History Music / SimpleMinds

* WordSaladLyrics / WordSaladTitle: Most of the lyrics and song titles on Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call. "In Trance As Mission," "Seeing Out The Angel," "Wonderful In Young Life" and "70 Cities As Love Brings The Fall" are good examples, but even songs with easier to understand titles like "Careful In Career," "League Of Nations," and "Love Song" have gratuitous WhenIsPurple content. JohnPeel is quoted as saying that the titles sounded like crossword puzzle clues.

* [[CoolOldGuy Cool Old Guys]] - The core members of the band are all nearing sixty, but can still put on a great show.

''New Gold Dream'' went to #3 on the UK albums chart, and since its release in 1982 it has been considered a masterpiece of the New Wave movement in general. But for the band, it was as far as they could go with subtle textures and delicate moods. A [[NewSoundAlbum new sound]] was needed, so they cranked the volume and intensity UpToEleven for their next album. ''Sparkle in the Rain'' was a huge worldwide success (except for America, which continued to ignore them) and produced three hit singles, "Waterfront", "Speed Your Love To Me", and "Up On The Catwalk".

In early '79, they recorded their first album, ''Life in a Day''. Sales were disappointing, and the band quickly [[CanonDiscontinuity dismissed]] it as sounding too much like their influences (Music/DavidBowie, Music/{{Genesis}}, Music/RoxyMusic, and the Punk and New Wave around them). Their next album, ''Real to Real Cacophony'', was dark, moody, and experimental. It sold even less than ''Life in a Day''. Their third album, 1980's ''Empires and Dance'', was proto-{{Industrial}}, sold poorly again; by this time Arista had had enough and the band [[ChannelHop transferred]] to Creator/VirginRecords.

Kenny Hyslop replaced [=McGee=] for the ''Sons and Fascination'' tour, and played on the next single, "Promised You A Miracle", but didn't fit in with the band and left. Mike Ogletree was next, and wrote the drum parts for their next album. But he left too, and handed his drum parts to Mel Gaynor. Mel turned out to be the perfect drummer for Simple Minds, with a combination of skill and brute force. And so the classic Simple Minds lineup was completed, as was the album that would be considered their greatest artistic achievement, ''Musc/NewGoldDream81828384''.

Simple Minds perfected their sound around this time, a mixture of NewRomantic [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]], ProgressiveRock, and ElectronicMusic. They recorded enough material for two albums, variously released as ''Sons and Fascination'' and ''Sister Feelings Call'' or as one double album. This produced their first hit, "Love Song", and caught the attention of Music/PeterGabriel, who chose them to open for him on a European tour. They were beginning to succeed; but the constant recording and touring was too much for Brian [=McGee=], who left at the end of the recording sessions.

Kenny Hyslop replaced [=McGee=] for the ''Sons and Fascination'' tour, and played on the next single, "Promised You A Miracle", but didn't fit in with the band and left. Mike Ogletree was next, and wrote the drum parts for their next album. But he left too, and handed his drum parts to Mel Gaynor. Mel turned out to be the perfect drummer for Simple Minds, with a combination of skill and brute force. And so the classic Simple Minds lineup was completed, as was the album that would be considered their greatest artistic achievement, ''New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)''.

''New Gold Dream'' went to #3 on the UK albums chart, and since its release in 1982 it has been considered a masterpiece of the New Romantic movement and New Wave in general. But for the band, it was as far as they could go with subtle textures and delicate moods. A [[NewSoundAlbum new sound]] was needed, so they cranked the volume and intensity UpToEleven for their next album. ''Sparkle in the Rain'' was a huge worldwide success (except for America, which continued to ignore them) and produced three hit singles, "Waterfront", "Speed Your Love To Me", and "Up On The Catwalk".

* ''Music/NewGoldDreamEightyOneEightyTwoEightyThreeEightyFour'' (1982)

* ''New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)'' (1982)

* ''Sons and Fascination'' (1981)
* ''Sister Feelings Call'' (1981, now part of ''Sons and Fascination'')

* DividedForPublication: ''Sons and Fascination'' and ''Sister feelings Call'' were originally recorded as part of the same sessions and intended for release as a double album, but were split apart due to the band seeing the idea as too ProgressiveRock-esque. However, the latter album was originally shrink-wrapped with the former (before being given a standalone budget release) and the two were eventually reunited on one CD as ''Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call'', now considered the canonical configuration of the album.

** "Street Fighting Years" features songs about various injustices around the world. This includes the poverty and crime in the band's native Scotland ("Street Fighting Years", "Soul Crying Out"), the troubles in Northern Ireland ("Belfast Child"), apartheid in South Africa ("This Is Your Land", "Mandela Day", "Biko) and songs giving hope to people in these times ("Wall Of Love", "Let It All Come Down", "When Spirits Rise") as well as songs of rebellion ("Take A Step Back", "Kick It In"). The band dealt with political issues on their early albums, but generally in a vague way - they were much more explicit about it here, and the album still stands out as being their most political.
* DorkAge: The Neapolis through to Cry period, a time where the group was - by their own admission - not as excited about making cutting edge new music as they once had been. It didn't help that critics ravaged them as washed out during this period. Fortunately, Black And White 050505 restored their image.

