It's over 50 years since "Johnny came home..." and almost 20 years since New Order released, as a single, one of their finest tunes in 1963. Although he could never be thought of lyrically as a Morrissey or a Ray Davies, there was a wonderful ambiguity about Barney's lyrics, that was always appealing, and none more so than on 1963. Originally released as the B side to True Faith, in a bygone era when B sides still mattered, 1963 ranks up there with the best B sides released by the likes of The Jam and The Smiths. Once described by Stephen Hague as "the only song about domestic violence that you can dance to", when it was eventually released as an A side in 1995, 1963 was accompanied by a quite lovely, albeit bizarre, video featuring the delightful Jane Horrocks.
1963
I was humming this to myself recently and thought about posting it. A truly great NO song. I always think of it as the 1987 release rather than the 1995 single release (agree about Jane Horrocks and the video, ace)
ReplyDeleteHi thannks for sharing this
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