Top 100 #4

Most people know the Tears For Fears classic, “Mad World”, from American Idol when Adam Lambert sang it. Or they remember another rendition from the cult movie, “Donnie Darko.” 

I remember if when I first heard it when I was a sophomore at a new high school. 
It will always be a classic. And it will always be one of those songs that came at the perfect place and perfect time (during a miserable year stuck in a miserable place). Songs are just for celebrations. Some are about basking in misery, right? 
Here are the lyrics to “Mad World”:
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Goin’ nowhere, goin’ nowhere
Their tears are fillin’ 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 dyin’
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
‘Cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad world, mad world
Mad world, mad world

Children waitin’ for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sits and listen, sits 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 kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dyin’
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
‘Cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad world, mad world
Mad world, mad world

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dyin’
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
‘Cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad world, mad world
Mad world, mad world
A raunchy young world
Mad world

3 Comments

  1. Thank you! Usually with other friends I have to go searching for the lyrics. You always include them.

    As for this song, I had forgotten for a bit. Once I started reading the lyrics it all came back again. I swear some days, my deafness has given me the liberty of rediscovering things all over again from a different perspective.

    Another song that is close to me is Jane Siberry's "It Can't Rain All The Time." That song got me through some tough times. So many people saw the movie "The Crowe" as dark and demented. Me? I saw the love story entwined underneath it all. There is beauty beneath the ugliness.(Hugs)Indigo

  2. "Mad World" was the best song sung on AI this year. And if one looks at the song as dreaming about heaven, it changes the meaning of the song altogether. It is a 'mad world' without eternal perspective. Going no where.

  3. I agree with you, Indigo, about beauty being there beneath the ugliness. Carmen–very cool perspective when looking at it that way. I think the great thing about so many songs is that we can interpret them to mean something for us. cool thoughts.

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