This song came out in 1993, when I was 13 years old. Up to this point, I "liked" a lot of music that was influenced by my parents and my brother, but hadn't really gotten into any kind of my own identity as a newly angst ridden teen. I was going through the process of recently getting my period and these extremely large breasts. (I had my first training bra in the 3rd grade, I was nine or so, but they had become more prominent with this finally hurrah of puberty.) Talk about awkward.
I listened to the radio A LOT. The only channels that came through in this area were either Top 40 or adult contemporary. I'm extremely grateful for the commercial successes that hit for this band, the Cure and Depeche Mode in this time frame. I have no idea what might have become of me if not for that.
This song peaked at #28 on the US Billboard Top 100 list. The band made a video for "Top of the Pops" on the set of Baywatch. As odd as that is, it still somehow makes more sense than "World in Motion" to a lot of people in the US. I loved (still do) soccer and I'm sure that New Order's UK following doesn't have any questions about what a big freaking deal it is have been the countries theme for the World Cup, but I digress.
This song played in the background, over and over and I knew every.single.word. but I somehow missed the impact it had on me until I was older.
I rediscovered this song when I was in my early 20's. I was shopping at a shoe store, heard the chorus overhead, and without a thought, started singing along. It became stuck in my head, the mother or all ear-worms, endlessly looping throughout my brain. However, I had no idea who or what it was. It was also popping up on the radio and various places more often, due to the band Orgy releasing a cover of another New Order song, "Blue Monday" that had recently made a dent in the alternative radio charts.
I was hanging out with some friends, and mentioned it to my friend Laura. Laura worked at a local record store, and was a cyber punk/goth goddess who knew just enough about pop culture to be the "go to expert" with this sort of thing. This was of course before she came to know "'Tina"; but that's a story for another day, and was still a few years later down her timeline. But I digress; I sang the snippet I remembered from the chorus for her; "I would like a place I can call my own, have a conversation on the telephone..."
She looked at my very plainly and said; "It's New Order. You know...the same band that did the original version of "Blue Monday"."
"Are you sure? I could have sworn it was Erasure or something else."
"I'm about 93% sure, but feel free to look it up."
Well, I did. Laura was right, it was indeed New Order. This was the first and last time I would question her about music. This was also about the time I really dug deeper into those "essential" new wave/synth pop bands more deeply. Sure, I listened to the Cure, and as I previously mentioned, I knew the Top 40 hits from New Order, Depeche Mode, and Morrissey that briefly surfaced in the early 90's, but I didn't know the albums. I wasn't listening to the Smiths or Joy Division. However, after this happened; I drove right in. Shortly after a few months of discovering my new found loves that were instantly put into heavy rotation, Laura gave me CD she thought I would really enjoy.
"People who like Morrissey all really seem to dig this artist, and this album is killer," she said. "Give it a listen and let me know what you think."
That CD was a promo copy of Gene's "Drawn to the Deep End." I loved it instantly, and it still stands as one of my favorite albums.
