Simple Minds - Love Song

woopwoop:

Simple Minds “Love Song”
From “Sons And Fascination” (1981)

Picture yourself on a speeding train as it travels through the major cities in Europe. The world flashing by you as you look out the window, colours and light fill your eyes until you feel positively dizzy. The rhythm of the train becoming a beat that you can’t seem to get out of your  head, the drone becomes the music and you feel yourself getting lost in this world. “Love Song” by Simple Minds is like that for me. It’s not just a song, it’s an experience, a movement, a feeling, an emotion…you live it.

“I think if you’re going to have a 10, 20, 30 year career… you’re not always going to be in fashion, you’re not always going to be top of your game, but I guess when you’ve had a career that long it becomes a life and you’ve got to play through the good and bad. And if you do that, usually, you’re perceived as being the real deal.” — Jim Kerr

Best known in the U.S. for their 1985 number one hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from the film The Breakfast Club, Scotland’s Simple Minds evolved from a post-punk art rock band influenced by Roxy Music into a grand, epic-sounding pop band along the lines of U2. The band grew out of a Glasgow punk group called Johnny and the Self-Abusers, which featured guitarist Charlie Burchill and lead singer Jim Kerr. The inaugural 1978 lineup of Simple Minds featured a rhythm section of Tony Donald on bass and Brian McGee on drums, plus keyboardist Mick McNeil; Donald was soon replaced by Derek Forbes. Their early albums leaped from one style to another, with Life in a Day consisting mostly of dense, arty pop songs; critical acclaim followed the darker, more experimental art rock of Reel to Real Cacophony and the Euro-disco of Empires and Dance. The group began a transition to a more accessible pop style with the albums Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call, originally issued together and subsequently split up. New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) became their first chart album in the U.S., and the tour-shy McGee quit owing to burgeoning popularity, eventually being replaced by Mel Gaynor. Following the Steve Lillywhite-produced Sparkle in the Rain, Jim Kerr married Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde (the two groups had toured together).  (more at Starpulse)

I like that you used the image of train travel, since geography, motion and the moving images of both travel and film/television are strong themes in the early Minds discography.