Love and the Russian Winter

Simply RedLove and the Russian Winter

Released on November 1st, 1999, ‘Love and the Russian Winter’ is Simply Red’s seventh studio album. This album marks a notable shift from their earlier works, featuring a more electronic sound.

‘Love and the Russian Winter’ included all original tracks written by Hucknall, plus one cover of ‘Ain’t That a Lot of Love,’ written by Willia Dean Parker and Homer Banks. Later that year Welsh singer Tom Jones covered the track with Mick Hucknall for his duets album ‘Reload’.

Tracklist

1. The Spirit of Life

Are you the best? Or the equal of every man on this earth?
I introspect. I can have anything that I could want
Yet I need for nothing… Oh nothing

‘Cos the spirit of life is within you
Breathing with ease through the whole of you
And deeper inside is within you, searching until we find a way
To jump out now, jumping around now
Cause sooner or later we’ll be gone

What will be left is the benefit of all we’ve learnt before,
And what’s the test? It’s the dignity of every man.
You will need for nothing, oh nothing
You will need for nothing, oh nothing

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

2. Ain't That a Lot of Love SINGLE

I know the desert can’t hold all the love
that I feel in my heart for you
If I could spread it out across the sea,
I know my love would cork it up
Ain’t that a lot of love for one heart to hold

If the bees only knew how sweet you are baby
They would seal up their honeycomb
If the birds could hear how sweet your voice is
They would tighten up the song
Ain’t that a lot of love for one heart to hold
Your lips are so sweet, honey you’re my every need
You got a smile so rare
A love like yours I just can’t compare
Ain’t that a lot of love for one heart to hold
Ain’t that a lot of love for one heart to hold

If the cook in the kitchen had a touch as hot as yours
They wouldn’t need a fire
I can’t think of a word that describes you better
Than the sight of her

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

3. Your Eyes SINGLE

I wanna look into your eyes again
I wanna look into the windows of your soul…again, again

Who’s to know where time will lead us now?
I can’t believe this is happening now
I’m not scared, I’m just wondering how
I wanna see your eyes
All the time we’ve shared between us now
The feeling I have needs me to make a vow
Now as I leave I must return somehow
Cause I wanna see your eyes

When I look at you I fumble, my confidence takes a tumble
But when I look into your eyes, I just crumble
‘Cos I know that it’s you that my heart burns for
That it’s you that I’m yearning for

Who’s to know where time will lead us now
I can’t believe this is happening now
Well I’m not scared, I’m just wondering how
I wanna see your eyes, I wanna make it right

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

4. The Sky Is a Gypsy

The first time was the best time
The language you use
You gotta be careful what you will choose

And the first high was the best high
You’re made of flesh and blood
Yet it makes you feel like wood
Oh the first time was the best time

The first line was the best line
It’s hard to learn to beware
Spending thousands of pounds in a year
And worthwhile, is it worthwhile?
Ever wondered why you need more and more
to reach that sky?
Oh the first time was the worst time

And the sky is a gypsy
Oh, will I die with her with me?

Oh the best time is the worst crime
Oh the first time, oh may be the worst time
Oh, worthwhile, is it really worthwhile?

When the sky is a gypsy
Oh, will I die with her with me?

And the sky is a gypsy
Will I die with her with me?

Oh no, no, no, no
The first time
Maybe the worst time
Oh no…

Will I die with her with me?

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

5. Back into the Universe

This is your God (repeat)

As we wander back into the universe
We render ourselves into a higher plane
Believing we will never wonder why again

He surely must be laughing Mr. Universe
Seeing us slowly head towards our goal
Only the joke is we don’t know what it is at all

Yet our Gods teach us divinity

And we go on searching for you and me

As for the universe
This is your God

The order’s truly random in the universe
And where will we be in a thousand years?
Soothingly searching to allay our fears

Well now we’ve wandered backwards to eternity
We’re changing the concept of belief in time
Re-arranging the clock that dictates our minds

Yet our Gods teach us divinity
And we go on searching for you and me
As for the universe
This is your God
As for the universe
This is your God
This is your God

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

6. Words for Girlfriends

Do I feel jealousy when you’re free without me?
Maybe
Do I feel that my love will stay with you forever?
Hopefully
In memoriam of my lovers will you sleep with me forever?
Oh most certainly I never did doubt you

You surround yourself with trinkets like they’re meaningful possessions,
baby
Like some squirrel in the garden with expensive permutations,
Save me
They’ll outlive you in the end will be your final realisation
Oh most certainly I never did doubt you

