RIFFS / Alone Again Or by Love: Steve Morris of New Order on the appeal of Alone Again Or by Love

'LOVE, the original psychedelic band, had a volatile membership which changed from gig to gig. The lows were lows, but the highs were all-time classics.

'Alone Again Or' contains a fusion of strings and horns, similar to Burt Bacharach and Hal David - very Mexican. It is the sort of music you'd expect to hear strumming if you walked into a Dali landscape.

'The track was recorded on four-track technology in stereo, with the drums emerging from one speaker and the vocals from another, like early Doors records. It starts with flamenco-ish, nylon-string acoustic guitar. Then the rhythm section kicks in, going at 100 miles an hour. Although the song has a rapid rhythm, it can still be called a ballad. It builds with this string thing, into a real Bacharach, with orchestra stabs, then it returns to the beginning, with the intro used as a bridge - fairly normal. The second time, you have strings as a lead instrument, not just to fill out the track, playing against the Tex-Mex trumpety part of the agressive horns. The lyrics on their own could be quite depressing, but the strings sound uplifting. The Damned did a cover of this, but there is not much you can do to make it different. The arrangement is the whole song, really.'

'Alone Again Or' is available on Love's CD Forever Changes (WEA/Elektra 960656-2)

(Photograph omitted)