Alive and Kicking

This is for all you 80’s heads. This is one of my all time favorite bands and this song is one of their bests in my humble opinion. The band is Simple Minds and the song is “Alive and Kicking”. You may already know this song and hate it or like me you may love it and unlike me just forgotten about it. I’m here to introduce it to you or re-introduce you to it. This song is one of those early morning get up and go songs that propels you into your day with a smile on your face as you sing along with Jim Kerr on your way to work or in the shower perhaps. Off of their amazing album Once Upon A Time, “Alive” harkens back to the days of the 80’s and John Hughes films when Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson were icons to the misfits and disenfranchised youth we used to be. I know I played this album more than any other when I first got it. I never left the house without this tape (yeah, I said tape dammit).

Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland Simple Minds has been a phenomenally successful band and in fact “Alive” went to number 3 worldwide (Don’t You (Forget about me) went to number 1). Released in November of 1985 “Once” reached number one in the UK and number ten here in the States and became their most successful full length album of the bands career and that was done without the song “Don’t You” from “The Breakfast Club”. The thing I love most about this song is how it builds. It simmers at first with the drums and keyboards intro and then Jim’s voice comes in with “You turn me on / you lift me up / like the sweetest cup / I share with you / you lift me up / don’t you ever stop / I’m here with you” and that leads into the soulful chant which leads into the catchy chorus and we’re off and running.

After the second verse, soulful chant and catchy chorus there’s a piano break that comes in all alone and settles the song down only for the drums to come back in and bring the song back up to a simmer along with some soulful vocals very reminiscent of “Tears For Fears”. Guess that was the recipe for success back in the day and that credit should really go to Pink Floyd but I’m again getting off track here. Jim comes back in with the catchy chorus and his adlibbing at the end elevates this song to another level.

Quite simply this song cooks and it brings to mind Ferris and Bender, bananas in tailpipes, the moonwalk and everything else the 80’s gave birth too. Take a listen and enjoy the trip down memory lane.