May contain a heavy dose of Jim Kerr
That start. The bass and clang…something gritty and industrial about it. Almost like it’s going to turn into a Einstürzende Neubauten track! Then a wonderfully buzzing style of synth that comes in. The pace of it is awesome. I absolutely adore these lyrics! On the Dream Giver web site (simpleminds.org), Jim talks about the song…
A rare beast in the Simple Minds canon, in that there is almost no musical intro before Jim starts to sing. (As far as the version on Our Secrets Are The Same goes. More on that later…) “I’ll hurt you if you say I did”. (ie: if you wish it to be, it’ll come to…
A fabulous synth intro from Mick, then a fabulous classic rock riff from Charlie. And then….like the crashing elevator within the chorus, in comes Jim with such stilted and stark lyrics…getting straight to the point of it! It’s bleak. It’s dystopia! Industrial. Gritty. In a pea-soup fog. It’s a Lowry painting. It’s Fritz Lang’s Metropolis….
It’s that little riff at the beginning. So basic, but so right for the song. And that little jangly keyboard. Jim writes “traditional” verse and chorus lyrics. I find the lyrics intriguing. And there is some…sexual ambiguity going on within “but I’ve got something on my mind / I want you here, I want you…
God…that opening synth! It could go on for minutes! I’d be very happy if it did. What a FAB drum and bass groove come in! Then…wow, such screeching awesome guitar from Charlie. Quite a nod to hero Mick Ronson, actually. Lyric wise, it’s all Kerr ambiguity and abstraction. The lines denote ANYTHING BUT a “Love…
The first Simple Minds song I remember hearing was Promised You A Miracle. I clearly remember seeing the video on this Saturday morning music video program we had on in Oz called Sounds. And I remember loving that X-Ray scanning equipment in the video. The first Simple Minds song I really remember liking was Waterfront….
Just right from the off it’s FUNK (not just with a capital F) There’s no fade up…we’re just – BANG! – in! Everything is funky…even the keyboards. Charlie has a short, shrift riff. Derek’s bass is funky as all hell. That keyboard funk though…and then Jim’s amazingly fragmented lyrics. The way he writes on Sons…
It’s the beginning. A rare use of keyboards for the period for SM, and percussive cross-stick snare beat. I find it a mysterious song. Is it already a “Criminal World” and we’re seeking escape? Or is the world “criminal” because we desire answers, light, love? And the trouble you seek from wanting these creates that…
That opening percussive beat. Such a a hook! A drum machine, I’m assuming? A “motorik” beat. Some hear elements of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn within it…but I hear more of Neu’s Wave Mother and La Dusseldorf’s Rheinita. Because I find elements of their music more…emotional. Kraftwerk certainly have an emotional element to their music they never get…
I haven’t written one of these in SUCH a long time, but here goes… I have probably been aware of this track since at least 1984, if not since its release in 1982. It has been a long favourite. That unmistakable guitar riff of Charlie’s, and those amazingly picturesque and romantic lyrics of Jim’s, combined…
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