Once Upon a Time
Simple Minds had been around awhile by the time of OUAT, but had only recently broke out in the U.S. after the huge success of their single "Don't You (Forget About Me)", the theme of THE BREAKFAST CLUB. A song they did not write and didn't even want to record, it's been said. To me it remains a soaring, haunting classic. Just the right theme to my own high school years. Lead singer Jim Kerr and his bandmates left the track off the album, but I think it would've fit in just fine.
"Soaring" and "haunting" are good descriptors for this batch of songs. If you were listening to pop and rock radio in the mid-80s you've certainly heard the hits "Alive and Kicking" and "All the Things She Said". Producers Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain encouraged the band to go big, a lavish production of aggressive songs. The kind that sound good in arenas. Yet they have their quieter moments, still feel introspective. That's the genius of this album. You can chant along with energetic choruses and feel up, yet if you pause and drink it all in, a certain melancholy shade is cast. These are songs of longing and hope. Realistic optimism and acknowledgement. "I Wish You Were Here" is plenty heartbreaking. "Oh Jungleland" might be the least successful of the lot, but shifts gears confidently.
The title track kicks it off perfectly, an immediate rally. An announcement that, musically at least, these Scots were pulling out the stops. The dance pop of "Promised You a Miracle" years earlier was opened up and expanded, maybe too much for the older fans. "Ghost Dancing" and "Sanctify Yourself" are other breathless epics that go way over the top. They may remind you of U2.
Perhaps Jim Steinmann was an uncredited studio force?
Michael MacNeil's piano thunders, but slows down and is downright graceful when necessary. Mel Gaynor's drumming gives the snare and kick a serious workout. Charlie Burchill's guitar and Jon Giblin's bass are front and center. This is a skillfully mixed album. EQ'ed just right. That was critical, as this otherwise would've been a busy mess.
And those background vocals. Robin Clark, who had previously worked with David Bowie, is a tower of power throughout.
Once Upon a Time closes with "Come a Long Way" which is currently my favorite. Check that outro, an amazing piece of composition. Really a perfect finale, an apt send out. Putting just why into words is difficult. And the lyrics, like in any good song, are open to a million interpretations. Listening in 2024, the title alone expresses relevance. But I also think back on my sixteen year old self, hearing it in my bedroom, imagining the "carnival on my street tonight". Imagining it literally, and processing "I hear them dancing" as perhaps my cloistered self's realization that often I was not out there enough in life. Not always taking advantage of social opportunities with my school and church peeps. What do the kids call it these days? FOMO? I was no recluse, mind you, but looking back I think I could've been more available.
Unavoidably, when I listen to this album I think of my parents, who you may have read had a rocky marriage. Each of these songs feel like a portal to the past. A place where my state of mind was contaminated by a fear that they would come apart. A portal I could traverse and go back and try to change their course, to keep them together. This certainly goes beyond anything Kerr and company would've intended for their work, but there it is. I can criticize Once Upon a Time for being overblown and bombastic, but somehow those very things kept it essential for me.
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