Some words with Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown, 1978

 

(I had a short but delightful chat with Kim Simmonds, lead guitarist
and leader for the pioneering British blues -rock band Savoy Brown back in 1978. They were touring
as trio supporting their new album Savage Return, and gave a killer set when they
made an appearance at the now gone Roxy Theater. That night Simmonds
did one of the finest, tastiest slow blues guitar solos I've ever heard in my years
of witnessing the best guitarists in the world. Simmonds was a very nice man and accommodating
in answering my questions. He passed away in 2022.
I will always remember how wonderful that guitar solo was.) 

In a small kitchen above the Roxy Theatre a converted neighborhood film house now serving as a concert hall, sandy-haired, fair-skinned Kim Simmonds leans back in a chair and sips from a Styrofoam cup containing Jack Daniels and Perrier. As the lead guitarist of the legendary Savoy Brown and one of the best British blues stylists, Simmonds recounts how he first discovered Black American music.

 "I guess it happened when I was a kid, in my teens," Simmonds says with a relaxed cockney accent, which is unusually mild-mannered for a respected rock star. "I'd been into rock and roll on the guitar, you know, and that later turned into rhythm and blues." He explains how he made the transition from "the Comets to a James Brown thing". "A short time later, I heard some blues records by Otis Rush, Muddy Waters, and other Chicago blues guys, and from there it was all over with."

 Simmonds recalls, "I decided I had to play guitar like Otis Rush or Jimmy Rogers, who played for Muddy Waters, and that the band I was going to be in had to play in the Chicago style". "Luckily for us, the audience seemed ready for something different. We formed the Savoy Brown Blues Band, and soon we had records out and commenced on tours in the States.…. 

Around 1967–1969, at the height of the white blues boom in rock music, Savoy Brown gained American notoriety. The band toured the U.S., playing small clubs, sweaty psychedelic ballrooms, massive indoor auditoriums, and skating rinks, and their audience grew gradually. The band produced a few classic songs that received frequent FM airplay, including "Needle and Spoon," "I'm Tired," and the brilliant "Train to Nowhere." These songs all featured the idiosyncratic vocals of Chris Youldon, who Rolling Stone once called "...The W.C. Fields of the British Blues".

 Savoy Brown did not have a breakthrough hit single, unlike their contemporaries like the Peter Green-based Fleetwood Mac and the originally blues-oriented Jethro Tull. Though the band didn't suffer from a lack of work, Savoy Brown remained on the lower tier, a band with a strong following that lacked the commercial power to push them over the top. However, Simmonds hasn't let the lack of mass recognition affect him. He says, pouring more Perrier into his cup, "I know it'd be very nice to play with very large audiences and get the kind of airplay others get. But I'm happy to play, really. If a song of ours from the new album (Savage Return) becomes a hit single, great, fantastic, but I can't sit down and write a 'hit,' something that deliberate". 

Simmonds explains, "I'd rather write a song just for the feeling and hope others find something they like in it". "I'm not putting down songwriters who do make a living writing very commercial material. It's hard work. How does someone sit down and write something for Sinatra? You must have a feeling for that kind of work; you must be into it. I admire people who can do that". 

He says, "For myself, the way I approach my guitar playing and the way I write songs, it has to be something I feel". "The audience, whether large or small, that my music attracts makes me happy. I guess you could say that I'm happy to play for anyone who wants to listen".  

The latest version of Savoy Brown, featured on Savage Return, is a trio, and the music leans more toward hard rock and less toward blues. During the performance, Simmonds appears less comfortable with the new set than he'd like. He lacks the outright egomania of Ted Nugent, the fluency of Robin Trower, and the bite of Ritchie Blackmore to maintain the spotlight as a constant soloist. Also, most of the new material is undistinguished, resembling any number of heavy metal tunes that people can hum from memory without knowing the title or artist.  

However, Simmonds remains a superlative blues guitarist, and his three traditional solos easily highlight the show. Like other blues greats such as Freddie King, Rush, and Johnny Winter, Simmonds combines speed with taste, flashiness with subtlety, and technique with emotion. These three solos cause one to wonder why Simmonds bothers with hard rock when he excels with more traditional blues. Audiences will be more receptive to what Simmonds does best someday. Meanwhile, Savoy Brown is a band trying its best to make a return onto the scene, and they are doing the best they can.In general, the show was a rousing good time, blessedly free of the obnoxious hype that makes most hard rock concerts endurance contests. Kim Simmonds loathes the idea of giving his audience less than his best, whatever the circumstances he's playing under. 

As the first show wandered out, a long-time Savoy Brown fan clarified the distinction between Simmonds and the other guitar hotshots in the world outside the Roxy Theatre simply but accurately. The fan said unblushingly, "The difference is that Kim Simmonds is a musician, not a rock star".

(Originally published in the UCSD Guardian).