26 Aug, 2009 Searching for Simplicity!
Some songs go all out to say a lot. Others songs seemingly don’t attempt to say anything that much, and yet somehow seem to say a lot more as a result.
Mandela Day, a song we wrote in ‘88 came together faster than just about any other I can remember. I recall the demo of it being almost finished off less than a half hour after the initial idea had materialised. It could not be simpler musically, but its effect rings out as strongly as it did back then when much of the on looking world was calling out for change in South Africa, and arguably it now has a decent profile as one of the more well known freedom songs.
The minimalism of the song works a treat. It says all that needs to be said. Above all it is catchy, and emotional at the same time without any bluster. You did not need to know the story of Mandela to appreciate the song, but it made the song what it is.
Good pop songs, can fall together seemingly almost of their own accord, although it is probably right to say that you need to have put much in time into producing the creative mentality as well as for the right conditions, to grasp a good pop idea when it comes around.
A good “pop song” for me is a tune with lyric that is instantly striking without need for any further context or any other layers of information. You hear it once, maybe twice at most, and bang! You are right there and with it!
Promised You a Miracle was our first true pop hit, but Chelsea Girl from our debut album was in my opinion the first really good pop song that both Charlie and I wrote. Again, I recall clearly it coming together in an instant.
It was a rainy March afternoon in April’78 in fact and we were in my parent’s front room with only Charlie’s acoustic guitar as a tool. We needed a killer “sing-along” to plop into the middle of our burgeoning live set, something that an audience could grasp and come in on with us from the first hearing. This was “a trick” I observed Steve Harley doing during Cockney Rebel’s period of fame, when I saw them perform a handful of times, and we in turn rather ambitiously wanted to emulate some of the spirit of the Harley shows.
The fact that he was playing Wembley Arena type shows while we were playing the basement of a beer cellar in Shawlands, Glasgow, somehow never managed to deter us from our desired effect, and Chelsea Girl was constructed and put together especially to be our big throw of the dice. This was the song that we wanted, the one we needed, the call out to anyone listening with a message intact that said we were not content to be another run of the mill punk outfit with dreams no bigger than securing a mention on the John Peel show!
Did it work? You bet it did, and right off the bat too. We were inundated in fact with requests to play it sometimes two or three times a night. The confidence it gave us was remarkable and the audience more than joined in on it also. Especially during the break down where Brian McGee does a great job.
It was a while before we would come again with such a simple chorus song, perhaps not until ‘Celebrate’ from Empires and Dance, another song that was adapted instantly as a chant by our live audience.
“The American” which was already hovering in the background as a new idea would be next up of course, but we still had some pondering to do in between over how to make simple things that would create huge effects. That challenge continues even today!
Jim Kerr
photo credit: www.fotografie-ab.de