Just Be Simple: Aidan Moffat revisits Magnolia Electric Co.

The best songs are the sad songs. Happiness is easy, joy is for children; music works best when it’s giving you a hug. Jason knew this, and there’s an intrinsic despair in everything he wrote. He wasn’t a sad man – whenever I spent any time with him, he was a right good laugh – he just understood that the songs that last forever are the songs that help you through. For me, this peaked with Just Be Simple. I’m not one for lists or Top Tens – I’m never that decisive and I love too many to single out a few – but I do know that Just Be Simple will never let me down.

It starts with a weep, wraps its arms around you tight, buys you one last drink and then drifts away, leaving you a little more hopeful and a little less heartbroken. I confess a personal empathy with the content; it’s about a man who’s made mistakes and finds it hard to change his ways; it’s about demons, and it came just when I needed it. The lyrics are beautifully written, but it’s Jason’s tender, sublime and mournful voice that, on the right kind of day, might convince me it’s the best song I know.

He was among the most emotive singers I’ve ever heard, and Just Be Simple may well be his finest, pitch-perfect performance. After hearing the song for the first time, whenever our paths would cross – sometimes on shared tours or festivals, sometimes when I’d see him perform in tiny Glasgow venues – I would ask him to play it, and he always obliged. I suspect he was planning to play it anyway, of course; it’s impossible to think of Jason without it now.

To my ears, it’s his signature piece, the acme of his work; and if you’re new to his music, Just Be Simple might tell you almost everything you’ll need to know you want more. Indeed, the whole Magnolia Electric Co. album is fantastic, and there were many great records before and after. But for me, Just Be Simple is the heart and soul of them all, condensed into four minutes and twenty seconds of divine woe and the sweetest solace.

Related:

Simply To Live – That Was My Plan: Jason Molina Remembered

Songs: Ohia's Magnolia Electric Co. revisited