** The instrumentation in the chorus of "Seeing Out The Angel" on ''Sons And Fascination/Sister Feelings Call'' would later be reused for the famous "Mandela Day" song.

Mel Gaynor returned for ''Real Life'', a sequel to ''Street Fighting Years''. It went to #2 in the UK, but the U.S. shut the door on Simple Minds, this time for good. Gaynor left again in '92 (he would return in '97 and has remained with band since then), and since then Simple Minds has officially been a duo of Kerr and Burchill. Their last album of the stadium rock era was 1995's ''Good News from the Next World''.

They returned to the sound of ''Once Upon A Time'' for 2005's ''Black & White 050505'', 2009's ''Graffiti Soul'' which went to #10 on the UK album chart, and 2014's ''Big Music''. After more than 35 years, they can still rock and still draw a crowd.

* Jim Kerr (vocals)
* Charlie Burchill (guitar, keyboards)
* Andy Gillespie (keyboards)
* Ged Grimes (bass)
* Mel Gaynor (drums)

[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simpleminds_8724.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:252:Charlie Burchill, Mel Gaynor, Jim Kerr]]

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In contrast with the band's 80s pop hits, they sounded more like Music/JoyDivision and Music/Magazine on their early albums. On their earliest material, they took a lot of influence from Music/TheStranglers.

* ConceptAlbum: "Empires And Dance" deals with train journeys around Eastern Europe at the time of the ColdWar. It takes this trope into NightmareFuel territory on several occasions.

* ''Walk Between Worlds'' (2018) (Forthcoming)

In early '79, they recorded their first album, ''Life in a Day''. Sales were disappointing, and the band quickly [[CanonDiscontinuity dismissed]] it as sounding too much like their influences (Music/DavidBowie, Music/{{Genesis}}, Music/RoxyMusic, and the Punk and New Wave around them). Their next album, ''Real to Real Cacophony'', was dark, moody, and experimental. It sold even less than ''Life in a Day''. Their third album, 1980's ''Empires and Dance'', was proto-{{Industrial}}, sold poorly again, and this time Arista had had enough and the band transferred to Virgin Records.

* CreatorBacklash: The group felt this way about "Life In A Day" for years - partly as it failed to capture their live sound -and partly cause critics continued to poke fun at its juvenile songwriting years after the fact. In the 2000s, the group reembraced it, with Jim feeling nostalgia for that time period and fans and newer members having shown an interest in reviving songs.
* CreatorBreakdown: "Street Fighting Years" is characterised by ballads about such bleak yet current subjects as gang violence in Scotland, apartheid in South Africa, and IRA bombings in the UK and Ireland. "Real Life" deals more largely the breakup of Jim Kerr and Chrissie Hynde's marriage and Jim's various failed attempts to rekindle her interest.
* CutSong: "Kaleidoscope" and "Here Comes The Fool" were both recorded for 1979's "Real To Real Cacophony" and left off, without being used as B-Sides in its era. This recording "Kaleidoscope" was released in 1980 as one of the B-Sides of to "I Travel", as a bonus track on the 1982 compilation "Celebration", and then finally reunited with "Real To Real Cacophony" on the second disc of the X5 box set. "Here Comes The Fool" was attempted again both in a 1979 Radio Session and for "Empires And Dance", but the band felt it failed to capture its live energy in studio (also the Radio Session is hampered by distortion that would have prevented it from working on vinyl), so did not release it. A 1979 live version recorded by the BBC was eventually released on Silver Box in 2004.
** "League Of Nations" and "Sound In 70 Cities" were cut from the original CD release of Sons And Fascination / Sister Feelings Call for space reasons, though reinstated on the remaster.
** "Saturday Girl" left off "Street Fighting Years" and "Good Night" left off "Real Life" were both tracks with full lyrics omitted for being too similar to other tracks on already long albums that still had to fit on vinyl. In an odd decision, the vinyl version of "Street Fighting Years" omitted the last track "When Spirits Rise", yet reprised all three tracks from the Ballad Of The Streets EP (including the cover of Music/PeterGabriel's well-known "Biko").
** "Bittersweet" and "Liaison" are a subversion; they were liked and played live by the band, but only included on Big Music's deluxe edition as the group wanted to make the deluxe worth buying for fans (The previous LP Graffiti Soul's CoverAlbum Searching For The Lost Boys disc is largely regarded as inessential and didn't sell as well as the group intended).

* TitleOnlyChorus: "All For You", "Today I Died Again", "Love Song", "Let There Be Love", "And The Band Played On", "War Babies", "Home", as well as being taken to its logical extreme in "League Of Nations", where the only lyrics throughout the entire song are "League of nations, relief" (live versions, however, added a few verse lyrics).