Woman In Chains - Tears For Fears [Remastered]

Details

Description

Woman In Chains
Composer: Roland Orzabal
Band: Tears For Fears
Album: The Seeds of Love
Released: 1989

When “Woman in Chains” was first released, songwriter Roland Orzabal claimed in interviews that he was inspired by the Jungian concept of the animus and the anima, masculine and feminine energies within all people, and Jung’s exhortation that women should embrace their animus while men should embrace their anima as the “gateway to [their] soul[s], that humans to be most complete must balance both aspects of their natures. That patriarchal society does not allow men to be feminine but instead forces them to repress this part of themselves leads to, as Orzabal phrased it, man being a "woman in chains.”
"I think it’s about the repression of the feminine, in society and within man, most of all."

The song’s music video illustrates how toxic masculinity is enforced by society and plays out in an abusive relationship. In it, a volatile young man is shown to have no outlet for his emotions except for violence, and he is a boxer who abuses his girlfriend.
Later, Orzabal revealed that his primary inspiration for the song, which is reflected in the music video, was the toxic relationship between his parents he grew up with and which traumatized him. “There was violence, and sex and violence mixed,” he said. This dynamic is shown between the couple in the music video as well.
Roland Orzabal in a Dec 1995 interview said this was his favorite Tears for Fears song of all time and that it was “about his mother”.

In an interview for LouderSound, Tears for Fears actually asked Phil Collins to play drums on this song :
"Tears for Fears just wanted me to do that big drum thing from ‘In the Air Tonight'… We want you to come in here in a big way."
Moreover, Collins released a video on his own YouTube channel to explain it was one of the songs that took the longest to get right for him.

That Interview of Phil Collins:
https://youtu.be/nACv5SErFx8

According to Songfacts.com, Roland Orzabal described the meaning of the song in an interview for Melody Maker:

"I was reading some feminist literature at the time and I discovered that there are societies in the world still in existence today that are non-patriarchal. They don’t have the man at the top and the women at the bottom. They’re matricentric – they have the woman at the center and these societies are a lot less violent, a lot less greedy and there’s generally less animosity… but the song is also about how men traditionally play down the feminine side of their characters and how both men and women suffer for it…. I think men in a patriarchal society are sold down the river a bit – okay, maybe we’re told that we’re in control but there is also a hell of a lot of things that we miss out on, which women are allowed to be."


COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the material used in this post. All material belongs to their respective owners. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use", including non-profit, educational, or personal. This is purely a personal YouTube channel. No copyright infringement intended !!!