Kim Simmonds and the Story of Savoy Brown

While the blues was a decidedly American musical genre, by the early 1960s a lot of America had forgotten about it. And especially its original core audience of Blacks, whose younger generation was gravitating toward the sounds of Motown, Stax and the ascending R&B/soul artists.

But over in the UK, names like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Little Walter weren’t just monikers seen on dusty albums, but real artists of a time and culture that must seemed quite exotic overseas. While these artists might play to a few dozen locals at southside Chicago juke joints, overseas they could command audiences (largely young and white) in theaters and larger venues.

It led to a slew of young men picking up guitars and harmonicas forming their own bands: John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, and a young Rolling Stones.

Not as well known (especially in the U.S.) was Savoy Brown. Co-founder/lead guitarist Kim Simmonds was the only constant in the lineup from 1965 until his 2022 death. He lives again in the posthumous (if unwieldly titled) autobiography Street Corner Talking, The Autobiography of Kim Simmonds: The Life and Music of the Founder and Guitarist of Savoy Brown (224 pp., $29.99, Schiffer Books).

As a young English boy, Simmonds became obsessed with American blues music at an early age, thanks to older brother Harry’s record collection. He soon wanted to play and got his first mail order guitar at the age of 13 … which came in many parts that he had to glue together!

A few years later, he formed Savoy Brown’s Blues Band (later shortened), with an excitable Harry as manager (something that would lead to much fraternal friction later). Within a short time, Savoy Brown was playing clubs like the Marquee, Speakeasy, Klook’s Kleek, Flamingo, and Eel Pie Island Hotel. And even opening or playing with genuine legends like John Lee Hooker and Champion Jack Dupree.

But as the lineup shifted and some members brought in more druggy psychedelic influences at odds with Simmonds’ fealty to Chicago blues, he found himself fired by his very own brother, if only for a short period.

Simmonds regales plenty of tales of working those clubs, including one time they were booked to play the posh Savoy Hotel that actually served as partial inspiration for the band’s very name. But whatever the hotel booker thought their type of music was, neither staff nor the elegantly dressed patrons were ready to hear a loud blues band, and they were asked to turn down the volume at the beginning of their set.

They eventually got (likely drunk) guests on the dance floor, but Savoy management refused to pay them, thinking they’d been swindled. Simmonds and company took their fee, um, in kind by liberating silver ashtrays and other fixtures from the premises. Those were eventually returned, but Simmonds doesn’t recall if they were ever actually paid.

Despite a series of well-received albums among blues rock fans and opening for many A-list groups of the era, they never found that elusive big U.S. hit. Though singles “I’m Tired,” “Tell Mama” and “Street Corner Talking” probably came closest. And no, Savoy Brown is not to be confused with the similarly hued Brownsville Station, best known for “Smokin’ in the Boys Room.” In fact, Simmonds told the Houston Press in 2017 that Savoy Brown was most often confused with country act Sawyer Brown.

Simmonds details some personal low points in the ‘80s and ‘90s, including breaking ties with his financially shady brother/manager, who eventually ended up in a UK prison for drug trafficking. Players rotated in and out of the lineup over those decades, but Simmonds—now happily married to his third wife and the father of a new daughter—took it all in stride. He even took over lead vocals in the band.

Kim Simmonds died in 2022 at the age of 75 from the effects of colon cancer. But his family and some well-appointed friends were able to get this mostly already-written manuscript to press. And while his name might not have been the most household of British blues guitarists who came to prominence in the ‘60s and ‘70s, he was surely one of the most dedicated to the genre.