I have no exact date for this, for as much as I try and have some knowledge of release dates and things, I am really not as much of a Simple Minds anorak as some others are. I was struggling to choose something for MMM this week, so I went searching via release date. I had a bit of time to spare this morning and wanted to have a MMM post for the blog but couldn’t make a spontaneous choice for it. My search into dates of release initially resulted in me stumbling upon this. It had a February release date and well ….
Do I need any other excuse to choose it? Nope!
Looking at the 12” copy of the single, you really got your money’s worth from that, with it having not only Celebrate itself but I Travel and Changeling on it as well.
Over the years, I have come to love the live versions of Celebrate much more than the studio versions of it. It’s usually played at a slightly slower tempo live and that makes it sexier. Forbes would kind of exaggerate the basslines too, which only added to that sensuality that the live version exudes. And then there’s Jim and they way he’d deliver the opening line in that gorgeous baritone purr – “Act of love” – act of lust, more like! Act of desire! Jeez-o! Seriously! Just that one line and OH MY GOD…It’s Monday morning and I need to study! I don’t need these thoughts in my head! Lol.
Then the way he plays around with that “she rag doll” line. I have been saying this pretty much constantly for the past eight years – I have never wished to be a rag doll SO MUCH in all my life! Lol.
Billy Sloan on his show for the previous weekend to lasts ((Feb 11) was asking what song that referenced clothes or dressing up was a favourite. I chose Celebrate because of the line “the suit he wears belongs to me,” but if Billy asks us what is the sexiest song ever made, or what line from a song is the sexiest – hands down for me it would be “she rag doll / keeps him warm.” I mean, SHUT UP! It just conjures up this glorious looking post-coital image for me. It’s either shortly after a sexual exploit or it’s the morning after. Either way, it’s a hot mess and it’s sexy as hell. It makes ME a hot mess just thinking about it! Help!
I still enjoy the studio versions. I like the kind of industrial sound of it. It’s very rooted in that European Dance pioneering sound they had in 1980. I love the sound they had then. It really did have those influences of German electronica/new wave sensibility to it – hearing the echoes of Neu!, Kraftwerk, La Dusseldorf, et al in it. Within Simple Minds music in general at that point. Did they wear their influences on their sleeve too much? I don’t think so. I know Jim would disagree with me. But to me they are still sounding very much like Simple Minds and not another band. If you’re too influenced by the music then you sound like a carbon copy of those influences. That is not what Simple Minds are doing from especially Empires and Dance and onwards.
I’ve chosen the 12” version today for as much as I could post Jim looking like the most incredible leather-clad sex god in my favourite video of all time (the Belgian TV slot from early 1982 – with me dreaming I am that bloody tambourine! Lol) – I love that beat towards the end of the 12” studio version as it falls out of synch with the rhythm of the instrumentation and how it sounds like a 1930s fascist march – perhaps that’s what the protagonist lovers at the centre of the song are running from?
That chorus is such a basic notion of enjoying life, in a three syllable triplet: We can live / I can live / celebrate – yet it is so libertarian and freedom-fighting. All expressed in those nine syllables is the notion that life is for living, that you have to grab it and run with it – run towards it – take it by the horns and make the most of it.
Let’s run together! Celebrate.
Happy Anniversary, you marvellous sexy beast of a song!
