“You do try to shoot for the stars.”
That was Kim Simmonds’ response when I complemented him for his guitar virtuosity four years ago. For four more years after that interview, Simmonds rocked the cosmos, thrilling audiences and listeners of Savoy Brown albums before succumbing to colon cancer in December at age 75 and leaving us with an excellent new album Blues All Around.
“The man led a storied life and left an impressive catalog,” Savoy Brown bassist Pat DeSalvo tells me. “He was always trying to give the fans more. He did that with this new record (Blues All Around).”
Savoy Brown formed in London in 1965 and released 42 albums. “Which was the best one?” I ask DeSalvo, who first played with Simmonds in 2000 and officially joined Savoy Brown with drummer Garnet Grimm in 2009.
“There were so many good albums; it’s hard to pick one or two,” DeSalvo says. “Arguably, Hellbound Train (released in 1972), Raw Sienna (1970) and Street Corner Talking (1971) are classics. It’s the songs and the vibe.”
I ask Grimm the same question, and he also says it’s very difficult to answer.
“Probably one of the most important albums is Street Corner Talking,” he says. “It has great songs, of course, but it seemed to have a great impact on people who remember it and were around in that era. The band was making great progress around the world during that time. I would put Looking In (1970), Hellbound Train and Street Corner Talking in the same category as far as how they impacted the masses at the time they were recorded. Just remarkable songs on these recordings. And the artwork! Really great stuff.”
In 2019, I asked Simmons which Savoy Brown album was the nearest to a masterpiece.
“It’s difficult to answer,” he responded, “but, perhaps, Raw Sienna, Street Corner Talking, Witchy Feelin’ and, and…”
Witchy Feelin’ was released in 2017, when Simmonds was 70 years old, and went to No. 1 on Billboard’s blues chart. Blues Festival Guide magazine praised the album in the following review.
“From the thrillingly brittle guitar riff that opens ‘Why Did You Hoodoo Me,’ we are in the hands of a master with founding member Kim Simmonds reigniting the seismic vocals and searing fretwork that established Savoy Brown as linchpins of the ’60s British blues boom. Simmonds leads us into a world of dark nights, wild weather, women and whiskey — all perennial themes given a modern twist by this ageless bluesman.”
In my 2015 interview with Simmonds for No Depression magazine, I asked him to explain the mark 50 years of Savoy Brown’s blues rock made on the pop music industry.
“Other musicians have told me that the band was ahead of its time, and I, therefore, think a part of the legacy is the influence on other bands and musicians,” Simmonds responded. “Savoy Brown is also one of the few blues bands ever to penetrate the pop music charts. But, most of all, it was one of the most important bands that started the 1967 British blues explosion.”
A concert that Simmonds attended a year earlier influenced him most as a musician, he told me in the 2015 interview. It was a show by John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton at London’s Flamingo Club.
“Eric’s playing had all the elements of the blues music I loved,” Simmonds told me. “At that time period, he was the best musician I had ever seen play live. He had the timing, the technique, the feeling and the sound. He showed me the way forward for my own career as a blues guitarist.”
Other blues musicians and rockers who were influenced by the blues impressed Simmonds. He mentioned some of them when I asked him during a 2019 Acoustic Live interview to identify the best concerts he had seen.
Simmons recalled “amazing” concerts in the 1960s by Jerry Lee Lewis and the Who. Savoy Brown was the warmup group for the Who show in 1969.
He also cited great concerts by Sarah Vaughn and Buddy Rich; Freddie King at London’s Nag’s Head pub; Albert Collins in Los Angeles in 1969; Jimi Hendrix “at a small New York City club just before he died”; the Yardbirds at London’s Marquee Club “when they started,” and, many years later, the Clash at the same club.
Grimm has fond memories — “I truly do not know where to begin,” he says — of concerts playing with Simmonds.
“One moment that sticks out to me is when we played the Rock Legends Cruise a few years back,” he says. “We were in the middle of our set, and I looked over and saw several members from the Doobie Brothers Band watching us. After the show, they came to Kim and the band to talk. I thought, ‘wow, I’m standing here talking with the Doobie Brothers!’ It turned out that the first tour the Doobie Brothers ever did was in support of Savoy Brown. They looked up to Kim and considered him an important influence on their careers. Later that night, they got Kim up to jam on a song or two during their set. It was cool to see.”
Grimm remembers funny moments while setting up Savoy Brown’s equipment at the Niagara Falls Blues Festival.
“Kim began messing with the settings on an amplifier,” Grimm recalls. “A crew member came to us and said, ‘Sir, pardon me, but this amp is for Mr. Brown.’ Kim looked at him a little bewildered and said, ‘I am Mr. Brown!’ We had a good laugh.”
DeSalvo recalls other amusing moments on stage.
“One time, we were playing, and Kim kept thanking the German audience and saying he loved their food. We were actually in Belgium at the time! It was a thank you, Cleveland, moment!”
Another fond memory for Grimm was inside London’s 100 Club during Savoy Brown’s last tour of the United Kingdom.
“This club is not very big, but it seems everyone who is anyone has played there at one time or another,” he says. “It’s one of the only venues still in operation that was there in the 1960s. Even the earliest version of Savoy Brown probably played there. I looked at all the memorabilia and pictures on the wall and thought “wow, a lot of history here, and Kim and the band were right here involved in the thick of it. It was incredible to think about.”
DeSalvo, whose all-time favorite records are Frank Zappa’s The Grand Wazoo, the Beatles (White Album) and Savoy Brown’s Hellbound Train, says the new Savoy Brown record, Blues All Around, will not be Simmonds’ musical farewell. A lot of unreleased Savoy Brown music remains in the vaults, he says.
Simmonds wrote or painted every day and “gave his fans moments of joy, thoughts of the possible and the joy of music,” DeSalvo says. “We all need to escape once in a while.”
DeSalvo feels the loss of his musical partner.
“I really miss the calls and texts, the friendship and guidance,” he says. “I can be a handful and so could Kim. It’s always a loss to society when people like him leave us. There is a void that sometimes cannot be filled that we take for granted.”