Luke fills us in on Paul Carrack's living years (so far).

As he hits retirement age (65 on April 22nd), I thought it might be an opportune time to briefly reflect on the popular culture legacy of a relatively unsung hero of popular music, Mr Paul Carrack.

The name Paul Carrack is fairly likely to elicit a “Paul Who?” Or perhaps “the name sounds vaguely familiar” from all but the most ardent of music fans, so yeah, Paul Who indeed? 

Well I’ll tell you who; one of the great British soul voices and a talented multi-instrumentalist who has had hits under so many different banners that most people fail to thread them together to form one man’s body of work in their ‘minds ear’, as it were. 

Possibly because of this, Carrack seems most often occupied these days as a ‘musician’s musician’ sideman (currently keyboards for Clapton) and as a prestige guest vocalist on “& Friends” type projects in career twilights (B.B. King ‘Deuces Wild’)

So what exactly are these palpable popular Carrack hits that he should be more revered for? I think his cause has not been helped by song titles that don’t always immediately conjure the song when you read the title (let alone being under different band names) so I have used some not-strictly-correct brackets and “a.k.a’s” to help jog the memory banks. 

You’ve probably never heard of the group ‘Ace’, but you’ll immediately be able to belt out the chorus of their radio staple 1975 hit ‘How Long (Has This Been Going On)’ when it’s on the wireless. 

Paul next dented the charts in 1981 with UK Squeeze singing their infectious ‘Tempted (By The Fruit Of Another)’ before finally scoring sizeable mid 80’s solo hits, covering The Searchers ‘When You Walk In The Room’ (aka ‘Every time That You, Walk In The Room’) and with a Carrack original, ‘Don’t Shed A Tear’.

From 1985 through the 90’s, Paul was also one of two vocalists in Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford’s successful side project ‘Mike & The Mechanics’. He sang lead on their big hit ‘Silent Running (On Deadly Ground)’ (a.k.a. ‘Can You Hear Me?’) and their ‘love it or loathe it’ commercial behemoth ‘The Living Years’ in 1989. 

If you fall in the latter camp with ‘TLY’, you certainly can’t deny the giant mark it left in the public consciousness and you’re more likely to ‘tsk’ at the sticky, primary colour sentiment than the singular and soulful voice delivering it. Blame Mike Rutherford!

Paul Carrack has done much more besides; he can also claim to have played keyboards on recordings by Roxy Music (on their last 3 albums), The Smiths, The Pretenders and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters along his wandering way. 

If you even just consider that ‘How Long’ and ‘Tempted’, two moments of unparalleled pop perfection, were sung by the same guy, that same guy whose voice can even redeem ‘The Living Years’ FFS!, then maybe Paul Carrack deserves a few more moments of your attention. 

Be Tempted! Happy 65 Paul Carrack, enjoy a long and fruitful twilight!

If you’re keen to own a bit o’ Paul, you can browse some of our selection here.