THE MAN WHO DIRECTLY LINKS R.E.M. AND NEW ORDER

I’ve spent some time recently cataloging all the vinyl and CDs sitting around Villain Towers, including those that belong to Rachel, and have used the ‘Collection’ function over at Discogs to create a database. It currently tallies at just under 4,400 separate entries with the number growing every few days as I buy new albums and seek out those bits of vinyl (and occasional CD) where there are holes requiring to be filled.   Oh, and now that I have a wee bit more disposable income for the time being as I eke away at my redundancy payment from a few months back, I’m buying some favourite vinyl to replace what had originally been purchased only on CD.

It was while adding some stuff to the collection function that I was reminded of Scott Litt, the producer best known from his extensive work with R.E.M. in the late 80s/early 90s, had also worked with New Order back in 1989 when he took on the task of re-mixing Run, one of the songs on the album Technique, for its release as a single in the UK.

Run 2, as it became known, featured previously on the blog in February 2018 as part of the series looking at all the New Order singles:-

“Run is one of the most outstanding songs on Technique and rather bravely the band went for an edited single release in due course in which about 45 seconds are chopped off and by editing down the dreamy instrumental finish to the song and replacing it with more of the re-recorded vocal with Barney’s voice given more prominence than the original mix. It’s a decent enough mix and does a job of giving us enough changes to think of it as a new song altogether but it’s not a patch on the original.

The remix was in fact worked on alongside Scott Litt who at that point in time was known for having worked on a couple of LPs by R.E.M. The fact that he would also work on the multi-million sellers Out Of Time and Automatic For The People albums in the 90s and become one of the most talked-about producers of that era was all in the future…..”

mp3: New Order – Run 2

There was also a nod to the fact that Hooky’s basslines could be a factor in making a single a hit or not, and the new mix also brings that more to the fore, as perhaps best be heard in the extended version:-

mp3: New Order – Run 2 (extended version)

Despite all this, the single stalled at #49, which was the worst-performing showing by a New Order 45 in three years. It wasn’t helped by Factory Records electing to only issue it on 12″ vinyl and not pressing and distributing that many copies, possibly as a result of the increasing cash-flow problems they were experiencing and which would later help bring about the demise of the label.

There’s also the issue that, as soon as the single was released, lawyers representing John Denver sued New Order and Factory, claiming that the instrumental section of Run 2 ripped off his composition, Leaving On A Jet Plane. The case was quickly settled out of court, but it did result in Factory never pressing anymore than those original 20,000 copies and never making Run 2 available until 2008 when a deluxe edition of Technique was released and which included the extended version (but not the single version).

JC