A very interesting post from Jim this morning. An amazing little insight into how his mind ticks. I have spoken so much about the imagery that Simple Minds songs conjure up for me…in me, that it was fascinating to hear that the wordsmith himself has…well, what must be “alternate” imagery (unless it does derive from what the songs are about for him?) to take those arragement queues for when he’s performing.
The one for Love Song I had to look up. I have no idea if it is a specific Hellfire Club – or whether he means the (as I learned in looking it up) infamous London club. That place sounds WILD! And…well, there’s a bit of that feeling in the Love Song video – guys on the lash, in the club, making a scene, making their presence known, causing chaos…but leaving the patrons (some women in particular) wanting more. Oh, yes! And, of course, for me it conjures up all that fetish talk – Jim in leather with belts and boots, and with mic cords…(excuse me while I take a moment)….WHIP, WHIP, WHIP!!! Lol
And it reveals what I have been saying since the early days of my Minds fandom…Love Song is NOT a love song! It’s faaaaar too sexy to be a “love song”. It IS the Hellfire Club! I definitely see where you are going with that one, Sir! (Grrrrr!!)
UPDATE: Upon further investigation, it seems there was a Hellfire Club in Glasgow – a venue they obviously played, or perhaps the very location of the Love Song video. I feel bad for letting my imagination run riot now. Lol! Oops. Still…I like the idea that the Glasgow Hellfire Club was just as….sordid…it probably wasn’t. Dang!
The others – some I get.
I can see why See the Lights can conjure up Elvis (especially as I presume he means Presley and NOT Costello. Lol). Charlie’s guitar on it has that Sun Studios sound. I’m assuming that’s the link?
Strange Waterfront conjures up the Northern lights. It’s always Oh Jungleand for me (“He sees the Nothern lights above this highrise land”). Waterfront I just see the Clyde and rainy streets and underpasses – and for a long time…years ago, before uber fandom, I would see a jetty or pier, leading to a lake. I was probably picturing a Scottish loch without realising it.
Big Music is Sly Stone? Unless to him it sounds a little like Family Affair, perhaps? Not sure it really conjures up anything specific to me. Just them on the stage performing it. Lol. That’s a bit boring, isn’t it? Lol. Not them performing! But that it just conjures up something so…matter-of-fact for me.
Let It All Come Down – Dream Within A Dream/Poe? Certainly musically similar elements. I am unfamiliar with the Poe story (lines from it used in the lyrics for the Propaganda song, it seems. Will read it. And must read The Raven while I’m at it!)
It can conjure up a similar imagery, the Propaganda song…for Let It All Come Down I suppose I kind of see elements of the video mingled with my own version, blended with visuals the lyrics conjure up. An unmade bed, bright daylight, muslin curtains billowing in the breeze of an open window…lovers waking up, enveloped in each others arms.
But the one that stumps me – the 10 of diamonds for Blindfolded! I would love to ask him more about that! I don’t dare though. Maybe someone else will, and he’ll answer them.
I just see very stark imagery from the lyrics. I don’t even see the visuals from the video – as good as it is (but it also reminds me a lot of Star Guitar by The Chemical Brothers, that video)…just the desert Jim mentions…the first man mentioned is on a dusty sandstone wall…not a high one, but it looks as if he is going to jump…and he is blindfolded. So is “Sugar”, and she’s similarly stood on a wall…sometimes blindfolded…other times not. The “kid” is never on a wall…but is alone, blindfolded still…but he is alone. People are milling around him…but at a distance. Perhaps 100 yards away, in all directions. And I see the saints and the letter they’ll never get to read, “because the saints became blinfolded long ago”.
As you can see, it had me churning over the stuff I see with these songs as a consequnce. I looooove that he challenges me to use my brain. I adore you, you beautiful smart cookie, Mr Kerr! I am but a mere…dimwit in your presence.