MAD WORLD (WITH GARY JULES)

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Mad World is a song (duet with Gary Jules) from the live album Timeless 2013 (2013).

Mad World is a song by Tears for Fears released in 1982 on the album The Hurting .

The song has a second life thanks to the singer Gary Jules who, with the musician Michael Andrew offers a new version for the soundtrack of the film Donny Darko directed in 2001 by Richard Kelly. The two artists completely revisit the song in the form of a very refined ballad with the simple presence of a piano and some discreet synthetic arrangements to accompany Gary Jules. This cover will become a tube in the United Kingdom (number 1 of the charts during three weeks and best sales of the year 2003) and will also know an international success.

How prophetic this song is! When Corona stroke I could not help by played this song in my mind. Didn’t we all do? But really, it makes you think how often creative Geniuses are ahead of their time and very often become real prophets. Perhaps, because they are connected to something higher or perhaps that are much more sensitive to what surrounds them and are able to see beyond the vail? Or perhaps the state of madness is a perpetual one for the Planet Earth

The bottom line, the song is just gorgeous.

It’s just beautiful especially in such a lyrical and sensitive version of Gary Jules even when Mylene was not a lead in this performance during Timeless of 2013. She was a beautiful echo yet making it much more vulnerable and complete. I am a sucker for Mylene no matter what she does in case if you didn’t notice (LOL). I would love it even if she sang a phone book so to me it was another touching performance. I love how well she collaborates with other artists giving us unforgettable duets (more about it in my later posts)

As you know there were many others tried to make this song their own from of course original Tears for Fears with my teenage crush Roland Orzabal. Oh common, he was super cute, wasn’t he? But the song as much as it was very trendy for its time in the style of the early Depeche Mode and Duran Duran (yes folks, I am THAT OLD haha!) there was a slight dissonance between very sad lyrics and the upbeat tempo of the music.  I think Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert both did an honor to the song making it deeper and accentuated the beautiful melody. Thank God for the 19-year-old Roland Orzabal. Thank God he got depressed.

But to be completely honest I was somewhat like Roland Orzabal especially in my youth. I was often depressed and felt a sense for not belonging. I was always super sensitive and creative and wrote tons of poetry and music to be able to cope with Life. So this song cuts very close to the core. That’s why a treasure Mylene so much. She entered my “mad world” when needed her the most and she was my Savior at that dark time and place where authoritative regime was completely intolerant to any deviation form the socially imposed “norms’. “The dreams where I am dying is the best I ever had” back then

Well, I survived…

But I can’t help but think of all of the Souls that Left our Mad World in the past year. Some due to the virus, others due to unbearable isolation. This song is a tribute to them all. Let’s think of them for a minute while we listen to the song. They deserve to be remembered. And us who are still lucky to be on the surface of the Planet, lets expand and enlarge out sensitivity towards each other and maybe the world will get just a bit less “mad”?

What also made “me kinda sad” is that I had the tickets to see Timeless in Nice but was not able to fly there from the USA due to the family circumstances. However, I finally fulfilled my dream of attending her concert in Geneva in June 2023.

I hope you are luckier than me. Which concerts have you been to? How was it for you? Do tell!

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TIMELESS 2013

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Mad World was sung in duet with Gary Jules on all dates of the tour.
Stage arrangements: Yvan Cassar.

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lyrics

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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 kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very mad world, mad world
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello, teacher, tell me what’s my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very mad world, mad world
Enlarge your world
Mad world

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