Words for girlfriends parading as songs
to be living with songs, yet without you
Words for girlfriends parading as songs
‘Though I never ever really did doubt you, no…

As we search our lives forever for perfection in relations,
Ladies
I can dream of love and scheme of love with all its complications,
Shakily
Ideals are fine for beauty but for love they fool relations
Oh most certainly I never did doubt you

Words for girlfriends parading as songs
to be living with you, yet without you
Words for girlfriends parading as songs
‘Though I never ever really did doubt you,
No I never ever really did doubt you

As we search our lives forever for perfection in relations,
Ladies
I can dream of love and scheme of love with all its complications…

They’re just words, only words

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

7. Thank You

I thank you for the things you have shown me
Thank you for the love of my life
So far anyway, now it’s really really over
O God I really thank you baby

Most of all I thank you for your love
Like good people should do anyway

I thank you
I really thank you
All of my life
I really thank you

My souvenirs I hold them and remember
All the days for the rest of my life
Truth is I miss you in all the ways you will imagine
See me, feel me I wanna say

Most of all I thank you for your love
Like good people should do anyway

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

8. Man Made the Gun

Man made the gun a sado-sexual machine
It’s slaughter brings you to your knees

Man made the gun
Who is the person that is holding on?
What’s in his mind, where is he looking from?
Isn’t he the one we should be gazing on, contemplating on?

‘Cos man made the gun
Man shapes the son

Man made the gun
While there is evil in this world
We try to save our boys and girls
Man made the bomb
That doesn’t mean that we should turn them on
Or ever yearn him on

‘Cos man made the gun
Man shapes the son

Man made it, man made it

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

9. Close to You

This land is real, real as the next man
This land is there for all to see
You’re standing there so cold and calm
You stand so close to me

And you out there can keep away
There’s nothing owed to you
All I want’s to lose myself and stay so close to you

The river is cruel its pipes are sprayed with long forgotten names
Big boys now with kids whose lives will never feel the same
If you out there don’t get what I say, there’s nothing owed to you
To feel that way is born inside no matter what you do

I wonder how my fortune fell
When everything began to melt
The case I had for wasting that
That never came
I want to walk away again
Away again
Away again
There to wonder how those things will never be
Searching for that grand illusion fools have called the key
If you don’t care just keep away, how can I give hope to you
Nearer now are both our futures, me, our hearts and you

And yet all I want is to lose myself and stay so close to you
All I want is to stay so close to you

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

10. More Than a Dream

For those who are in love
I’m with you babies
How can it be that we feel this way?
For those who are a bluff
I fear you ladies, how can you treat little me this way?

It’s a drug that brings you pleasure and pain
It’s a love that leaves you crying in the rain

Yeah I’m your lover, Oh I’m your lover
A ring-a-ling, Ting-a-ling lover
A sing-a-ling, Ting-a-ling lover

How can it be when you’re with me baby
You feel the same way as me?
I hope you’re not a bluff, ‘cos I need you baby
Do you feel the same way as me?

There’s an invisible contact between us
A hope and a dream that the words the poets
Have been writing are real

More than a dream
More than just a sex machine
But a lover…

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

11. Wave the Old World Goodbye

Wave the Old World goodbye
It’s time to say hello to the New World
Praying it will be right
That the world may soon see the light
I’ll be waving, oh waving
And I’ll be waiting…

Sure the old folks have tried
But now it’s time for us in the New World
Pray that it will be right
That the earth don’t turn out the lights

Wave the Old World goodbye
It’s time to say ‘goodnight’ to the Old World
Let’s pray that it will be right
So the world will soon see the light

I’ll be waving, oh waving
And I’ll be waiting, oh waiting this night

It’s time to say ‘goodnight’ to the Old World
It’s time to say ‘hello’ to the New World
And wave the Old World goodbye…

I’ll be waving, oh waving
And I’ll be waiting, oh waiting this night

It’s time to say ‘goodnight’ to the Old World
Time to say to say ‘hello’ to the New World
And wave the Old World goodbye… tonight

