Revolutionary Spirit - Paul Simpson - # 2 Jacques Brel

 

'Juantorena opens his legs... and shows hic class...'

Ron Pickering commenting on an athletics race at the 1976 Olympics.

Revolutionary Spirit is a bit like that. 25 pages in Simpson begins to show that he may not be able to sing depending on your perspective but he can certainly write. He begins to stretch his legs and show his class. He can write. Better than you. Better than most people. He skips in terms of time and tone but this is shaping up to be the memoirs of this or any year. The flow is magnificent. First he does the greatest one page dissection of the whole notion of Rock & Roll and list culture that I've ever read. Then he goes back to the very beginning ... 'a very good place to start', and tells us about his damaged and unloving father and his commanding and wonderful mum.