It’s the early 1980’s, and I’m a college radio disc jockey at Hamilton College’s student-run radio station WHCL. One of my classmates / fellow DJ’s brings a record into the radio station that looks like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
It’s a 12-inch dance record called “Blue Monday,” an import record by the legendary band New Order. (And for that matter, why hasn’t New Order been put in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet?)
What caught my attention – before my friend even put the record on the turntable – was the record’s sleeve. It looked like a floppy disc – a big, 12-inch floppy disc. Then my friend put the record on the turntable, and played it for the WHCL audience.
And for seven minutes – the length of the track – I was enjoying it.
From its introductory 133 beats per minute drum track of boom boom ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba boom boom boom boom to its ethereal orchestrations and vocals, it was a song that begged for more and more plays.
Eventually I nabbed my own copy of the record – there was a store at Sangertown Square called Camelot Records, and every so often they had a few import records available for purchase – and sure enough, I had a copy of “Blue Monday” and played the bejeebers out of it.
Now of course, I want to find out more about New Order. It wasn’t like Factory Records was sending our radio station any promotional discs, so when the “Power, Corruption and Lies” LP finally hit the stores, I had to pick up two copies.
Well, one copy if I wasn’t buying one for myself.
This is the album cover for “Power, Corruption and Lies,” and as you can see, it’s clearly marked as a New Order album, just like the 12″ record above was also marked as so.
You’re looking for the text.
You can’t find it.
That’s because you’re looking for letters and not the colored blocks on the right of the album cover. Those colored blocks are actually a cypher – each color or color pattern represents a letter. Ah, those Peter Saville album covers…
It should be noted that I specifically requested that the American pressing of this LP be included in the afterlife; the UK pressing does not include “Blue Monday” or its 12-inch B-side, “The Beach.” The American LP pressing contains both those songs in the running order.
This is a fantastic album. If you don’t have a copy of this record, get it now. Just don’t take mine… it’s going in the coffin with all my other LP’s. 🙂
And by the way, here’s New Order performing a live version of “Blue Monday” on BBC’s Radio 1.
Chuck The Writer 