Simple Minds Cover Bowie, The Doors & Neil Young

NY (Top40 Charts) Coming this fall is Neon Lights, an album of cover songs recorded by Simple Minds. The set features lead singer Jim Kerr and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Burchill running through tracks from some of their heroes, including David Bowie (Simple Minds took its name from a lyric in "Jean Genie"), the Doors, Neil Young, and others. The album is expected in the fall, with a tour being planned for 2002.

Of the album, Kerr says, "Neon Lights is an album of cover versions, the first time Simple Minds have put together a collection of non-original material. We thought it was appropriate at a period of looking back that we go to the very foundations of Simple Minds, which of course is the music and the bands who influenced us."

Kerr adds, "In this collection, we have tried to stay faithful to the sentiment of the original songs, but of course we have tried to bring our own heart to the songs...Real fans of Simple Minds who want to discover the genesis of our sound, want to hear what we were listening to as fans and understand the excitement that propelled us to make our sound and write our own songs, can trace it all on this album."

Simple Minds are currently working on an album of new material that they hope to release early next year, with a worldwide tour to follow. The band's last studio album, Our Secrets Are the Same, remains unreleased. Completed in 1999, the recording is at the center of a legal battle with EMI, the band's former record company.

The complete track listing for "Neon Lights":

"Gloria" (Van Morrison)
"The Man Who Sold the World" (David Bowie)
"Homosapien" (Pete Shelley)
"Dancing Barefoot" (Patti Smith)
"Neon Lights" (Kraftwerk)
"Hello, I Love You" (The Doors)
"Bring on the Dancing Horses" (Echo and the Bunnymen)
"The Needle and the Damage Done" (Neil Young)
"For Your Pleasure" (Roxy Music)
"All Tomorrow's Parties (The Velvet Underground)