Street Fighting Years is the eighth studio album by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released in May 1989 by record label Virgin Records worldwide apart from the US, where it was released by A&M. The band's previous bass player Derek Forbes has hinted that ultimately Giblin simply "didn’t fit in" with the band; and thirty-one years later, Kerr reflected "John was seven years older than us and I suspect we were quite brattish around him. He’d done so much more than us in who he’d worked with and he was a lone wolf who didn't say much. John’s stoicism added to his charm, but we always knew he was never going to sign up to Simple Minds' youth club."
As part of the intended changes, the band chose to work with the production team of Horn and Lipson, who between them had most recently been working with Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Propaganda (using several former Simple Minds bandmembers) and Grace Jones. Although the results were sometimes inspired, the process was not without difficulties, with Kerr having to have an emergency meeting with Horn after six months of very slow work. "We saw hitching our wagon to Trevor and Stephen’s Fantasia production world as like strapping on rocket engines...(but) before he came along, Trevor told me, ‘Jim, one of the reasons we wanted to work with you is we’re bored of our thing,’” recalls Jim. “So there we were, two camps bored of their sound, looking for the other to help. I just thought, ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake!’... I'm sure we didn't give Trevor and Stephen the easiest time, and it says something they didn't work together again after Street Fighting Years. We were a bit dead on our feet and it's still a frustration (that) that atmosphere was there." on the back of the chart-topping single "Belfast Child", which had been released three months earlier. "This Is Your Land" was chosen as the lead single for the US, but with guest vocals from the band's idol Lou Reed, the single failed to make a mark on the pop charts. The album performed relatively poorly in the United States and produced no hit singles.
Mel Gaynor rejoined the band for the Street Fighting Years tour, and remained an on/off member of Simple Minds in subsequent years. With John Giblin's departure permanent, Malcolm Foster (formerly with The Pretenders) was hired as the new bass guitarist, although he was not made an official band member. Having grown unhappy with constant touring and other changes, and wanting to spend more time with his family, MacNeil left the band at the conclusion of the tour.
Simple Minds released on 6 March 2020 a 4-CD Super Deluxe box set edition of Street Fighting Years on UMC / Virgin Domestic, including the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studios, a CD of B-sides, edits and 12″ remixes, a 2-CD unissued Verona live show from 1989 plus brand new book including a new interview with Trevor Horn. Also available as 2-LP, 2-CD or remastered single CD.
Critical reception
Street Fighting Years received sharply divided reviews, with initial critical opinion being mostly favourable in the UK but less so in the US, where the album was much less of a commercial success. In his written commentary for the sleeve notes in the band's compilation album Glittering Prize 81/92, Brian Hogg described Street Fighting Years as arguably "the group's most controversial release." Jim Kerr remembered the album thus: "Every song seemed to be about conflict, and it describes this age of chaos, the battle to try and remain intact with all this hurricane around us." Although he went on to criticize the tracks "Soul Crying Out", "Take a Step Back", "Kick It In", and "Biko" as "flatulent bluster", Gittins nonetheless concluded that the album's "expansive, flushed music" was "huge, but it's rarely hollow."
The album's grandiose, stadium-oriented stylistic departure from previous albums has since proved controversial with critics. Martin C. Strong, writing in The Essential Rock Discography, remarked that reviewers "didn't really stick the knife in until the release of the overblown "Belfast Child", a U.K. No. 1 despite its snoozeworthy meandering and vague political agenda. The accompanying album, Street Fighting Years (1989) brought more of the same, although it cemented Simple Minds' position among the coffee table elite." Music critic David Stubbs, in a review of the compilation Glittering Prize 81/92, mourned what he found to be the "dramatic artistic decline (and parallel commercial rise)" of the band: "As Jim Kerr sank further into mega-stardom, the music suffered further as he indulged in piously cumbersome ballads like "Belfast Child" and "Mandela Day". John Aizlewood of Q disagreed, saying, "there was much to commend on Street Fighting Years and its follow-up, Real Life".
Track listing
Sources
- Leroy Williams – percussion (1, 2, 8, 9, 10)
- Sidney Thiam – additional percussion
- Abdul M'boup – additional percussion
- Maureen Kerr – penny whistle, bodhran
- Roger Sharp – bagpipes
- Lisa Germano – violin (1, 4, 9)
- William Lithgow – cello
- Sheena McKenzie – cello
- John Altman – orchestral arrangements
- Lou Reed – additional lead vocals on "This Is Your Land"
- Lorna Bannon – backing vocals
; Studio personnel
- Dougie Cowan – technical master
- Robin Hancock – engineer
- Guido Harari – photography
- Simon Heyworth – mastering
- Trevor Horn – producer
- Paul Kerr – logistics
- Stephen Lewis – talking
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- Heff Moraes – engineer
- Martin Plant – assistant engineer
- Steve Ralbovsky – talking
- Willie P. Richardson – talking
- Danton Supple – assistant engineer
- Jane Ventom – coordination
- Gary Wathen – talking
- Ying Ho Au Yeung – catering
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1989)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)
| align="center"| 10
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (2020)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1989)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
| 24
|-
! scope="row"| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 13
|-
! scope="row"| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| 4
|-
! scope="row"| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
| 9
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)
| 18
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable"
!Single
!Chart (1989)
!Position
|-
|"Belfast Child"
|UK Singles Chart
|align="center"|1
|-
|rowspan="3"|"This Is Your Land"
|UK Singles Chart
|align="center"|13
|-
|US Modern Rock Tracks
|align="center"|12
|-
|US Billboard Mainstream Rock
|align="center"|37
|-
|"Kick It In"
|UK Singles Chart
|align="center"|15
|-
|The Amsterdam EP
|UK Singles Chart
|align="center"|18
|-
|"Mandela Day"
|US Modern Rock Tracks
|align="center"|17
|-
|"Take a Step Back"
|US Modern Rock Tracks
|align="center"|14
|-
|}