Belfast Child
| "Belfast Child / Ballad of the Streets" | ||||
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| Single by Simple Minds | ||||
| from the album Street Fighting Years | ||||
| B-side | "Mandela Day" "Biko" |
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| Released | 6 February 1989 | |||
| Format | 5" CD, 3" CD, cassette, 7" vinyl | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, Irish folk, world | |||
| Length | 6:39 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Writer(s) | Music: traditional Lyrics: Simple Minds(Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill and Mick MacNeil) |
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| Producer(s) |
Trevor Horn, Stephen Lipson |
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| Simple Minds singles chronology | ||||
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"Belfast Child" is a song by Simple Minds, first released as the lead track on the "Ballad of the Streets" EP on 6 February 1989. The EP also included "Mandela Day" (originally its B-side). The record reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song uses the music from the Irish folk song "She Moved Through the Fair", but has completely different words.
Jim Kerr recalled in 1000 UK Number 1 Hits why he used the melody, "I first heard the melody (of She Moved Through The Fair) a few days after the Enniskillen bombing (when a bomb planted by the IRA exploded during a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, killing 12 people and injuring at least 63), and like everybody when you see the images I was sick. In the second part of the song, I'm trying to relate to people in Northern Ireland who lost loved ones. I'm trying to talk about the madness, the sadness and the emptiness. I'm not saying I have any pearls of wisdom, but I have a few questions to ask".
The song received rave reviews, receiving a five-star review in Q magazine. In a retrospective review of the single, AllMusic journalist Dave Thompson described "Belfast Child" as being "an epic, heartstring-tugging song. The piece gains even more power in its second half, when the drums and guitar kick in, and the arrangement billows out with instrumentation."
Nonetheless the song has also received bad press. In a run-down of each UK number one single ever, Tom Ewing of FreakyTrigger gave the song 1/10, saying it "takes the grubby, botched, intractable brutality of the Troubles and makes them sound grand and mythic."
A cover of Sydney Wayser was used for the trailer of the 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings.
The music video to the song was shot in black and white and displays poignant footage of children and deprivation in Belfast. It was directed by Andy Morahan and edited by Mark Alchin.
The B-side of the single was "Mandela Day", a song recorded to commemorate and performed at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert on 11 June 1988 though not released commercially until its inclusion on this single. The CD single and the 12" editions added a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Biko"
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