Street Fighting Years

Out there in the darkness, out there in the night, out there in the starlight, one soul burns brighter than thousands suns

In 1989 the Simple Minds publish all over the world "Street fighting years". And it immediately is magic: the sonorities of the album, produced by Trevor Horn and recorded in Scotland among the March 1988 and the following March, evoke a romantic and complex spirit, a bit far away from the precedent works. Perhaps for the first time in their bright career Jim Kerr & Co. decide that the moment has arrived to express their restlessness on the world that surrounds them and to go over the personal universe. The voice of Jim melts marvelously with the guitar of Charles drawing melodies destined to be graven in the memory of the listeners.

The album opens with the title-track, an indefinable song in its beauty and complexity: if in the first part the rhythm is slow and thoughtful, the symphonic end conducts us on epic territories and not easily assimilable. In short it is not the typical passage to hum under the shower, but surely a song of thickness, to listen alone in silence, even with a candle turned on that it shines in the dark.

It follows "Soul crying out", and the people crying out, says a meaningful verse of the text. The opening is only voice and guitar from shivers. It’s a romantic song that speaks of desperation and hope, love and pain. It seems writing for the lovers, for the clandestine love stories, that shine under the light of the moon, in the nights of autumn, on the shores of the ocean in storm.

"Wall of love", the love triumphs. The rhythm gets up, the percussions of Mel with the keyboards of Michael, while Jim cries to the world the desire of love, that winds the humanity as a mantle. "Fly away", cries Jim before the end, "people making love tonight".

"This is your land", also a hit single, is a declaration of love for his own earth, agreement as a call to the roots. To underline the share of Lou Reed, that magistrally interprets two verses of the text. A good piece, solid, of substance, other miliary stone of the production of the Scottish Men, from the extraordinary strength communicativeness.

"Take a step back" has a blasting start, perhaps it’s the most powerful song of the whole album. Also the end, with in the foreground the keyboards, it’s not from less. You dance, Jim jumps to the rhythm articulated by Mel, it lets loose us in a whirling and pressing rhythm.

"Kick it in" opens the B-side of the cassette. Also it was a single, accompanied by a videoclip that shows the band in an exciting live act. It’s not an easy song, it needs a deepened listening, but, once entered the correct spirit, it gives great feelings. It’s beautiful to imagine us jumping in the crowd hedged under the stage, while Jim drives our song.

"Let it all come down", written with John Giblin, gives a lot of itself. Agonizing, intense, touching. The guitar of Charles describes slim and reflexive melodies. To listen even on the shore of a river, to the sunset.

"Mandela Day" is dedicated to Nelson Mandela. It’s one of the most political aware lyrics, the Simple Minds have decided to say indeed their opinion. A song for the live act, a true hymn on the civil rights, that it represents the ransom and the redemption of a whole people.

The lyrics of "Belfast child", whose videoclip has preceded the exit of the album, have been written on the notes of an Irish traditional song. It deals with one of the absolute masterpieces in the artistic production of the band of Glasgow. The civil war, the pain, the suffering of a people, the violence, the blood that flows in the roads and, among all this, the hope of a best future, when the Belfast child will sing again. "One day will return here when the Belfast child sings again". A meaningful passage, important, that alone a career would be worth: Jim is inspired, first he almost whispers his complaint, then, in growing, he howls it to the whole world. "The streets are empty, life goes on".

"Biko" is the cover of a song of the ex Genesis Peter Gabriel, dedicated to the anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko. In an album of sublime level, it perhaps represents a weak passage: the arrangement, based on the sound of the bagpipes, doesn't seem to suit itself to the text and the intentions of the song.

"When the spirits rise" closes the album in beauty. It’s an instrumental track, of atmosphere, perfect to lead to the end an intense work.

This record isn’t the most sold or most known album of the band, but certainly the most meaningful, the one of the reached maturity. You separately perceives the firm wish of the musicians to realize a personal project, but to share with fans. One decade fades away and the Simple Minds, perfectly aware of the big changes of the history, have described the restlessness, the dreams, the contradictions and the hopes of it.

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