{"id":13903,"date":"2018-01-11T05:30:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=13903"},"modified":"2018-01-12T08:23:35","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T13:23:35","slug":"getting-to-the-point-with-kim-simmonds-the-savoy-brown-interview-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/11\/getting-to-the-point-with-kim-simmonds-the-savoy-brown-interview-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting to the Point with Kim Simmonds: The Savoy Brown Interview, Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"Overseas, it was a different story. The band made a point of touring regularly in the United States, building a loyal fan base in the process. But Simmonds says that the group’s prominence on American stages was only part of the key to its success there. \u201cTouring is important, but it doesn’t get you anywhere unless you’ve got the goods,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we had the goods; it was a fantastic band. We were cutting-edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simmonds believes that countless other musicians were influenced by the lineup that would make and release Blue Matter<\/i>, A Step Further<\/i> (both 1969) and Raw Sienna<\/i> and Looking In<\/i> (both 1970). \u201cWe were a very heavy band,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were no pop guys [in the group]; we were the real deal.\u201d He suggests that a lot of people thought Savoy Brown was a black group. \u201cI think we just had a classic American sound,\u201d he says. Every single one of the albums Savoy Brown would release between 1969 and 1981’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Warriors<\/i> \u2013 13 in all \u2013 would make it onto American album charts.<\/p>\n

The band truly hit its stride with those 1969 and 1970 albums. With Simmonds on lead guitar, powerhouse vocalist Youlden and the Peverett\/Earl\/Stevens trio backing them up, the group made the most commercially successful (and some would say the best) music of its career. Working with Decca house producer Mike Vernon, Blue Matter<\/i> and A Step Further<\/i> combined the band’s facility in the studio with the excitement of live performance; both albums featured a mix of live and studio tracks. For A Step Further<\/i> the entire second side of the original vinyl LP was given over to the marathon workout, \u201cSavoy Brown Boogie,\u201d while the first side exclusively featured original material penned by Youlden.<\/p>\n

For 1970’s Raw Siena<\/i> and Looking In<\/i>, Savoy Brown made the decision to self-produce. Raw Siena<\/i> opens with one of the band’s tightest and best-loved tunes, Youlden’s \u201cA Hard Way to Go.\u201d But after completion of that album, Youlden left for what turned out to be a comparatively low-profile solo career. Simmonds would pick up the songwriting slack, penning (alone or with Lonesome Dave) 8 of the 9 tracks on Looking In<\/i>.<\/p>\n

From the band’s beginning through the late 1970s, Savoy Brown was signed to Decca Records. The band was fortunate to be making records in an era during which a label could afford to stick with a group as it gained a larger following. \u201cI think the record industry was caught by surprise by groups like Savoy Brown,\u201d Simmonds says. \u201cAnd I think that they gave us a large part of leeway because of that. We didn\u2019t follow the normal route where you\u2019d make a single, you\u2019d have some success with two or three of them, and then<\/i> you\u2019d make an album.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the start, Savoy Brown was positioned as an album band. \u201cAnd we continued on with it,\u201d Simmonds emphasizes. \u201cWe have had some success in singles, but really as an afterthought. The albums were the thing.\u201d And executives at Decca’s American affiliate London encouraged that approach. Simmonds singles out London Records’ Walt McGuire for special praise. \u201cHe was fantastic. Walt had sense enough to understand that he didn\u2019t know what was happening, and just to at least support it and not get in the way.\u201d McGuire had some experience with that mindset; in the late 1960s he championed the release of the Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed<\/i> at a time when executives at the label’s headquarters showed little interest in the groundbreaking record.<\/p>\n

A version of Savoy Brown featuring all new members (save, as always, Simmonds on lead guitar) debuted in 1971. Street Corner Talking<\/i> would include perhaps the band’s most well-known song, \u201cTell Mama,\u201d featuring Simmonds’ stinging slide guitar work. But by the mid 1970s \u2013 and well into the 21st<\/sup> century \u2013 Savoy Brown endured a constant succession of personnel changes. While nearly all of the band’s releases in that period have something to recommend them, the band’s prime era had largely passed. Savoy Brown briefly went inactive for periods in 1979 and 1983, but Simmonds would continue to record, release albums and tour with the ever-changing lineups of his band.<\/p>\n

\"\"Though it’s never fallen completely from favor, the blues has seen its popularity ebb and flow. And while Savoy Brown has ventured beyond the confines of genre, the band has always maintained its Chicago-style blues roots. Still, for a time in the 1980s \u2013 not generally regarded as a high point in the band’s history \u2013 Savoy Brown dialed back its blues sound in favor of something a bit slicker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ’80s were a strange time for me,\u201d Simmonds admits. \u201c I still stuck to the music I knew, but there was a time when people around me said, ‘Hey. You should rock out more,’ and so forth. Somehow I got through the ’80s, but there have been some difficult times.\u201d He reflects upon his career arc. \u201cI\u2019ve got limitations,\u201d Simmonds says. \u201cAnd I think those limitations are what give you character. And that is really what has formed my music: the fact that I can only do so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breaking the pattern of constant turnover, Savoy Brown settled into a stable lineup nearly a decade ago; bassist Pat DeSalvo and drummer Garnet Grimm have backed Simmonds since 2009. And Simmonds readily gives credit for that stability to his rhythm section. \u201cIt\u2019s largely due to Pat and Garnet, and not much to me,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause I can be very difficult to deal with. Pat and Garn really respect me and are prepared to go the extra mile. And it\u2019s incredible to have people that really give you that respect; they\u2019re not fighting you, they\u2019re not doing their own thing, they are not more interested in themselves,\u201d Simmonds says. \u201cThey\u2019re interested in teamwork.\u201d The current lineup has recorded six albums together (the first few also feature saxophonist\/vocalist Joe Whiting), and 2017’s Witchy Feelin’<\/i> is the trio’s latest.<\/p>\n

An edited version of this feature appeared in <\/i>Record Collector.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two… Overseas, it was a different story. The band made a point of touring regularly in the United States, building a loyal fan base in the process. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,41,49,62],"tags":[3308,3309],"class_list":["post-13903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-kim-simmonds","tag-savoy-brown","cat-9-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13903"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13937,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13903\/revisions\/13937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}