1979 was a pivotal year in British history. Margaret Thatcher had just been voted in over a fractured Labour Party and the deindustrailization of Britain was about to begin with the switch to a spiv service and banking economy.
There was a strange vibe of dislocation and foreboding in the air mixed with transient energy and optimism. The new-wave, post-punk bands of that period, like U2 and Joy Division, captured that ethos, but perhaps nobody captured it better than Glasgow band Simple Minds. In October 1979 they performed a set at Hurrah's in New York City, including the tracks Premonition and Factory from their second studio album Real to Real Cacophony. The band's line-up at the time was the classic one of Jim Kerr on vocals, Charlie Burchill on guitar, Derek Forbes on bass, Brian McGee on drums, and Michael MacNeil on keyboards.
Premonition lyrics:
Real to real
Fact to fact
Nothing moving happening
Artifact
The waiting room
Waits
Limbo can burn
But the original sin
The incentive to learn
Fly over land
Where no hearts can beat
The metal rain pouring
Raining
Raining
Raining down on me
Hole in my head
Where the creature has crawled
And It's burning and turning
Out of control
Real to real
Fact to fact
Nothing moving happening
Artifact
I in this land
Sand in the eye
So here we go
The happy man dies
Brave little world
Well you cry once again
Remodel life
Remake and remodel
Remodel men
Protection
Protection
The sound of machines
Image is burning
As they grind to a halt
Crying and crying
The sound of the shells
Tears turn to salt
Cry and I cry
Just one more illusion
I cry just for you
There's a hole in my head
Wher the voices came through
Fly over land
Waiting and waiting
Where no hearts can beat
Machinery's burning
The metal rains pour
Pour
Raining
Raining down on me
Premonition
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