Tim's Twitter Listening Party - Organisation

Date: 27 February 2021

Participants: TB (@Tim\_Burgess), AM (@OfficialOMD)

Replay page here

## Comments

*all tweets by AM unless otherwise stated*

Enola Gay
I wrote it on my own as Paul was forced to take work placement to keep his dole money. I was writing it at his house whilst he was in the rain carrying bricks and cement at the local outdoor swimming pool. Poor boy!

Number 1 in France and Italy for 3 months. It helped get us out of jail when we sang it to an Italian police inspector when they thought that we were Red Brigade Terrorists!!

2nd Thought
The second of three songs written only by myself on the album. Paul had met Maureen in May 1980 and didn’t come to the studio as often as I did any more.

We had some new keyboards and this was me exploring the Prophet 5. Also, it is a typical linear Andy song. Written onto tape and constantly repeating without a change of chord pattern, just musical elements introduced and removed.

This is one of my favourite songs that we have ever recorded. It chimes with my melancholy.

I don't believe we've ever done it live. Perhaps we should.

VCL XI
This derives it title from a valve displayed on the back of the Radio-Activity album cover by Kraftwerk .. and for the pedants.. yes we changed the 11 to Roman numerals.. This name was originally what Paul and I called ourselves as a writing duo.

I love the sound of my bass on this track. Also the piano was such fun to play we just loaded the studio piano with chains and metal lying on the strings. Sounded great but ruined the tuning for the rest of the session.. fortunately we didn’t need it again.

*on the lyrics:* I'm just mouthing nonsense!! Same with the song Navigation too.

Motion & Heart
Another song begun by myself when Paul was building! My fingers accidentally slipped on the old Elgam organ and I discovered that I had created a sort of 1940s swing chord pattern. This gave the idea for the whole style.

I then researched 1940s fashion and culture for the lyrics like the geek that I am. This is where the phrases “Make do and Mend” and “ New Paris trend” come from.

We tried a re-record of the song with Mal @realMalHolmes paying (*sic*.) drums as a possible single candidate but didn’t feel that it was strong enough to follow Enola Gay.

If I can play it on a keyboard anyone can!

Statues
The lyrics are about Ian Curtis and his death. “The way you moved” is because he danced similarly to me onstage in those days. Also Peter Saville had shown me the image of the funerary statues for the Closer album months before the release and that is where the title came from.

One more song created on the old Elgam organ. It had a built in bass and chord accompaniment. The whole song was written using this, you clearly hear it at the beginning and end of the song.

It was great to bring it back on the last tour. I believe we will keep playing it from time to time after we tour. Also perfect after Maid to give me a rest!

*general album comment:* We weren't planning for it to sound great 41 years later but many of the tracks do hold up because they are imbued with genuine feeling and desire

*track end:* Now you can hear the Elgam organ all on its own!

The Misunderstanding
An old song from the days of The ID. We totally transformed the intro to create the gothic mood. All of the sounds you hear are me gently rubbing the bass strings through deep echo and harmonizer. Then scratching the strings with a pick through even more monstrous reverb!

The lyrics are totally meaningless. Just collected phrases like a Bowie cut up and delivered in Eno style as on the Tiger Mountain album. We debated long and hard about leaving off the last line after “close it” which was “very quietly”.. as you can hear, we left it out!

How did we manage to get such beautiful synth sounds out of such cheap crap?!

The More I See You
Paul and I had the backing track of synths, Rototoms and bass. For a laugh I started singing the words to The More I see You, the old musical film song.

We couldn’t stop laughing but actually rather liked what we had done. As we could never write different lyrics after this we just left it as it was! Still not sure I we did the right thing? :-) [TB: Definitely the right thing! It stands up really well]

This song is patently at the lower end of my register. Fake baritone!

Promise
Firstly - HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL HUMPHREYS!!! 61 today... (*later*: He's busy breastfeeding with his new baby!(

The first ever song written by Paul only. He finally came back to the studio after Maureen went home to USA and wrote a song about how much he missed her. The reference to “ You can dance until we meet again” is because she was a ballet dancer at the ABT New York.

Typically, I tried to changed the feel of a sweet Paul tune by playing the eerie synth screams across the background to make it a bit edgier. Great bass line that I think Paul wrote.

Paul was absolutely TERRIFIED to sing solo on stage. He hated it. It's taken him 40 years to stop crapping himself!

Paul only ever writes about the women in his life

Stanlow
There were several connections to Stanlow oil refinery. My father and sister both worked there, but more importantly it was very literally the beacon (the flaming gas impurity burn chimney) that announced we were less than half an hour from home as we returned from gigs all over the country in the early hours of the morning.

The intro and outro are a recording of a compressor machine that I made in the refinery, but slowed it down to give more grandeur.

Peter Saville and I really bonded over this track as he always loved the industrial monster sitting in it’s rural idyll with gantry lights twinkling in the night. He used to drive past it all the time on his way from Manchester to his parent’s house in Wales.

Peter and I worked very closely on sleeves. He enjoyed the fact I had an artistic background and that we could discuss and resonate together

Yes. (*In reply to*: OMD's best song?)

Always a crazy idea to open shows with it 40 years ago. Was logical to do it again 40 years later

It gave us a confidence to be a little more grandiose and elegant.

(*comments on new album*: 8 finished songs )

Annex
Should we have put it on the album?!

*Final comment:* Thank you all. Once again many thanks to @Tim\_Burgess for hosting. Can we do a sixth one before lockdown ends Tim?

Thank you all for listening along. Thanks @Tim\_Burgess for inviting us to do another one. The debate now starts for which one to do! Debut album?

Note: *Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (album)* was later announced as next party on 27 March 2021.