(Different audio to visuals…but a great version)
Another fantastic percussive display from Brian McGee. I know I keep saying it, but I just ADORE him as a drummer. I know Mel has been with them for nearly 35 years now, and he is fabulous…but I will never stop loving Brian and appreciating his drumming on those early albums and gigs.
It seems quite a difficult drum part. When I watch the 1982 Rockpalast gig, Mike Ogletree seems to struggle to keep time with it. It’s the final song before encore, so he is probably naturally tired…but, yeah. Maybe my interpretation of it. But as awkward as the timing of it seems, I love it.
Another stellar display of keyboard/synth work from Mick MacNeil. And bass from Derek Forbes. Charlie’s guitar is so low key as to be almost non-existent on this track, with just a subtle little wail of chords as Jim sings the “semi-monde” line.
Oh, and those words. I know I keep saying this as well…but HELL FIRE I am in love with this man as a songwriter (let’s be honest – full stop)! Those opening lines “Summer rains are here / Savage beauty life / Falling here from grace”. Just…what lines to open a song with!!!
I was reading an article today from 1980. Them being interviewed by Paul Morley…so who knows how much Rent-a-Gob (our nickname for Morley, as he seems to like to give EVERY documentary EVER made a bloody soundbite of his opinion) exaggerated what was said, but he painted Jim as being VERY pissed off that music journos (like himself, no doubt) and the public to a lesser degree seemed to think the Minds were “Art school rock” and that they were deemed to have ideas above their station. He supposedly said “we are more bricklayers and plumbers than anything”. But, really, he should have just said “Fuck them! We’re not art school rock, we’re working class (which is exactly what he was trying to say) but we are damn fucking smart and we’re not going to apologise for that!” Because, of course, working class means “dumb”. It means you shouldn’t want to educate yourself, improve yourself, learn, think, explore, read. And, by God, this is why I love this boy so much. That intelligence just oozes out of him. And when I say he is beautiful and sexy, adorable, gorgeous…it never is just purely the looks, the aesthetic…it’s those smarts. That brain. When I was younger, I would have been as intimidated as all hell being around him, near him. Would have just felt COMPLETELY out of his league! Not that I feel “in” his league now! But I at least feel confident enough to hold a conversation with him. At least at a distance. If I ever met him, I’m sure I would still feel utterly intimidated. And not from that “ooh, famous rock star” angle…but from the “OMG, he is just awesome – what do I even say?” view.
I am digressing wildly (these “Why I love” pieces should just be relabelled “101 reasons why I love Jim Kerr”. Lol. It would be very short though. “Reason one – he is awesome and beautiful.” “Reasons two to one hundred and one – see reason one!”)
ANYWAY…those words.
The day David Bowie died, I was SSSOOO devastated, I went very insular. I wanted to do one of my “lyric of the day” pieces but I just felt there were no words, so I did one for Kant Kino. That night, as I usually did when I was in Oz, I fell asleep listening to Minds. Sons And Fascination came on (I usually tend to listen in shuffle mode) and I knew it had to be the piece the following day, because of the lines “thank you for the voice / thank you for the eyes / thank you for the good times”. I mean…just everything I felt about David, summed up in those lines.
I used an art print I had commissioned of Jim with an Aladdin Sane lightning bolt across his face. A homage to my two favourite boys, long before David died. I changed it subtly and spread the words upon it. But I need to do a new piece and I will. More lines of the song need highlighting.
And those fabulous lines continue “Sister feelings call / Cruising land to land / No faith, no creed, no soul / Half a world away / Beauty sleeps in time / Sound and fury play (all day)” – the “all day” words he would seem to add when performing the song live.
Wonderfully abstract. And the chorus too “Ma son / warm land / semi-monde”. Semi-monde as in “half world”? Or just an abstraction alluding to the Noel Coward play he must have seen at The Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow? One of the only places to ever actually put on a full production of the play. If it is alluding to the Coward play…it’s just another one in those “101 reasons”. There you go! There’s two of the 101. He’s awesome and beautiful, and he name drops a Noel Coward play in his lyrics.
Oh, just fuck EVERYBODY who ever thought Simple Minds were being too clever-clever. You just never fucking got it if that was the case! Continue to live your close-minded existence. Never learn. Never grow. Keep yourself cut off in blissful ignorance and go fuck yourself!
Sorry, but COME ON!
In summary. It’s that drum, the synths/keys, the bass…and the words. Just wonderfully abstract but amazing. Image rich too…as usual.
And that is why I love Sons And Fascination.
