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Originally recorded in 1978 for the band's aborted self-titled album, it was later re-recorded the following year at a faster tempo and released by record label Factory as the band's debut single.
"Transmission" was released on 7" vinyl in October 1979 by record label Factory. It was re-released as a 12" single with a different sleeve in December 1980. The single charted twice in New Zealand, debuting at number 2 in September 1981 and re-appearing again at number 24 in July 1984.
The song was performed once by the band on television, for the BBC 'Something Else' programme. Twenty seconds of the song is shown in the movie Control (2007), directed by Anton Corbijn, a film based on the biography of Ian's wife, Deborah Curtis's Touching from a Distance.
Greil Marcus has a chapter on this song in his book The History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs. According to Marcus, "'Transmission' is not an argument. It's a dramatization of the realization that the act of listening to the radio is a suicidal gesture.
It will kill your mind. It will rob your soul." Marcus also quotes the band's bassist Peter Hook about the importance of this song: "We were doing a soundcheck at the Mayflower, in May, and we played 'Transmission': people had been moving around, and they all stopped to listen. I realized that was our first great song."
After the death of lead singer Ian Curtis, the band re-named themselves 'New Order' and went on to become one of the UK's biggest chat-topping bands of the 80's & 90's.
Comments:
M R
The Genius of Ian ; the talent of the others , and a music who stay in the mind !
Such a power and inovation for that time ! Thank you very much !
Scott Allison
Total brilliance. Great lyrics staccato bass line opening....my fav JD song
MrHeavyduty007
Still kills it in 2019!!
John Hebert
Dance dance dance
Daan
This is so satisfying to watch.
ronnie doorzon
built a audio room, stuff it with 70's and 80's marantz stereo systems and play this song, and that wil be the best time machine
to get back to the 80's.
whoami7721
Hard to believe this amazing music is forty years old. Like a lot of the great punk and post-punk era stuff it doesn't sound old and gets tons of teenaged and even younger than teen fans as the years go by.
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