Simply (d)Re(a)d.
Simply Red – InfidelityElektra – 0-66807Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM, US, 1987
For those who are already giving me side eye, here are three reasons Simply Red are potentially cooler than you remember:
1. Durutti Column - I'm pretty sure "Simply Red" eventually became the name for "Mick Hucknall plus whoever he has backing him these days." In their earlier years that we all remember them from though, they were real band with a pretty steady lineup. Three of the founding members of that lineup had also been founding members of the Durutti Column. "Durutti Column," by the time their first records were released in 1980, had essentially come to mean "Vini Reilly plus whoever he has backing him these days." But for a brief moment, Durutti Column had existed as a traditional band, assembled by the bosses over at Factory Records to play arty, post-punk rock. When Riley decided that wasn't for him and planned to quit the group, Factory instead ditched the others and made the Durutti Column into a solo showcase for the guitar prodigy. I heard an interview once where Vini Reilly said he had wanted to quit the band because what they were doing was "too pretentious." Of course, he went on to recording an album titled Treatise On The Steppenwolf, while the sacked 3/4 of DC somehow found their way into playing their Northern English take on pop soul music and becoming international pop stars. Strange world.
2. Blood & Fire - From about 1994 through 2007, Blood & Fire's reissues of rare reggae recordings set the standard that pretty much everyone is measured against since. The brilliant UK record label's reissue program, selections and liner notes were largely driven by Steve Barrow, a long time reggae expert and writer who had spent years crafting great compilations for Trojan and others. But Blood & Fire gave Barrow an opportunity to do it right, attempting to give these Jamaican classics the type of treatment usually reserved for classical, jazz and other genres: great sound quality, extensive liner notes, beautiful artwork, rare and archival bonus tracks, and a commitment to licensing the tracks and paying those foundation artists. It would be hard to overstate the impact of the music I was exposed to through those B&F collections on me and musical obsessions.
What's all this have to do with Simply Red? Well, the money for this endeavor wasn't coming from writing reggae encyclopedias aimed at record collectors... Singer Mick Hucknall along and two of Simply Red's managers were the other partners in this operation, putting up the cash that got the label off the ground. That alone is reason to forgive most other sins!
3. Good Taste - I'm no expert on the group and couldn't name more than a handful of songs, but Simply Red wore their influences on their sleeves. I'm probably in slightly too young an age bracket, but growing up in the Midwest United States, I think they're mostly remembered in my corner of the world for their cover of a Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes Philly soul classic. Those influences showed in up cover tunes, but also in the actual collaborators that they worked with on some of the records. Alex Sadkin (who got some recent love on these pages) as producer, Adrian Sherwood remixes (one of those surreal moments when his On-U Sound dub chaos and the pop charts bumped into each other), Lamont Dozier as a song writing partner(!), etc.
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Which brings us to today's record... The 12" opens with Infidelity, an extended mix of this Brit blue eyed soul cut. But maybe a little less "blue eyed" than you might think- it's one of a pair of tracks co-written by Dozier on their second album, Men And Women. Hucknall is in full lover man creep mode here over a funky bassline, sharp guitar work and a nice horn section at the very end. Sadkin was a producer on this track shortly before his death in 1987 and the song might be the most I've ever found myself appreciating Hucknall's distinctive voice. (In what I assume is a cute nod to some of his heroes, the songwriting is credited to Hucknall-Dozier-Hucknall. As far as I know, there's only one Hucknall in the mix, so the little tribute to legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team made me smile when I caught it.)
The main event as far as I'm concerned is on side B, Simply Red's cover of Bunny Wailer's Love Fire. Not just a great choice of song for them to play with, but somehow this band who can easily provoke a few eyerolls was cool enough to bring in Adrian Sherwood and Lee "Scratch" Perry to provide a remix for the 12" single. It's a fantastic mix, drenched in echo- throbbing bass and keyboards, skittering drums worked into something special (put on some headphones and check out the sound around the 3:30 mark!). Guitar and vocals floating in and out of the mix, running the melody, dropping out and returning pushed to distortion. Sure enough, Sherwood and Scratch also come with the strangeness: Babies crying for their mommy, Scratch's over the top chatting ("So we meet again, gringo!"), tweeting birds, pouring water and thunder storms all make appearances, but the song never completely gives up being a pop tune. Finding a track like this is why I love digging through piles of old 12" singles whenever I can.
Honestly, this record is really good. Give it a shot even if you're skeptical about Simply Red. (Even the Hucknall ballad they tacked on as an extra B side isn't all bad.) I meant to share this back when I posted a few records in tribute to Lee Perry's passing last year. Hopefully it still catches some people's eyes (and ears). Enjoy!
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Tracklist
You've convinced me to give it a go! Adrian Sherwood's connections to Simply Red date back to The Mothmen:
ReplyDeletehttp://on-usound.com/the-story-of-the-mothmen/
Oh that's right! I forgot about Mothmen being the other stop along way from Durutti Column to Simply Red. Thank you! They also played on some early` Sons Of Arqa records too. Ok, maybe it's time to pull out and clean those Mothmen records...
DeleteVery nice. Very nice. Thank you. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou bet. I hope you liked it! I really enjoyed putting this single back in my rotation lately.
DeleteThanks, never expected to hear Simply Red remixed by Adrian & Lee, cool! I still have fond memories of his Money's Too Tight To Mention...
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to get around to that remix as well! I love the surprising crossing paths of musical styles and artists that 12" singles have given me over the years.
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