Holding Back The Years - Simply Red | FIRST TIME LISTENING REACTION

[@ingvarjensen1088]

New subscriber here from Berlin, Germany - after watching some of your great Madonna reactions I'm now watching this. I never get tired of this song. Being a melancholic myself I could and can SO relate to those lyrics! I was 21 when I first heard it, I'm turning 60 this year and I swear: You're going to ask yourself "Where have all the years gone?" just like we old ones who are experiencing this. You're doing very well, Ace 🤗

[@user-lc7nv5zj7w]

I don't typically enjoy music from Simply Red, but I absolutely love this particular song. It's brimming with a sense of unformed longing and deep despair. In my opinion, it ranks among the top 20 sophisti-pop singles of the 1980s. Simply Red was part of the British sophisti-pop movement, aiming to blend soul and jazz with 80s pop. However, it's only with "Holding Back the Years" that they created an undeniable pop masterpiece.

[@flash_80]

Fun fact: Mick Hucknall recorded an earlier version of this song with his pre-Simply Red band, The Frantic Elevators, in the early '80s. That version is slightly faster and doesn't have the "I keep holding on" refrain. Simply Red is a weird band. They're associated with urban soul because the sporadic songs they did in that style are what happened to get attention, but most of their music isn't in this lane.

[@AceM-Reacts]

Interesting!

[@leslapins7617]

He was abandonned by his mother when he was toddler 💔