Dreams Never End

Album: Movement (1981)
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Songfacts®:

  • New Order were formed in 1980 following the death of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. The group comprised the surviving members plus drummer Stephen Morris's girlfriend and future wife, Gillian Gilbert.
  • This is the opening track of their debut album Movement. The song title is a play on a line off the Joy Division tune "Insight," which goes, "Guess your dreams always end."
  • This was the first time that Peter Hook wrote a bass riff around a song.
  • The New Order quartet were undecided over who should fill the role of lead vocalist when they first started recording Movement. All three male members were in contention and bassist Peter Hook sang lead on this song and "Doubts Even Here", before they finally decided that Bernard Sumner should take the main vocalist's role. Hook later recalled to TeamRock:

    "The whole song was written on a six-string bass, and I sang as well, which was quite unusual. So it was unusual for me to play – I was a singing bass player, which I always think are the kiss of death. Until I became one, and then I realised it was the kiss of death!

    We'd just lost our singer, so that was very daunting. It's amazing how vulnerable and naked you feel singing. I realise now why people play and sing, because it's so much better. Even now, if I break a string and I lose the guitar, I really feel like my pants have fallen down."

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