I have a confession to make. A long time ago, I made a Spotify playlist in which I added EVERY SINGLE SONG that is by Simple Minds or Jim Kerr in a “mega Minds” playlist. All songs went in…even ones I am not so enamoured with. This was one of them.
Every time Saturday Girl would play, I’d skip it. I obviously played in full the first time I heard it and became aware of its existence, but I decreed I didn’t like it. It was…dated, schmalzty. That’s just my bag. If a love song is…too obvious in its approach, I tend to switch off. As much of an overly emotional retard as I am…I’ve never really been a big one for love songs, on the whole. And that is why I love something like Love Song – because it actually ISN’T a “love song”. Love songs don’t have lines like “I cut my hair, paint my face, break a finger, tell a lie, so well, so well” in them! (And yet, every Valentine’s Day, people choose songs like Love Song and Every Breath You Take for their betrothed to show how much they love them. Okaaaaay. Lol)
Back to Saturday Girl and my…aversion to it. So, yep. Trapped by its late 80s production and sound…and its (for me, personally) schmaltziness…I dunno…it just didn’t wash with me. For a long while.
I couldn’t ALWAYS skip it. The way I listen to my Minds music is generally through the night with the mega playlist on shuffle mode. So sometimes, through semi-conscious slumber (conscious and alert enough to hear it play, but too sleepy to turn my iPod back on and hit the “forward” button) it would play through.
Slowly over time, a change of heart happened. I can remember where I was and when it actually happened. Very early this year, away from home, listening to it (purposefully) as I settled down to sleep. I chose to play it! It had started to win me round with a few plays that had happened over the previous few weeks. And that night I thought, “I want to be soothed to sleep by Saturday Girl. I want Jim whispering in my ear, ‘I’m still waiting'”.
And the decree was altered from “Nope. Don’t like it! Too late 80s over-produced, schmaltzy pap” to “Listen to that whispering voice. That piano. Those soft rim taps (drums). Beautiful subtle guitar.” The lyrics too. Yep.
Confession to a conversion. A change of heart. Perhaps, sometimes, love songs CAN be obvious and beautiful.
I must be getting soft in my old age! Lol
Anyway…enjoy Saturday Girl.