The Smoke – Utterly Simple

If one were to make a list of songs by Traffic worthy of covering, ‘Utterly Simple’ from Mr. Fantasy would surely be somewhere near the bottom. However, in 1968 it seems nobody had shown this list to The Smoke, as they recorded Dave Mason’s sitar-by-numbers ode to flower power-induced, pseudo-philosophical bollocks, just prior to splitting up.

In doing so, The Smoke improved on the original tenfold.

Not a difficult task, the less charitable among us might say, but by removing the “learn-to-play” sitar riff that jars the original they made it A) instantly listenable and B) a damn sight more cohesive.

The Smoke, who originated in York, became famous in 1967 when their debut single, ‘My Friend Jack’, received a blanket ban by the BBC. It would seem a song about the popular craze of ingesting LSD-soaked sugarlumps -- “My Friend Jack eats sugarlumps…” -- was a step too far for the British Broadcasting Company. Nevertheless, society survived and The Smoke went on to release one album, It’s Smoke Time, and a number of singles. ‘Utterly Simple’ was intended for release, but the band’s unexpected demise saw it abandoned.

The cod-wisdom of the lyrics and the melody remain the same, but The Smoke’s version of ‘Utterly Simple’ is an altogether different, and friendlier, beast.

This user-created vid features lots of shots of Mary Quant, for whatever reason.

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music vid, psychedelic rock