The very first time I heard it, I fell in love with it. It’s Mick MacNeil’s organ playing (I’m assuming it’s an organ, it sounds like one) that first hooked me in. It is SO reminiscent of “Waltzinblack” by The Stranglers (another absolute FAVE instrumental – oddly enough, The Stranglers are the Minds’ support/co headliners for the November European and UK area gigs) but Garden Of Hate pre-dates it. Did Dave Greenfield hear Garden Of Hate and get ideas? That’s a nice thought!
Charlie Burchill’s guitar is actually quite hard rock on this. Guitar rock waltz!
It’s a curiosity for a Simple Minds track in that it’s OVERTLY dark. I love that! I love a band that can do “dark” convincingly. And their music had a darker edge to it in the early days…but this is something else! And I think that is why I was SSOO blown away by it when I first heard it. When you grow up only knowing or being familiar with “the hits”, you tend not to associate this kind of dark material with Simple Minds.
In his lyrics, Jim talks about seeing a man with a broken arm and a girl he knows getting “quite cut up” and that he either doesn’t care or doesn’t know *if* he cares. That’s some pretty dark apathy going on there. Of course, it’s story-telling, but wow!
It’s kind of weirdly “rocky” too, helped along by Charlie’s grinding guitar…but with that waltz timing to it…Mick’s organ (that sounds wrong saying it like that!) dictates the whole song though, really.
It ends with a fantastic crescendo. Jim and the rest of the bhoys singing the title of the song over and over, between exaggerated laughs of “HAHA HAHAHAHA!” from Jim. And then that final note of Mick’s that seems to go on forever…
It’s a fantastic Halloween song. Hence why I chose to write this particular “why I love…” now. Just so I had an excuse to share Garden Of Hate for Halloween.
And that is why I love Garden Of Hate.
And just for good measure…let’s have Waltzinblack too.
Happy Halloween everyone!