poptimists | The Friday Canon: SIMPLY RED

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The Friday Canon: SIMPLY RED

Quick! While

bengraham's at Glastonbury! BRING ON THE HUCKNALL!

You get 10 ticks.

[Poll #1007960]

The Guns N Roses canon posted on my own LJ by mistake this morning is NOT canonical. Results of outstanding Canons will be compiled when Kat gets back from Glasto too.

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I like the idea of a non-canonical canon. Perhaps we can have a poll sometime to decide which of the Friday canons are canonical.

I cannot find a single GnR or Simply Red track I would want to tick.

"for yr babies!" is what MH yells at climax

I think I actually have danced to a Simply Red song while I was hammered once in Y hen Bae (har har my welsh grammar is so bad) which they were trying to clear the dancefloor with (Stars, I believe it was) which I subjected, along with anything in my vicinity, to my usual wild flailings. To be fair that's the kind of thing that's perfectly acceptable by 4am in a town where everyone complains about the outrageous post-midnight pricing of £2.30 per pint (£1.50 b4 12) anyway.

I do quite like several of their songs, though, including aforementioned dancefloor nightmare and 'Money's Too Tight To Mention' is ace.

Do you know the original "Moneys Too Tight..." by the Valentine Brothers? It's really good (so is the SR version tho - in fact for a long time I used to claim it was better because people saying "Do you know the Valentine Brothers version?" rly annoyed me)

I don't know the original, no, unless it's been played at me at some point (in which case I am unaware of its exitence anyway) -I thought it was Hucknall's own. I will go and look it up on YouTube now.

I dunno if a video was involved, good hunting tho! I have the 7" single, the Valentines look and sound quite sad and down-at-heel, money almost certainly was v.tight, which I doubt it was for Mick. The Vals' version is sparser and gloomier, Mick adds the whole "Did the earth move for ya Nancy?" bit (which I really like! but it does change the song a little)

I frequently see people - fans and detractors - saying stuff like "Mick Hucknall is the great British soul voice of his generation" (detractors then accuse him of wasting his voice). Is this true? If so, how come his covers of great soul tracks are so unmemorable?

Also - is his Blood & Fire thing the biggest ever example of someone having very open and public and passionate musical interests which are utterly unhearable in their own stuff?

i don't LIKE his voice, but it's hard to disagree that he does indeed have a powerful and distinctive voice. he's never managed to use his cvoice to convey emotion to me, but then i don't like his voice, or the music, so it's never had the chance.

Because a magnificent voice alone doesn't make a good record, I suppose. This is why Whitney/Mariah etc have such a poor ratio of great-to-dross - without imagination you're just a pub act.

Contrarily, I answered 'no' to the voice qn, because while I don't hate it (I think it is "pleasant" in the lower register) I don't think it's all THAT remarkable. The 7 songs I ticked were for the songs themselves rather than the vocal performances.

Also - is his Blood & Fire thing the biggest ever example of someone having very open and public and passionate musical interests which are utterly unhearable in their own stuff?

John Darnielle's lifelong love of Metal to thread!

Sorry what is this Blood and Fire thing?

He runs a label devoted to reissuing old dub reggae records, called Blood And Fire.

i think he funds it rather than runs it

I was travelling round Europe in 1992 when the General Election happened, and the Tories under Major won a slim and unexpected majority. The friend I was travelling with had "Wonderland", off the Stars album and about the fall of Thatcher, on a tape he'd made for the trip, and I found myself listening to it again and again and feeling very melancholy and moved. So that's Simply Red's finest hour, for me. I sort of wished he'd made more 'political' soul/pop, however oblique.

So terrifying to realise that 'Stars' was in the first of the three polls (IE they'd already fallen off the cliff by that point)

I think one can put together a perfectly fine SR Greatest Hits album, and "Holding Back the Years" really is a remarkable song. Sure it's all a bit easy listening, but I don't see how that's any worse than some of the other slightly tripped-out folk that people listen to.

They are worse than the Beautiful South.

"Fairground" has more ticks than "If You Don't Know Me By Now". I don't understand this. I couldn't hear what was good about "Fairground" then, and certainly can't now. Was it as ubiquitous on radio as the average UK #1? To me, none of Hucknall's redeeming characteristics are on it!

Fairground pissed me off ENORMOUSLY because of the blatant theft of the Goodmen drum sample which had been released what, one year previous? I loved that Goodmen song so much, and having Hucknall shite all over it upset me immeasurably. Once upon a time I had listened to mum's tape of 'Stars' in the car for about 18 months continuously :(

Ha, you thought I wouldn't see this, but I did. However I will not leave Poptimists as promised, since you did this in my absence, and clearly no-one could be bovvered to vote anyway because he is so RUB.

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The Friday Canon: SIMPLY RED

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helpful image to have in yr head while voting

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Hucknall's Voice

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Ambushed By Unexpected Hucknall

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I don't get the hate at all

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