#kim simmonds

Savoy Brown - I Can't Get Next to You (1971) Barrett Strong / Norman Whitfield from: "Street Corner Talking" (LP)

Blues Rock | British Blues Rock | Temptations Cover

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Personnel: Dave Walker: Lead Vocals Kim Simmonds: Lead Guitar / Backing Vocals Paul Raymond: Keyboards Andy Silvester: Bass Dave Bidwell: Drums

Produced by Neil Slaven

Recorded: @ The Olympic Sound Studios in London, England UK during 1971

Savoy Brown: Getting to the Point (1968)

This is the first Savoy Brown LP I’ve reviewed since the passing of their guitarist and guiding light Kim Simmonds on 13 December, 2022, so I’ll begin with a fond farewell and heartfelt “thank you” for his lifelong service to the blues -- cheers, Mr. Simmonds.

Born 5 December, 1947, in Newbridge, Caerphilly, Wales, the curiously named Kim Maiden Simmonds formed The Savoy Brown Blues Band in the southwest London district of Battersea, combining the elegant-sounding ‘Savoy’ and plain-sounding ‘Brown’ to convey a balance of opposites.

Together with singer Brice Portius, second guitarist Martin Stone, bassist Ray Chappell, drummer Leo Manning, and pianist Bob Hall, Simmonds recorded almost nothing but covers for 1967’s Shake Down, but the following year’s Getting to the Point would usher in both original material and new faces. 

These included vocalist Chris Youlden, bassist Rivers Jobe, rhythm guitarist ‘Lonesome’ Dave Peverett, and drummer Roger Earl (both future Foghat), all of whose faithful, austere, downright puritanical reverence for the blues may prove something of a test for modern-day listeners.

Not least because Savoy Brown had yet to develop as songwriters and were generally only capable of either imitation (via covers of Muddy Waters’ “Honey Bee” and “You Need Love,” penned by Willie Dixon) or interpretation (see “Big City Lights,” the title track) of the masters’ fundamental templates.

To wit, opener “Flood in Houston” (and Houston must have seemed as exotic as Xanadu to these British boys) barely registers a pulse, but the curiously named instrumental “The Incredible Gnome Meets Jaxman” has a bounce in its step, and the standout “Mr. Downchild” slowly builds to a powerful climax on the back of Youlden’s desperate falsetto and Simmonds’ slashing leads.

And listen up, now, because Savoy Brown’s hard-charging arrangement of “You Need Love” was an obvious bridge between Muddy’s south side of Chicago and the Swinging London of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”!

Just straighten out that riff (from ‘buh-buh, buh-dum-buh’ to ‘buh-DUM, buh-DUM-DUM!’), swap the drum break for a psychedelic freakout, and note how, when Simmonds really starts cooking, it was soloing like this that inspired Angus Young and countless other ‘70s fretboard stranglers.

“Baby, way down inside, you need love.”

See how it’s done?

It’s musical transformations such as this that clarify the important evolutionary role played by late ‘60s Brit-blues bands like Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Blodwyn Pig, and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, on the road to progressive rock, heavy metal, and so much of ‘70s classic rock.

p.s. -- Produced by Blue Horizon label founder Mike Vernon and engineered by a young Roy Thomas Baker (later to work with Queen, Journey, The Cars, etc., etc.), Getting to the Point was released with different cover art in different markets, so mine is the U.S. pressing and I’ve included the U.K. alternate overhead.

Spencer Davis Dies at 81

Spencer Davis, whose eponymous, Steve Winwood-fronted group scored hits like “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m a Man,” has died.

Davis was 81 and had been hospitalized with pneumonia, the BBC reported.

“May the great Spencer Davis rest in eternal love and peace,” Todd Rundgren’s Spirit of Harmony Foundation wrote on Facebook.

“Thanks for all the great music.”

Joe Bonamassa remembered Davis as “a kind and humble soul” the two times they met.

“Some of my favorite music of the 1960s has his name on it,” the guitarist wrote on Twitter. “Very sad.”

The Spencer Davis Group was initially active from 1963 to 1969 and the namesake leader reformed the band with different players over the years.

“He drove soul into the white-rock sound of the time,” Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp tweeted.

The Hollies Terry Sylvester, writing on Twitter, called his friend Davis “a lovely fellow,” a sentiment echoed by Kim Simmonds.

“I wish I had spent more time with him,” the Savoy Brown guitarist tweeted.