Does anyone know what the song 1963 is about? I heard it was something to do with JFK and Marilyn Monroe, can anyone clarify this for me? Thanks
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1963 lyrics
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There's a FAQ section on the site.
Click Band in the links above......otherwise you'll have everyone on yer back, this is one of the most frequently asked questions since the site began ;)
What happened in 1963?1963 is the year John F. Kennedy was murdered. The song is about a theory that the shot was directed to Mrs. Kennedy so JFK can live with Marilyn Monroe.
Oh ok, groovy potatoes! Thanks, I hadn't pointed my goggly-watchers to that part of this site yet so I hadn't read that, I guess that means it is then. Good song anyway.
Major Tarantino wrote: There's a full page explanation in that yellow music book... i'll dig it out and scan it in
Nice one, cheers! 
Surely not the yellow pages? :p
It does seem to be about a bizarre love triangle (!) gone terribly wrong, but John Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Onassis?! 
A bit far-fetched, wouldn't you say?
I've always thought it was about Johnny deciding to go out with the singer's girlfriend so that was it for the singer.... The singer, of course, being a friend of Johnny's and not quite expecting to be greeted by a gun to his face after such a long time without seeing the guy....
It is just Barney's garbled logic. Marilyn was already dead then. This is supposed to be Barney's explanation.
fac443 wrote: It does seem to be about a bizarre love triangle (!) gone terribly wrong, but John Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Onassis?!
I've always thought it was about Johnny deciding to go out with the singer's girlfriend so that was it for the singer....
Of course, the gun might be a double entendre?! :p
New Order lyrics can be about just anything - speculating on what might have been in Barney's head at the time he wrote the lyrics down (and then subsequently changed during rehearsals/recording/etc), and wondering why he came out with those words is just that, speculative! 
As for the explanation in the yellow song book, well... 
my theory is that the song is about Andrew Ridgeley...
he was born in January 1963, ya know?
Jules wrote:
Major Tarantino wrote: There's a full page explanation in that yellow music book... i'll dig it out and scan it in
Nice one, cheers!
too late, its been done 
so monroe committed suicide when she found out oswald hit the wrong target?
she must have been psychic or undead, having been dead for over a year at that point...
God, I'm glad I have the definitive answer to this question saved as a Notepad file on my PC.... It's not about JFK at all... This must by the millionth time I've had to resurrect it:
This one crops up every month or so on this forum. The last time was http://neworderonlinecom.nexpoint.net/thread.asp?action=&thread\_id=5609&forum\_id=1 where the gist of the posts is as follows...
The comments about 1963 and JFK was just Barney talking generally about the year 1963, and JFK, not the song. There was an online streamed interview at the time Get Ready was released (an interview from GetMusic. To hear the interview just follow this link http://www.getmusic.com/calendar/audiochats/neworder/index.html and click on Hear The Chat Now) and a fan emailed in the question about the lyrics to 1963, and Barney just said it's a song from the point of view of a wife, being shot by her partner Johnny, then him going on to get another wife. The interviewer was a complete twat. Barney explained "1963" lyrics, saying that is a fictitious story about a man who kills his wife and the guy went "It sounds like an Eminem track to me". Really embarrassing.
The description he gives in that book doesn't marry up with the lyrics, as that would mean JFK shooting his missus, then remarrying, wouldn't it?
Hope that clears it all up, once and for all - although I'm sure someone else will be posting this question again in the near future!
Regards, Andrew Morrison
I still like my story about Mr. Ridgeley better...and if anyone says I'm wrong, well, that person is just a CNUT!!!
Jeffari-al-Texani wrote: I still like my story about Mr. Ridgeley better...and if anyone says I'm wrong, well, that person is just a CNUT!!!
What story? Are you radjed,Jeff?
The JFK Marilyn Munroe idea (even if it DID come from Barney) is highly unlikely.
Why would he plan to have his wife bumped off in 1963 so he could be with Munroe? Because Marilyn Munroe was found dead in er, 1962.
You do the maths...
