
Acquired Woolworths in London in late 1983
Ref: ZUM 11 - Published by Zoom in Scotland in 1979
Support: 45 laps 17 cm
Titles: Chelsea girl - / - Garden of Hate
I think I remember that I had this 45 rpm in a batch of ten discs packaged in plastic bought from Woolworths in central London, as Mystic Knights of the Oingo Bongo . If so, since this is a group known one can be sure he was one of only two drives in the batch that the pocket was visible.
Chelsea Girl is the second single from Simple Minds, released a few weeks after the album and single titled Life in a Day ( Chelsea Girl is on the album). I bought this album when I had already Real to Real Cacophony and I remember it was pretty hard decried at the time. I had read at least one chronic who saw Simple Minds simple followers Magazine or XTC , even to hire their producer John Leckie, who in fact was not their first choice : they would prefer John Cale or John Anthony, the producer of Van Der Graff Generator.
The group quickly denied this album before released the second in the aftermath a few months later. This is certainly not a masterpiece, but also a very successful pocket, it provides at least two great songs, both singles, Life in a day and Chelsea Girl . Except that at the replay, the musical reference points seem to look more towards Ultravox! , Sparks, Roxy Music, the Stranglers or Velvet Underground than Magazine.
While the cover of the 45 laps Life in a Day was more than minimal, that of Chelsea Girl is almost luxurious, with a painting the face, Thomas Rathmell, and the back of Mary Ruth Craig. In fact, the latter who was first contacted for the cover, but was most inspired by the B-side, Garden of hate, and produced a beautiful picture though dreary that s' is naturally found on the back. To the front is Jim Kerr, who spotted the painting among counsel for Arista Records. He found it perfectly suited to illustrate this song, whose character is based on the model of Swingin 'London Jean Shrimpton . On
Chelsea Girl, Simple Minds is in its register more electric than synthetic. There is a big fat guitar riffs and even a solo. It's a song I still like very much, with a refrain not really pop but it works well. A few weeks after much listening Rock and Roll Heart by Lou Reed to chronicle the relationship of Chelsea Girl with Temporary Thing, reported by the site simpleminds.org , I have not jumped ears. After checking, I appreciate what they have been bitten by Lou Reed to build their membership, but it is far from a real plagiarism.
In a similar vein, with the garden in the title, I had a flick at heart when they hear the intro synth Garden of hate, which made me think of the Chinese Garden Taxi-Girl . There is also a small link in the theme of the lyrics, but even if listening to this song any more composed after the sessions of the album, could very possibly start with Taxi-Girl's urge to compose Garden Chinese any comparison ends there: the song of Taxi-Girl is a success to one thousand leagues above that of Simple Minds.
