Simply Red’s “Picture Book”: An Impactful Debut

Something new was added to the soul/rock firmament in 1985 with the release of Simply Red’s first album, Picture Book. It’s challenging to describe its full impact, but it all whittles down to the edgy charisma, extraordinary vocals and strutting presence of front man Mick Hucknall, who remains the one consistent presence in a gifted band whose faces have shifted over the decades.

Hucknall stood out with his shock of asymmetric red hair, loose limbs, strong political and socio-sexual views and supreme confidence. But that buttery voice! It could not be ignored.

His previous gig was with a punk band called the Frantic Elevators, who drew some limited local attention. Picture Book served up a soul/pop vibe that showcased Mick’s voice and brought them onto the international stage.

Picture Book is not a perfect LP. Some entries fall a bit short of the glory, but for a first outing, it’s a remarkable display of musical mojo. It’s viewed by many as merely the album that brought us a superb cover of the Valentine Brothers’ “Money’s Too Tight to Mention” and the chart-topping ballad “Holding Back the Years.” It has far more to offer.

The album opens with “Come to My Aid,” a welcoming intro with bounce and groove, beginning with romance (“Come to my aid/you’re as sweet as anything”) and swiftly shifting to politics, becoming a plea for social assistance during an era of struggles and unrest in the UK.

Hucknall was never averse to pontificating through his lyrics. “Sad Old Red” follows, a smooth jazz track bemoaning lost love and loneliness. The lyrics “I walk on stone, it leads me home/We don’t have streets, just pure concrete” conjure a bleak homescape. Presumably “Sad Old Red” is Mick himself, though there’s sharp irony in this self-presentation given his known womanizing at the time.

The lyrics are noir, the mid-century jazz presentation is intimate. “Look at You Now” is three minutes of musical bitterness towards a woman, either a romantic partner or the mother who abandoned him. There’s residual seething as he claims to have gotten past the worst of the hurt:

I had to pick myself up, yeah, and find something better

It is what it is…

“Heaven” is up next, Simply Red’s lilting cover of the Talking Heads’ 1979 tune. Delicate and nuanced, it doesn’t supersede the original by any means. But Mick brings a tear-inducing quality to the lyrics “Heaven is a place/a place where nothing ever happens.”

Side One closes with their longest track “Jericho,” a clever screed about the sinful division between society’s haves and have-nots. It’s delivered from the viewpoint of a corporate mucky-muck bloviating about money being the springboard to everything that matters. It develops into a catchy, finger-pointing litany of “YOU won’t go to the ball,” a metaphor for who gets to play & who gets left behind.

Side Two opens with an epic rendition of the Valentine Brothers’ 1982 “Money’s Too Tight to Mention.” It not only brought this great original back into circulation but frankly improved upon it via Mick’s delicious vocals and stunning musicianship. It yielded a great gritty video as well. A brilliant track about the aches of being on the dole and a chastisement of Reaganomics, Simply Red owns their version and kicks it up to soul anthem status.

Mick Hucknall wrote “Holding Back the Years” at 17, a mournful ballad about a young man thwarted by, in Hucknall’s case, a mother who deserted the family when he was three and growing up with a beleaguered dad with whom he did not always connect. It’s hard to imagine a more evocative description of a marginalized childhood.

His desire to “hold back the years” shows a fear of the future with a resigned willingness to forge ahead. The track remains a masterpiece, as does its accompanying moody video. It was first tackled while Hucknall was still in the Frantic Elevators – that version is unique and wonderful as well.

“(Open Up the) Red Box” is a bad-ass spiritual plea for people to break out of their comfort zones and blaze a new path. (The metaphoric red boxes are believed to be those used by the monarch and UK government ministers for transporting confidential documents.)

“No Direction” (co-written with guitarist David Fryman) is about deep alienation in a world that demands a game face. It’s infused with punk sensibilities, giving it an energy within its troubling message.

Picture Book closes out with the title track, aptly described by YouTube’s OneMansTracks as “headsy.” It’s an arcane, synth-infused think piece that celebrates Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca and reflects on the ongoing impact of departed artists.

Intelligent and quixotic, “Picture Book” concludes a rather extraordinary first album, filled with sophistication and profound possibility. It sets the tone for a stunning career that yielded the sale of over 50 million albums and a righteous musical legacy.

-Ellen Fagan

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