SPENCER DAVIS GROUP - “Somebody Help Me”
(#212, 16th April 1966)
In grand pop tradition, the Spencer Davis Group’s follow-up to “Keep On Running” simply throws a few switches on that song. The lean R’n'B backbeat remains, and Steve Winwood’s vocal is just as assured and commited. The main difference is in tone - “Keep On Running” was a chase song, its blood was up, its urgency infectious. Whereas in “Somebody Help Me” Winwood is vulnerable, a loser in love. The music responds to this - the pensive guitar lines fuzz and meander more, the beat seems nude and more tentative without its triumphant handclaps. The effect, unfortunately, is to make “Somebody Help Me” feel like a follow-up, like a band casting insecurely around for something else to do. 5
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Marcello on June 18th, 2005
Certainly the scenario of “casting insecurely around for something else to do” was appropriate as far as the Winwood brothers were concerned; compare the rather bloodless “Somebody Help Me” with the apocalyptic “I’m A Man,” a #9 hit ten months later, and a semi-posthumous one as Steve and Muff Winwood had by then both flown the coop - the increased vocal and percussive urgency, added to the distinctly more rooty performance and production (Jimmy Miller), indicates someone who’s already halfway out the door, en route to Mr Fantasy, John Barleycorn, etc. etc.
Rosalind Mitchell on July 25th, 2005
I just wanted to say in passing that I share your sorrow at the reason for the suspension of FreakyTrigger.
That’s all I have to say, really.
wichita lineman on May 30th, 2008
Possibly the most forgettable number one of the whole decade. Apart from lacking everything that made Keep On Running such a standout and irresistible dancer, it also sounds like half the song’s missing: verse/chorus/middle eight/chorus to fade… wossat? This would’ve struggled to make the Top 30 if it wasn’t for the previous hit.