From one ginger to another, like Mick Hucknell for most of my life I've been simply red. Because of the perversity of Australian humour where they nickname bald men 'Curly', throughout my time in the Australian Army my red hair prompted everyone to call me 'Bluey'. In Micks case, before he was Simply Red he was part of a punk outfit called Frantic Elevators. After they collapsed in 1984 Mick got together a band of sorts and started using his nickname of 'Red' in the groups name .. 'Red and the Dancing Dead' (not very catchy), 'Just Red' and eventually 'Simply Red'. One thing he did bring with him from the Frantic Elevators was a song he had written back around 1977 and recorded with them in 1982. 'Holding Back the Years' became one of the most successful and popular songs of this Simply Red debut album, "Picture Book".
The story goes that Mick got the idea for the song from his early life - his mother left the family when he was only three years old - and that maybe accounts for the lyrics ..
"Strangled by the wishes of pater
hoping for the arms of mater"
Whatever the deep-seated meaning, it really is a great song. The writing credits are shared between Mick and Neil Moss, but Mick is quoted as saying Neil didn't co-write that song but was included because of all the other songs they did write together.
The music video clip of the Simply Red version of the song was set in and around Whitby and the North Yorkshire Moors.
8 out of the 10 tracks on the album were written or co-written by Mick. The two exceptions are 'Money's Too Tight To Mention' and 'Heaven'. The original 'Money's Too Tight ...' (sometimes stylised as "Money$") was done as a soul-disco-funk song in 1982 by The Valentine Brothers and was a minor hit in it's own right. It gained a whole new audience when Simply Red got hold of it. It was also one of five tracks released as singles from the album. 'Come To My Aid', 'Jericho' and 'Open The Red Box' were the others. Oddly, one of my favourites from the album, 'Sad Old Red' just got lost on side one.
The other cover is the Talking Heads song 'Heaven' from their 1979 album 'Fear of Music'. Mick, in line with one of the descriptions of his style, gives the song much more "blue-eyed soul" than David Byrne did.
This is/was a very powerful debut album. It holds up well today, great vocals, incredible brass from Tim Kellett and guests Ian Dickson and Ronnie Ross and an unexpected sophistication from an ex-punk singer with a sensitive side.
It's easy to reduce Simply Red to two or three songs, but take the time to sit and listen to this album from beginning to end. It's all still there.
I went to see Simply Red in Auckland, many years ago. They played at the Logan Cambell Centre (aka The Logan Concrete)
ReplyDeleteThe concert opened with Mick walking out onto centre stage, alone, with guitar, and singing Holding Back the Years. He also held the audience.
Campbell ... with a P
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