Defend the Indefensible: Simply Red

It's not that I don't believe people when they say he's an asshole -- I do. It's just that I want some big dirty DIRT.

Well, according to "24 Hour Party People", he was at the first `Pistols gig in Manchester circa `76/`77 or so.

W T F ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

He has a ruby tooth!

"Holding Back The Years" is good, never better than in Rodney's wedding in Only Fools And Horses - of course then they continued the series and the moment now seems curdled.

"Money's Too Tight To Mention" is OK, not as good as the original but OK.

I used to like "Something Got Me Started" but lord knows why.

I heard their anti-Thatcher song "Wonderland", off the Stars album, the morning after the 1992 election and it worked for me as a song. I'm not sure I've heard it since.

"Fairground" has interesting drums.

That's it I think.

If you can find it of course.

I don't know about his having been at the 'Pistols gig in Manchester (if everyone who claimed to have been at that gig actually had been, they'd have needed to re-locate from the Lesser Free Trade Hall to Old Trafford!) but there's certainly footage of The Clash and Siouxsie & The Banshees from (I think) '77 in which a young Mr. Hucknall can be seen in the audience.

I've heard that he roadied for one of the Manc. punk bands but I can't remember which one - I'll check with Joey (Buzzcocks roadie since '77) I'm sure I've got his e-mail address here somewhere....

Imagine the fall trying really hard to play "holding back the years", without the "I'll keep holding on" bit, and that's what it sounds like...

"The Right Thing": DJ-ing at two friends' engagement party in the back room of a pub in 1987, playing this early on to get the dancing started (only my third or fourth gig, didn't care what it took), and looking out over a floor full of happy people.

"Something Got Me Started" (Hurley's House Mix): dancing in New York, summer 1991. First visit, first dancefloor, first flush of "just like the movies" enthusiasm.

"Fairground": cab ride to the beach in Ibiza, late summer afternoon in 1995, still a bit pleasantly mashed up from the night before, enjoying the strangeness of the arrangement and the Goodmen "Give It Up" drum sample.

Noooo, It's Voice In The Dark / Passion / Every Day I Die - does this mean there were three singles?

(Actually I believe there's an entire unreleased album - or maybe just demos for one - out there somewhere).

This is invariably quite accurate, I'm sad to say.

"Money's Too Tight to Mention" would be vastly redeemed if the bits about Reaganomics had been jettisoned.

On the incongruous roadie front, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden roadied for the Clash and Alex Patterson of The Orb roadied for Killing Joke.

I believe there was a 'first' lineup for Simply Red that Mick Hucknell 'fired' but paid them off quite well for their trouble...

So, your mate was either right to carry on with Uni, or copped for some ..

Wasn't that the band that recorded the first three albums?

Didn't the guitarist from that band later turn up playing with The Stone Roses of all people?

Or am I hallucinating?

Someone should YSI that Frantic Elevators version of "Holding Back the Years" -- the thought awes me.

Simply Red have split, if that's possible. The others will be glad to be free of the paperazzi at last, I guess. I have a soft spot for one or two of their tunes (the obvious ones), but frankly they are indefensible for this article on copyright alone.

i always assumed it was just him + session guys. weird.

Yeah, but my guess is Simply Red = him + level of expectation of style from his core audience.

He might actually do stuff that's amazing now!

Mark, c'mon, you know that's not likely.

Man, when you think about Simply Red's over anti-Thatcherism and the Style Council's cafe socialism, it makes me imagine that maybe the way to get out of this decade and this Iraq War is through activist smooth jazz.

over/overt

Thank goodness for Babyface.

invent a new genre of music! this thread almost has me thinking "maybe they aren't so bad", then I remember watching a televised live performance by them with a big band (or something similar) for half an hour, and how they continually set new standards for insipidity. Who knows why I watched it for so long.

"Money's Too Tight (To Mention)" bares the slightest of political teeth, but it's enough.

In the poverty stakes see just what it means
When welfare decimates you’d better care
About your fellow people

Chorus:
Why are we liable to die for survival
Why is our nation divided?
Come to my aid (repeat

and

We talk a-bout rea-gan-on-ics
Oh lord down in the con-gress
They’re passing all kinds – of bills
From down cap-it-ol hill – (we’ve tried them)

Woah, and looking at their official site, it looks like they released covers of Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Ramblin' on My Mind"(!)...and now that I see they also did Neil Young's "Mellow My Mind" I will defend the indefensible by saying that they picked some great songs to cover.

I had forgotten 'til now that I heard their cover of "Heaven" before I heard the original by Talking Heads.

I keep holding back the ears because bunny's too tight to mention.

Mark, c'mon, you know that's not likely.

-- PhilK, Thursday, 25 October 2007 22:17 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

I'm not saying it's likely. I'm saying it's possible.

i always say this when his name comes up, but i interviewed him and he was an okay guy. it's not my kind of music, but i don't think you get in the charts by selling exclusively to wine bar-attending yuppies, and y'know, he obviously pleased a lot of people. obv when the interview went down i was all lol mick hucknall, wot a dick, but he's lesss of a dick, in the long view, than julian casablancas or rivers cuomo.

Wine bar yuppies? Double, Rippingtons, Ben Sidran, sure, but Simply Red?

PP otm

I was curious about this for a long time but listening to it didn't really pay off imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeQb_V2W-JA

I feel like this guy was good at singing and having hair and he went way over the top with both very quickly.

"Stars" is fucking great fuiud

Something got me started is a tune.

They're kind of like the scritti politti that it's not cool to be into, maybe. ATM I can sort of vaguely remember bits of a couple of their tunes but no more than that w/o trawling through a bunch of youtubes.

Interview w/mick hucknall in yesterday's guardian was kind of interesting i guess. He didn't come across to me as particularly likeable (or dislikeable TBH) but I must admit I do envy his lifestyle a lot.

Mick Hucknall says sex was substitute for lack of a mother’s love.

Didn't Mick fund part of Blood and Fire? Some of the guys played with Durutti Column. Underworld turned in 3 great mixes of Thrill Me. There's an E-Smoov mix of Something's Got Me Started that's pretty great.

Ah, i see virtually all of my defenses have been posted upthread. Still, Blood and Fire, the DC link and a few remixes is enough for me not to not hate them.

bears repeating:

"Holding Back The Years" is good, never better than in Rodney's wedding in Only Fools And Horses

^up there with the bruce springsteen 'im on fire' marion & geoff scene in alltime emotional/stunning tv-music moments

had huge kneejerk hate for SR when i was young and think i was right to do so. much love for the big hits now though, same way i've come round to sade. plus the guy gets an unwarranted bad rep, no one deserves the amount of abuse he's had lobbed at him

Good memories of "The Right Thing."

I like a lot of their songs actually. Sade is so much better than him, imo, though I can see why people would make the connection (smoov shit *puffs j*).