Speaking of lame song titles...

So, now we all know the story behind "Dracula's Castle." But at exactly what point did the band give up coming up with cool, enigmatic song and album titles? All we seem to get now is the obvious line from the song (WFTSC, Hey Now, Jetstream, Working Overtime, Turn, Rock the Shack, I Told You So, etc.)...either that, or they can't even be arsed to come up with a title and just use the codeword they came up with in rehearsals (Krafty, Slow Jam).

I guess I miss it because that's one of the things I found so cool about New Order back in the early 80s. "Give our songs a radio-friendly title people can remember? Hell no!"

Bizarre Love Triangle, Sub-Culture, The Village, Age of Consent, Thieves Like Us, Love Vigilantes, Mr Disco, Dream Attack, True Faith, Ultraviolence... So evocative. So New Order.

I guess I've run out of things to bitch about.

With you up to a point..... I think you ascribe too much credit, if I may paraphrase Einstein to fit New Order....."Never attribute to genius, that which can be more readily explained by sheer luck and stupidity". I seem to recall reading about how they just kept a note of everything cool they heard, and stuck them on a board in the studio, when the album was done they would match names to tracks, sometimes by design sometimes by dart, and the working title would vanish.

now it seems we get the working titles.

Good job they aren't That Slightlynarrow lot (ahem) all our tunes are called there filenames until we actually have to supply someone with a recording, then we do exactly what NO did, just stick the last 10 cool names we thought of onto the tracks. Of course this only works if you have a memory better than a goldfish, which is why a track that 3 years ago was called "the movilla street monkfish masacrists" is now called "Spurious George" :)

I guess I kind of liked the "our little secret" vibe inherent in the cryptic titles.

...although it does lead to nasty song titles on file sharing networks, like the hit '80s song "Every Time I See You Falling I Get Down on My Knees and Pray."

Interesting thread discussion. I also kind of part agree with what you are saying. I too find it a disappointment that their titles lack that smart cryptic aura that they used to posess in the past.

For instance, I always thought that they could have used a few such titles on their new album - the working titles were intriguing to say the least - what were they again? Lordsy for Who's Joe..... New Drum for Turn...... what were the rest? Anyone?

We could always create our own to replace the naff titular numbers: I propose these for example:

Denver, Colorado instead of Who's Joe? Like A Juggernaut for Hey Now What You Doing - it's certainly better than the existing naff moniker. Mile High City for Draculas Castle. Arse Of Bass for I Told You So Sunkissed (ha! note the pun!) instead of WFTSC Last Chance Saloon instead of Working Overtime Glass Eye instead of Morning Night and Day

:)

I think THEIR working titles may be filenames these days too :) Lordsy's gotta be a mate of theirs, or Barney and God really do talk a lot.

oh, BTW you git, I'd never noticed the AoB vibe in i told ye so. ruined it is now, ruined.

It has been said on here that the bass riff on Who's Joe is somewhat Day of the Lordsy

Steve Campbell wrote:

now it seems we get the working titles.

And that's not a very good idea IMHO. How could someone e.g. name a song "Krafty"?

I reckon it started with REPUBLIC. Look: Regret, Ruined In A Day, World, Young Offender, Special, Times Change, Liar - all these tracks, - though nice titles - are called after a line or the main theme of a song.

The same was with GET READY: Crystal, Someone like you, Primitive Notion, etc.

And WAITING FOR THE SIRENS' CALL is in the same pace. Though it feels like song titles are getting worse with every album from 1993 on, ha ha

Anyway here's my guess: ROB GRETTON. He was the manager and though he didn't produce the music he did lead the band and in a way he helped to shape their image that included everything - from stage performances to releases. Remember, how he advised the band not to speak to each other on stage back then... I think he really helped the band. And with his death NO have been on their own and it can't help reflecting on how things are now.

No enigma anymore. Hey Joe, what you doing? :D

Is it bad or is it good? Well from a perfectionist's point of view it's rather bad - coz it ruins such an unbearably attractive image they contsructed in 1978-1989, which made them genius. But on the other hand, let's take off all disguises, deconstruct the image with a help from the band themselves and........... blah I'm bored to type further. You got what I mean....... ;)

Like other quality control issues they now seem to have, I'd also attributed it to the passing of Rob Gretton.

I don't think the duff titles really kicked in until Get Ready. The likes of 'Rock the Shack' and 'Slow Jam' sound like they should be Black Crowes' tunes. Bizarre.

There was a time when they'd all sit around with Rob, write down lists of cool-sounding words and then randomly pick them out, or juxtapose them with each other.

Now we get 'Hey Now What You Doing' - Oasis by name, Oasis by nature.

:\pimp3:

i think they just got lazy,

"lets see we have run, run 2 hmmm... running on empty is taken , dont want to be sued again... how about Run Wild!!"

"I never liked the Turn my way thing, how about we call this one hmmm i dunno Turn!"

" hey joe? no thats hendrix isnt it, ahh i got it who's joe! Brillian!!!"

depthcharge wrote: Like other quality control issues they now seem to have, I'd also attributed it to the passing of Rob Gretton.

I don't think the duff titles really kicked in until Get Ready. The likes of 'Rock the Shack' and 'Slow Jam' sound like they should be Black Crowes' tunes. Bizarre.

There was a time when they'd all sit around with Rob, write down lists of cool-sounding words and then randomly pick them out, or juxtapose them with each other.

Now we get 'Hey Now What You Doing' - Oasis by name, Oasis by nature.

:\pimp3:

I think you have half the answer, the lack of Gretton is a big deal, it was always he who would set them off like madmen. But at the same time as he has moved on the Daisy pushing duties, Warner's seem to be telling London to "keep those animals under control". They are still awesome and awkward, it's just that without Rob to lead the revolutions, they happen a tad less often. It's like they have a voice tugging them towards corporate ball playing, and no Rob shouting "fook that" to balance it.

Hehe, just hinking, by the time the rest of them croak and make it to the afterlife, Rob, Ian and Martin will have drunk the bar dry ( and probably succeeded in getting an eternity ban on anyone from Factory getting in).

I'm with you on this, Gnu. You're right, the creativity factor hasn't just been lacking since Rob's passing. Like one of the posters above stated, Republic did provide some unimaginative song titles.

Perhaps, but if you look back objectively, most albums had a few less-inspired track names. Republic was ordinary, but there's a distinction between the likes of the plain Everyone Everywhere and the semi-ridiculous Rock the Shack, Slow Jam, Dracula's Castle, etc. I don't know that the last two albums would've got past Rob with those track titles attached. In fact I'm kind of surprised they get past Steve, he often comes across as a little more, erm, cerebral then the others. But he probably gets a bit overwhelmed.

:\pimp3: