Sowing the Seeds of Love

The harmonic skeleton of 'Sowing the Seeds of Love' is deliberately uncomplicated — bright A major diatonic movement that could have come off a late-60s Beatles session. What the song trades in is arrangement density rather than chord complexity: Hammond organ, Fairlight CMI, electric piano, and a trumpet line piled on top of straightforward I–IV–V–vi motion. The result sounds more harmonically rich than its core progressions actually are, which is precisely the Beatles production lesson the band was applying.

Roland Orzabal wrote the song during a single week in June 1987, coinciding with the UK General Election that returned Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party to a third consecutive term. The political climate pulled him toward socialist ideas, and the lyrics reflect that directly — 'Politician granny with your high ideals, have you no idea how the majority feels?' names Thatcher without ambiguity. The title came from a radio programme Orzabal heard about Cecil Sharp, the English folk song collector who learned a traditional song called 'The Seeds of Love' from a gardener named John England, which gave him the lyric 'Mr. England sowing the seeds of love'. Orzabal also inserted a pointed swipe at Paul Weller — 'Kick out the style, bring back the jam' — feeling that Weller had abandoned the working-class political conviction of The Jam for the comparatively apolitical Style Council. A third verse reference to a sunflower came from graffiti Orzabal spotted on a wall near his home in London.

Released as the lead single from The Seeds of Love in August 1989, 'Sowing the Seeds of Love' is the most overtly political record Tears for Fears ever made — a broadside against Margaret Thatcher dressed up as a swirling late-60s Beatles homage. It hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 in Canada, becoming the duo's fourth and final American top 10 hit. Its layered production, Hammond organ, and trumpet flourishes drawn consciously from 'Penny Lane' make it one of the most studied examples of Beatles influence in late-80s pop.