Monday, August 14, 2017

THEMES FOR GREAT CITIES





So, after hearing DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME (and it’s awesome flip side A BRASS BAND IN AFRICA), I quickly ran out and bout SPARKLE IN THE RAIN and NEW GOLD DREAM, and then that was about it for Simple Minds, cuz their early stuff was rare beyond belief in my part of redneck USA.



When I finally stumbled upon a beat-up import copy of REEL TO REAL CACOPHONY in the cooler of the 2 mall record stores (about a year later), I snatched it up.  And wow….


I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this was essentially the same band that recorded the shiny, sparkly stuff that I already owned.  Amazing music, but I had zero context for it in the Simple Minds canon.  And then, about a year after that, Virgin records (for reasons unknown to anyone, even today) released SISTER FEELINGS CALL as a budget priced cassette.  And, again, it was like a transmission from some alien planet of musical awesomeness.   Took me a few more years to track down LIFE IN A DAY, EMPIRES AND DANCE and SONS AND FASCINATION, but they were all worth searching for.


Early Simple Minds.  The foreign exchange student in high school new it kicked ass, and who the hell are you to say any different?




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