The Tea Party is a Canadian rock band from Windsor, Ontario, with blues, pr… Read Full Bio ↴The Tea Party is a Canadian rock band from Windsor, Ontario, with blues, progressive rock and Middle Eastern influences who formed in 1990 and disbanded in October 2005. They reformed in 2011 to play some shows in Canada. They have released seven albums commercially during their time together. Guitarist and vocalist Jeff Martin, who has perfect pitch, was also producer for almost all of their albums. All three members played a range of instruments and they took up to 37 on tour with them at times in their career. They were very successful in Canada and Australia, and to a lesser extent in Europe, but never managed to crack the American market.

The band received some media criticism for Jeff Martin's Jim Morisson-like stage persona in some of its videos and their Led Zeppelin-esq riffs, although he seemed determined to be striving to create his own image and sound. His looks certainly do draw some comparison, however, to The Doors' late front man.

Their sound is hard to categorize as each album possessed different themes and influences. Splendor Solis (1993) was a more acoustic, blues-based record, while Edges of Twilight (1995) was much darker with strong Middle Eastern influences on several tracks. Transmission (1997) saw a dramatic change to a darker, more industrial-tinged sound, and it was distributed in the USA by Atlantic Records. The last three albums by the band featured various efforts to attract a wider commercial audience, with the single "Heaven Coming Down" reaching No.1 on the Canadian mainstream charts in 1999.

In 2000, Capitol Records finally released a retrospective compilation in the USA of their Canadian singles entitled Tangents after only releasing their first two albums south of the border.

The Tea Party released The Interzone Mantras in 2001, but it did not possess the singles of its predecessors.

In October 2005, a year after their final album Seven Circles was released, Jeff Martin left the band and embarked on a solo career, releasing an album in early 2006. Jeff Burrows (drummer) and Stuart Chatwood (bass/synthesiser) have also had post-Tea Party successes, the former in several projects and the latter in soundtrack composition. Burrows and Chatwood worked together on a new project called The Art Decay before Burrows joined Crash Karma in 2008.

On April 12th 2011, an official Facebook page was launched with a biography section that closed with "The band is scheduled to play a select number of dates in 2011. No other info was available at this time." The following day, the local radio station K106.3 announced the Sarnia Bayfest lineup including The Tea Party, which was later confirmed by drummer Jeff Burrows on his radio show on April 13th. Burrows further stated that a Canadian tour was also in the works.

The Tea Party performed at the Cisco Systems Bluesfest in Ottawa, Ontario on July 14th, 2011, and the band will be playing a Canadian tour commencing on November 15th, 2011 in Vancouver. The band's website and tour is called "THE TEA PARTY - No Politics... Just Rock and Roll". In September 2011, the band was reportedly approached to sell its website URL for over a million dollars by the extremely popular American political movement bearing the same name: www.teaparty.com.

Requiem
The Tea Party Lyrics

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And you say life is bitter sweet,
You've tried so gracefully,
But its faceless company has let you down.
Say it comes to this,
All the things you'd miss,
A requiem won't change your fate.

Lost and they set you free,

Concerned by what they'd see,
And you begged on bended knee,
Still they let you down.
Say it comes to this,
All the things you'd miss,
A requiem won't change your fate.

It passes over you...
Passes over...

Say it comes to this,
All the things you'd miss,
A requiem won't change your fate.
It passes over you...
Passes over you...
Passes over...
So soon...
This requiem...
This requiem...
This requiem...
This requiem...
This requiem...
This requiem...

This requiem...
This requiem...

Overall Meaning

The Tea Party's song Requiem is a beautifully haunting song that speaks on the bitterness of life and the disappointment in the faceless company that has let the singer down. The lyrics paint a picture of someone who has tried to navigate through life gracefully but has hit a breaking point where they have lost everything that they hold dear. The singer reflects on the irony of a requiem not being able to change their fate as it's all in the past now.

The lyrics and melody come together to create a hauntingly beautiful sound that is both melancholic and introspective. The line “lost and they set you free, concerned by what they’d see” is particularly poignant as it speaks to the idea that sometimes people don’t try to understand your situation and instead decide that it's best to let you go. In the end, the song is about coming to terms with life's setbacks and realizing that sometimes you just have to accept that a requiem won't change anything.

Overall, Requiem is a deep and emotional song that captures the pain and disappointment of life. With its haunting melody and introspective lyrics, the song is a powerful representation of the human experience.

Line by Line Meaning

And you say life is bitter sweet,
You acknowledge that life contains both happy and sad moments.

You've tried so gracefully,
You've attempted to handle these ups and downs with elegance.

But its faceless company has let you down.
The impersonal, detached aspects of life have disappointed you.

Say it comes to this,
If it ever gets to this point,

All the things you'd miss,
Everything dear to you that you'd leave behind,

A requiem won't change your fate.
A funeral hymn won't alter your destiny.

Lost and they set you free,
You've been released, but abandoned by someone or something.

Concerned by what they'd see,
The concern and apprehension that surrounds you,

And you begged on bended knee,
You have pleaded hard for help.

Still they let you down.
But you've still been disappointed and left unaided.

It passes over you...
It moves past you, ignoring your existence,