SIMPLY RED / “It’s Only Love”

I know it’s uncool to like pleasant music. As a certified music junkie, I’m supposed to only listen to deep music or obscure music or difficult music or something like that. But sometimes, a pleasant ditty is just what I want. Simply Red is a band from Manchester, England. Actually, Simply Red’s lead singer Mick Hucknall is from Manchester. I don’t know where the rest of the band is from and it probably doesn’t matter all that much anyway since Mick changes bandmates the way the rest of us change bedsheets. Here in America, Simply Red is best known for “Holding Back The Years,” a 1985 single that remains popular enough that it still gets played on Quiet Storm and Adult FM radio shows. While they may be considered one hit wonders in the US, in the last twenty years, Simply Red has actually sold some 50 million records worldwide. Mick is a decent songwriter (he penned “Holding Back The Years” when he was still a teenager), but Simply Red is best known for their covers. I can’t honestly say that the band brings anything new to their remakes – what they actually do best is select good records to remake. Even before you hear a Simply Red cover, you know what you’re going to get. A faithful, pleasant sing-along that gets all the big things right while forgoing any attempt at doing anything new or unusual. It sounds like a recipe for musical disaster – like a night out at a karaoke bar – but I actually like Simply Red’s remakes. First up is “Night Nurse,” the quintessential Lovers Rock record by the legendary Jamaican crooner Gregory Isaacs. (Isaacs’ version is available on his 20th Century Masters collection.) Some of the success of the cover (from 1998’s Blue) is due to the similarity of the two singers’ voices and styles. Mick sings with the same mix of smooth romance and slight insolence that made Gregory Isaacs’ such a popular singer of love songs. It also helps that Jamaican veterans Sly & Robbie are on the riddim. When thinking about this record, you also have to consider the well-known UK/Jamaica connection. Over the years, Simply Red has done several other roots reggae covers and Mick Hucknall is one of the people behind the excellent reggae reissue label Blood & Fire. In 1986, Mick Hucknall did a piano and strings version of the Cole Porter standard “Every Time We Say Goodbye” (from Men & Women). Back in the early Nineties when I first got into Simply Red, I knew of the tune because it shows up on John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things album. For me, it was fascinating to finally put lyrics to melody. I’m a big fan of the way Mick sings the tune straight, without worrying the melody at all. A few years later, Simply Red covered Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes’ soul classic “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” (The original is available on Harold Melvin’s Greatest Hits, the cover is from 1989’s A New Flame.) It became their biggest single to date, going to #1 on the U.S. pop chart. (So I guess they aren’t one hit wonders after all.) You might think that black folk would recoil at the idea of a high-pitched redhead from England covering a record originally voiced by the commanding baritone of Theodore ‘Teddy’ Pendergrass. But you’d be wrong. Simply Red’s cover of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” not only topped the pop chart, but if memory serves it also topped the R&B chart. (And in case you’re wondering, the original Harold Melvin/Teddy P. version was a #1 R&B hit too.) Over the years, Simply Red did many other R&B and soul covers but I want to mention just one more because it’s one that I listened to for years before realizing that it was a remake. The song is “It’s Only Love.” I’d always thought of it as one of Mick Hucknall’s better originals. I really like the instrumentation of this song. If you listen closely, it sounds like there are two guitars and they’re playing different melodies. Years later, I was surprised to find that “It’s Only Love” (also from A New Flame) was originally called “It’s Only Love Doing It’s Thing” and was written by Jimmy and Vella Cameron and performed by another baritone-voiced legend of soul music, Barry White. Barry’s version (from 1978’s out-of-print LP entitled The Man, available on the Soul Seduction compilation) is good, but of all of Simply Red’s covers, this is the one where they may have actually outdone the original.* By the way, if you’re digging these Simply Red covers but don’t want to chase down all the original LPs, all four are available on The Very Best Of Simply Red, a 2-CD import set that you can get for under $15. —Mtume ya Salaam P.S. Anyone else notice that Barry’s version rips off the bells from the Brothers Johnson’s (via Shuggie Otis) “Strawberry Letter #23”?
            There’s something in the air              My son lives in San Diego. He fled Katrina’s 2005 flood waters and ended up looking at the 2007 sky turn hellfire red. Don’t worry, he lives in one of the poorer (relatively speaking—poor for San Diego) sections. No beach-front property. No on-a-cliff on-the-coast view. No hot tub set to boiling. I checked on him earlier and he said he was cool. All was well. I recently read that the air out that way is three times the normal pollution. Some of that shit must have got to Mtume. What else would explain why he would want to post Simply Red “trying” to cover some exquisitely hip music. I trust that BoL readers have ears. The originals and the Simply Red shortcomings are in the jukebox one behind the other. Of the four selections, there is not one reason to listen to the Simply Red. Perhaps it was just the fact that fire is red that made Mtume pick simply anemic (iron deficient, weak-ass red corpuscles) treatments and place them next to the blue flame beauty of these soul classics. These ain’t covers. They’re saran wrap, smothering all the life in plastic. Mtume, son, you need to seek professional help. —Kalamu ya Salaam           I know I'm not alone          You know what? I definitely need some professional help. I don't think that has anything to do with Simply Red or the fires though. I've been listening to Simply Red since the late 80s. And like Kalamu said, these wildfires are one of the rare disasters that are impacting moneyed people more than poor folk. Here where I live in City Heights, it's business as usual. The taco shops and liquor stores are still open, the fruit sellers and mobile ice cream carts are still going up and down the streets, and over on El Cajon and 30th, the girls are still hard at work doing the hardest kind of work there is. Other than smoke and ash all over the place and a lot of overtime, I can't say things are all that different. But folks in the nice suburbs like Rancho Bernardo, Poway, Rancho Santa Fe and Carmel Mountain are catching hell. Almost literal hell. You ever seen 50-foot flames race across a 12-lane freeway in less than 30 seconds? Jesus. Anyway, the Simply Red thing is kind of weird, I admit that. Back in the late Eighties and early Nineties, they actually sounded pretty soulful. These days they do sound kinda saccharine, so I know what Kalamu means when he talks about plastic and Saran Wrap and all that. But everytime their version of "Night Nurse" kicks in, I can't help it, I just start rocking back and forth, mellowing out. Is it better than Gregory Isaacs' classic? Hell, no. Please. But Gregory's cut is deep, deep soul. Simply Red's cover has the same vibe but it's lighter on its feet, more nimble. Gregory's cut makes me want to put the kids to bed and turn on the blue lights. Mick's cover gives me the same vibe except that I can listen to it at two in the afternoon. Maybe that makes sense, maybe it doesn't. I don't know. Hey, if any of y'all are feeling Simply Red, write in and say so. I know I'm not alone. —Mtume ya Salaam

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