I had never read (or even SEEN) this interview before. I’m sure he must have shared it on SMO at the time…but I was so early into my mega fandom, I no doubt overlooked it. Too busy absorbing the music and many other things about the Simple Minds world. Watching tons of early footage…as much as I could find…trying to relive early gigs…creating as much of a way to time travel as I could.
I can’t express how much those early days captured me. Captivated me! And still does. Those embryonic stages of the whole band dynamic…and Jim. Always Jim.
Always that concoction of bubbling, smouldering…just all the facets of him. I said once of him, “he’s an enigma wrapped up in a question mark”.
And that one…that bloody one from Spirited Away I have always to believe to be a falsehood. A fallacy! Because I see him as ANYTHING but uncomplicated! He may like simple pleasures…good food, warm weather, the companionship of a dog, etc, etc…but that brain! Is anything but uncomplicated! Scrupulous…quite possibly overactive. Mercurial. Another word I have used several times to describe him. He endlessly fascinates me. He is as ambiguous as his lyrics. Oh, to be that fascinating to someone. To continue to pique a person’s interest like that purpetually. How I wish! But I suppose that is the difference between us. I see the layers of an onion. (I’m sure many others would and do see him as rather one dimensional…some fans have said as much to me. That they find him rather boring.) Layers to peel away. Whereas I am an open book. Ask me a question, I’ll answer it openly and honestly. Unless it would betray a trust of somone else, I will be open and honest. But…I have no private world to maintain. Or do I?
And the reading of books. It reminds me of how voracious I had become some years back. Giving myself challenges. Book reading challanges. I’m a slow reader. Methodical. Quite possibly deliberately so. I don’t want to miss details. And if I try to read fast, I miss details. I’ll get distracted. Read 5 pages of a book, and instantly have no recollection of what I just read. So I take time.
I have some 200 books unread on my Kindle. I bought so many books…and I have read some great books. Not classics. Not anything anyone would know by any reknowned author. But some great ones.
Seeing as I am to hear Ian Rankin give a talk in a couple of weeks…perhaps I should read at least ONE Rebus novel? I do like a good detective story. A long favourite of mine has been the 87th Prescinct novels of Ed McBain. I’d borrow them from the library and read them. There are so many of them. I’ve probably only read maybe 10 of them at most. I have a stack of them on the Kindle now.
I knew of Jim loving Bulgakov and The Master And Margarita (curiously, when at a recent recording of the BBC Radio 4 Friday Night Comedy – The News Quiz, the guy sitting next to me was reading Heart Of A Dog. I asked him what he thought of it, in comparison to The Master And Margarita, having asked him had he read that also. He said he felt it more methodical than TMAM…not as fluid…certainly not as “supernatural”, but that he was enjoying it) – but Vanity Fair was news to me! I must get back to reading more regularly!
I learned things from the interview. It answered questions I had…but always throws up more. Sometimes I love the mystery. The intrigue. Sometimes I don’t want to know. I want him to remain fascinating…because…once you peel away all the layers…what’s left?
And does everyone who knows me thinks they know me well? Do I deceive? Deception makes me uncomfortable. I don’t deceive. There are just things no one needs to know…
Anyway, after all that, you can read the interview with Jim (from 2014) HERE