which doubles up as a homage to the trumpet solo in ‘Penny Lane’. Then, in the song’s following section, there are the hard rock guitar breaks buried in the mix that capture the sound of the title track on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Additionally, just to prove their Beatles knowledge, the duo imitates the lead mellotron part in the Magical Mystery Tour instrumental ‘Flying’ in a 30-second synth break around the two-minute mark. With this minor addition included, they manage a pretty comprehensive sweep of the band’s 1967 sound.
Tears for Fears obviously loved The Beatles and felt that music in the late 1980s needed to revive the political message of the ‘Summer of Love’. What’s more, they got the seal of approval from their heroes. “It’s a tribute,” McCartney surmised. “I’m honoured”.
