Song Lyric Sunday

Good Sunday morning to everyone! This week, host Jim Adams , asked us to find a song that reminds us of ourselves for Song Lyric Sunday. Tricky one. I am thinking that maybe it means a song’s lyrics that resonates with us in some way. Well I hope so as that’s where I am going with my pick. I have chosen Holding Back The Years by British Band Simply Red. To me it is a somewhat haunting song about the writer’s upbringing in a broken home and well, yes, that resonated with me.

The band went through a series of names before finally settling on the name Simply Red. The lead singer, Mick Hucknall, has a mop of red hair but that is only one of the reasons for the band’s name. Red is also the color of Manchester United’s shirts and Mick has a strong allegiance to the club.

The Song

Mick Hucknall, the lead singer of the English band Simply Red, wrote “Holding Back the Years” in 1978 while he was a teenager. The song was released in 1985 as the third single from the band’s debut album, Picture Book.

Hucknall’s mom, Maureen Taylor, walked out on him and his barber father, Reg, when he was three. The pain caused by not having a mother inspired him to write this song.

Hucknall wrote this song in his bedroom at his father’s house when he was 17. The inspiration for the song came from a teacher at the Manchester School of Art, where Hucknall studied fine art. The instructor suggested that the best paintings are created when the artist is in a state of unconscious creation, and Hucknall attempted to use this approach in his songwriting.

“I wanted to do music, not art, so started writing lyrics that way,” he told The Guardian. “The first song I wrote was called ‘Ice Cream and Wafers.’ The next was ‘Holding Back the Years.'”

Hucknall didn’t realize what the song was about until he’d finished it. “It’s about that moment where you know you have to leave home and make your mark, but the outside world is scary,” he explained. “So you’re holding back the years.”

Strangled by the wishes of pater
Hoping for the arms of mater
Get to me the sooner or later

Hucknall’s conflicts with his father during his teenage years inspired the “Strangled by the wishes of pater” line. He explained to The Guardian that the two frequently argued because there was no female presence to mediate the disputes.

Hucknall originally recorded “Holding Back The Years” in 1982 with his punk group The Frantic Elevators. He added the “I’ll keep holding on” chorus after the band had split and Hucknall had formed Simply Red.

Simply Red keyboardist and trumpeter Tim Kellett took inspiration from Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue album for his trumpet solo. He’d noted the jazz supremo’s use of a harmon mute, a metal device that is inserted into the end of a trumpet and decided to try one out, which took producer Stewart Levine by surprise. “I played something spontaneous, and everyone liked it,” he recalled. “A trumpet was pretty rare in pop and Levine was going: ‘I can’t f—ing believe it, man. We’ve got a trumpet solo.'”

Simply Red went on to record 10 UK Top 10 hits, including “Fairground” a 1995 #1. In the US, their cover of Harold Melvyn’s “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” became their second American chart topper and the best-selling British single in the US in 1989.
The English soul and R&B-influenced boy band Another Level released a cover of “Holding Back the Years” as a double A-side single with a remix of their debut hit, “Be Alone No More.” The release reached #11 in the UK.

Courtesy of Songfacts

The Lyrics

Holding back the years
Thinking of the fear I've had so long
When somebody hears
Listen to the fear that's gone
Strangled by the wishes of pater
Hoping for the arms of mater
Get to me the sooner or later, oh

Holding back the tears
Chance for me to escape from all I know
Holding back the tears
'Cause nothing here has grown
I've wasted all my tears
Wasted all those years
Nothing had the chance to be good
Nothing ever could, yeah, oh

I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on, so tight

Well I've wasted all my years
Wasted all of those years
And nothing had the chance to be good
'Cause nothing ever could, oh yeah
Oh

I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on

Holding
Holding
Holding
Holding, la-la-la, la, la-la

I said, ooh, yeah

That's all I have today
It's all I have to say

Writer/s: Mick Hucknall, Neil Moss
Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind