They Find It All a Different Story
I can't begin to say how much this song meant to me back in the early '80s--I played that 12" single of it, well, I was going to say to death but that seems wrong in the case of poor Mr. Curtis. So here it is in 4 versions, because I can.
1984 New Order style, when they were young and punky and snooty and said things to open a show 3 hours late like, "You paid for it you waited for it and now you're fucked." Sorry for the annoying intro ramp.
Then Dean & Britta play it like it's Joy Division's "Atmosphere" for an adoring crown in Taiwan.
While Radiohead give it more oomph for the BBC.
And then our heroes New Order are back in 2002, looking positively middle-aged and chubby. But they opt to rock anyway.
1984 New Order style, when they were young and punky and snooty and said things to open a show 3 hours late like, "You paid for it you waited for it and now you're fucked." Sorry for the annoying intro ramp.
Then Dean & Britta play it like it's Joy Division's "Atmosphere" for an adoring crown in Taiwan.
While Radiohead give it more oomph for the BBC.
And then our heroes New Order are back in 2002, looking positively middle-aged and chubby. But they opt to rock anyway.
Labels: no standing on this ceremony, should hunting down alternate live covers be a semi-regular INOTBB feature?
posted by George at 3:49 PM
5 Comments:
rgI...never knew that was New Order. Huh. I never knew how to get into them, if that makes any sense...but it's on of those things where I kinda feel like I missed smething.
By the way...a few posts ago when I commented on the education-based post...I didn't overstep, did I?
No, you didn't over-step. Indeed, you added the kind of perspective on it I hoped someone would.
As for New Order/Joy Division, they were certainly bands of a moment, and not just chronologically but emotionally. So if they didn't hit you, some other band did, I'm sure. Others of us, however, couldn't resist the temptation of their ceremony. That I didnt' try to make a pun on bizarre love triangle is probably best for all of us.
Thanks for this post. I also love "Ceremony" and always have. I remember sitting around with a buddy of mine in college trying to work out how to play it on a dulcimer. We could, of course, barely play it on guitar, but hey, dreams never end, right?
Thanks, again. This post is making me happy.
As one guy I once knew used to say about his radio show "unknown pleasures are closer still."
Wow, best blog post ever! This brought back such memories! Like you wrote above, I guess this music either hit you or it didn't -- no doubt about which camp I fall in. :-)
This is probably the only music that I've bought more than once (bought it on cassette tape when I discovered it around 1986, played it until it wore out and then bought the tape again. Bought the CD, then bought the CD again after a car burglar took it. It's worth it.)
Funny, I never understood more than a scrap or two of the lyrics, but it was still one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard. If my life had a soundtrack, I'd be happy if it was this.
Thanks for putting together the compendium of live versions. :-)
(It's a very pleasant surprise to find here -- I'm a fan of your blog (clever puns rock!) But usually your musical references are so obscure to me that I'll scratch my head and ask "Hmm, so I guess that's a band?" It's nice to know that if we've even got just one song in common, it's a good one!)
Thanks!
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