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room


composers
Composers: Kerr / Burchill / MacNeil / Forbes / McGee
Authors: Kerr
(Earlier sleeves simply state:- Lyrics: Kerr: Music: Simple Minds)


Written by: Burchill / Forbes / Kerr / MacNeil / McGee (Post 2012 credit)


publisher
© EMI Music Publishing.
© Bucks Music/Hornall Brothers/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. (Post 2012 credit)


background
Although Jim mentioned Room was written for a John Peel session, the song had already appeared live during the first leg of the Real To Real Cacophony tour. The lyrics were originaly much darker, with stories of hanging bodies and carpets stained with blood.

It was formally recorded for Empires And Dance, and became one of the favourite live numbers from that album.


"We wrote "Room" in the BBC Studios in Delaware Road, London, for a John Peel session. The producer was Budgie from Mott The Hoople. We were at the end of the session, and Budgie asked if we had any more songs as we had about ten minutes left. we said "No... but hang on..." Then Jim, Charlie and myself hurriedly worked out a new track and that was "Room." Mick and Brian joined in and the song made the album almost exactly as it was in the radio show. That is why Simple Minds made the grade. We had a telepathic grip on song writing. Great Minds and all that."

Derek Forbes
www.derekforbesmusic.com
June 2016


"Film, and certain film directors in particular, have been as much an influence on our work as almost any musicians or songwriters.

"Director David Lynch would easily be considered one of those who managed to entrance us with his work over the last 40 years, and I recall with clarity the excitement of heading out as a band, after a long day's work in our London studio to experience late night showings of his initial cult movie, Eraserhead. It was from out of that movie that the burgeoning and somewhat unique reputation of David Lynch started growing. From that point our own fascination with his entertaining and unnerving vision kicked in hard.

"Years later, while working on our Real Life album we would down tools around 9PM most thursday evenings when weekly instalments of his television series Twin Peaks were showing in the UK. Infatuated by the series, to this day whenever I hear our song, When Two World's Collide, I feel certain that the kind of creeping sexuality that song exudes would have made it fit right in with what Lynch was then delivering to our screens.

"Coincidentally, at that time we were recording among the ethereal forests and small country towns of Scotland. I myself lived for a couple of months in a lakeside log cabin. (Well, we call them lochs actually.) And with much of the surrounding landscape seemingly mirroring the Twin Peaks backdrop, we could almost have been living inside one of those still memorable episodes. Least that is how it occasionaly seemed.

"Many movies later, Mulholland Drive perhaps the highlight of his career for me, I'm now looking forward to the imminent release of Lynch's written chronicles. The title of his considerable book is Room To Dream. Itself the sort of title we might have come up for one of our own songs/albums.

"In fact, if I had to choose one Minds song above all else that I feel might have been inspired by the same kind of disquieting and dreamlike underworld that gives birth to Lynch's tales? I reckon "Room" from our 1980's Empires And Dance album might just fit that bill. In truth though, who the hell needed us, considering the great job Angelo Badalamenti did with the soundtrack to Twin Peaks? Either way, where some find the narrative of his movies inexplicable, and his style gnawingly pretentious etc. We feel that our lives have been enriched by the brilliance of David Lynch." - Jim, 24th June 2018


lyrics
In your room,
In your room,
Silent man,
Once again.

The razor's song,
The razor's song,
Wear the mask,
Another fave,
In your room,
In your room.

City red,
City red,
Wear the mask,
Wear the mask,
A private hell,
A secret sin.
A friend of mine,
Waiting for,
A western man,
Waiting for,
New kind of glory,
A view of glory,
From this room.

I only live here,
I only live here,
A fragile man,
Waiting Waiting.
Echoes...,
I only live here,
Echoes,
In this room.
Echoes....



discography
Album Version (2:30)
Producer: Leckie
Engineer: Jones

Empires And Dance LP Empires And Dance MC Empires And Dance LP (Virgin Reissue) Empires And Dance MC (Virgin Reissue) Empires And Dance CD Empires And Dance CD (Virgin Budget Reissue) Empires And Dance LP (Virgin Budget Reissue) Empires And Dance MC (Virgin Budget Reissue) Compact Collection Empires And Dance Remaster Promo CD Empires And Dance Remaster Limited Edition CD Empires And Dance Cacophony Remaster CD X5 Empires And Dance Promo X5 The Vinyl Collection (79,84)

Session (4:18)
Producer: Trevor Dann
Engineer: Nick Gomm
Mastered by: Simon Heyworth
Recorded: 19th Dec 79
Broadcast: 7th Jan 80

Silver Box Promo CDR #1 Silver Box

Live Version (25th February 2012) (5:22)
Recorded: Barrowland, Glasgow, UK
Recorded by: Olivier Gerard
Mixed by: Olivier Gerard
Engineered by: Rudy Coclet
ISRC: GB01A1201417

5X5 Live Promo CD #1-1 5X5 Live Promo CD #2-1 5X5 Live 5X5 Live Irish Promo CD 5X5 Live LP 5X5 Live Export LP




sessions
John Peel, Radio One: 7th January 1980



live history
Real To Real Cacophony Tour: 1979-1980
Sons And Fascination Tour: 1981
New Gold Tour: 1982-1983
Cash For Kids: 1987
Good News From The Next World Tour: 1995
Lostboy! AKA Electroset Radio Tour: 2010
Lostboy! AKA Electroset Tour: 2010
5X5 Tour: 2012
Festival Tour: 2012