Words and music Mick Hucknall
EMI Music Publishing Limited /So What Limited

Album Credits

It is love who empties us of the spirit of estrangement and fills us with the spirit of kinship; who makes possible such mutual intercourse as this; who presides over festivals, dances, sacrifices; who bestows good-humour and banishes surliness; whose gift is the gift of good-will and never of ill-will. He is easily entreated and of great kindness; contemplated by the wise, admired by the gods; coveted by men who posses him not, the treasure of those who are blessed by his possession; father of daintiness, delicacy, voluptuousness, all graces, longing, and desire; careful of the happiness of good men, careless of the fate of the bad; in toil, in fear, in desire, in speech the best pilot, soldier, comrade, saviour; author of order in heaven and earth; loveliest and best of all leaders of song, whom it behoves every man to follow singing his praise, and bearing his part in that melody wherewith he casts a spell over the minds of all gods and all men. Agathon 416 B.C.
Excerpt from ‘Symposium’ – Plato

Vocals: Mick Hucknall
Backing Vocals: Dee Johnson, Sarah Brown, Mick Hucknall
Guitars: Kenji Suzuki, Mark Jaimes, Greg Bone
Bass: Gota Yashiki, Andy Wright, Wayne Stobbart, Tim Vine
Keyboards: Tim Vine, Andy Wright, Dom T, Aiden Love, Phillipe Manjard, James Wiltshire
Drums: Gota Yashiki, Geoff Holroyde
Saxophones: Ian Kirkham
Trombone: John Johnson
Saxophone and Flute: Chris De Margary
Trumpet: Kevin Robinson
Ewi: Ian Kirkham

AGM are Andy Wright, Gota Yashiki, Mick Hucknall
Produced by AGM. Horn arrangements by M

Programming: Ned Douglas, James Wiltshire. Andy Wright, Gota Yashiki
Programming and additional production on ‘Your Eyes’: Merv Pearson
Recording engineers: Alan Douglas, John Lee, Al Clay, Matt White, James Wiltshire, Mak Togashi Assistant engineers: Mak Togashi, Matt Taite, Andy Saunders, Matt White, Emily Cracknell, Josh T Studios: Westpoint, London/Metropolis, London/Town House, London
Mastered by Kevin Metcalfe at Soundmasters, London

Original artwork concept by Mick Hucknall
Band photography by Rick Guest
Digital virtual environments by Lost In Space
Photographic treatment by Idea and Peacock
Artwork by Peacock

Mick Hucknall wears Krizia

Worldwide representation Silent Way Ltd
USA representation So What Media & Management Inc
All tracks used by kind permission of the publishers

21 February 2000
Cologne, Germany : Koln Arena

22 February 2000
Koblenz, Germany : Sporthalle

25 February 2000
Gent, Belgium : Flanders Expo

27 February 2000
Zurich, Switzerland : Hallenstadion

28 February 2000
Milan, Italy : Filaforum

01 March 2000
Munich, Germany : Olympiahalle

04 March 2000
London, UK : Wembley Arena

06 March 2000
London, UK : Wembley Arena

07 March 2000 08 March 2000
Birmingham, UK : NEC

11 March 2000
Manchester, UK : MEN Arena

13 March 2000
Glasgow, UK : SECC

15 March 2000
Rotterdam, Holland : Ahoy

16 March 2000
Hamburg, Germany : Sporthalle

17 March 2000
Copenhagen, Denmark : Valby Hallen

19 March 2000
Frankfurt, Germany : Festhalle

20 March 2000
Erfurt, Germany : Messehalle

22 March 2000
Barcelona, Spain : Palau dels Esports

23 March 2000
Murcia, Spain : Plaza de Toros

25 March 2000
Lisbon, Portugal : Expo Arena

27 March 2000
Paris, France : Olympia

29 March 2000
London, UK : Wembley Arena

31 March 2000
Dublin, Ireland : The Point

06 April 2000
Mexico City, Mexico : Auditorio National

09 April 2000
Buenos Aires, Argentina : Luna Park

10 April 2000
Montevideo, Uruguay : Cine Teatro

13 April 2000
Santiago, Chile : Teatro Monumental

15 April 2000
Sao Paulo, Brazil : Credicard Hall

16 April 2000
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil : Metropolitan

21 April 2000
Brighton, UK : Brighton Centre

24 April 2000
Cardiff, UK : Cardiff Arena

25 April 2000
Brighton, UK : Brighton Centre

27 April 2000
Newcastle, UK : Newcastle Arena

28 April 2000
Sheffield, UK : Sheffield Arena

29 April 2000
Nottingham, UK : National Ice Arena

01 May 2000 02 May 2000
Bournemouth, UK : Bournemouth International Centre

04 May 2000
London, UK : Wembley Arena

05 May 2000
Birmingham, UK : NEC Arena

06 May 2000
Manchester, UK : MEN Arena

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