Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)
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| “Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)” | |||||
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| Single by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark from the album Architecture & Morality |
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| B-side | "Navigation" "Of All the Things We've Made" |
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| Released | January 15, 1982 | ||||
| Format | 7" single, 12" single, Mini CD | ||||
| Recorded | The Manor, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, England | ||||
| Length | 4:09 | ||||
| Label | DinDisc | ||||
| Writer(s) | Andy McCluskey | ||||
| Producer | OMD & Richard Manwaring | ||||
| Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark singles chronology | |||||
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"Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" is a song by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and is the third single released from their third studio album Architecture & Morality. To prevent confusion with their previous single "Joan of Arc", the song was retitled "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" for its single release. Both songs are about the French heroine Joan of Arc. This was more successful commercially, reaching number 4 on the UK Singles Chart in 1982.
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[edit] The song
Maid of Orleans had originally been written by Andy McCluskey on 30th May 1981, the 550th anniversary of Joan of Arc's death. The song is in 6/8 time, giving it a waltz-like style. With only eight lines of text it is almost an instrumental. The main theme is a synthesized bagpipe tune (played on the Mellotron --- consisting of the "female choir" and the "3-Violins" presets). The intro is made of strange noises and was added later:[1]
| “ | The intro was a problem for radio and we did do edited versions where it was shortened.
The idea came about because we actually had the song recorded but thought the track started oddly and needed something else to announce it's arrival. At the time of A+M we were making a lot of music that was ambient soundscapes. The natural thing was to give the song an intro that set up the feel for the main themes to resolve out of the noises. It's not meant to "mean" anything specific, just set up a feeling to let the track grow out of the strange noises. I think that it worked well! BTW.. for the sound anoraks...most of the noises are melotron vocal sounds slowed down/sped up and greatly distorted simply by completely overdriving the old Helios desk in The Manor Studio. Pink noise and snare drum in lots of reverb. |
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[edit] The B-sides
The songs on the B-sides are "Navigation", and "Of All the Things We've Made" (12" and CD single only). Both songs can be found as bonus tracks on the remastered versions of Architecture & Morality. "Of All the Things We've Made" was added to the track list of their next album Dazzle Ships, released in 1983. "Navigation" was the title track for the 2001 B-sides compilation album Navigation: The OMD B-Sides. The early 12" single sleeves list the track "Experiments In Vertical Take Off" , but this song was never written.
[edit] Track listings
[edit] 7" vinyl single
- UK: DinDisc DIN 40
Side one
- "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" (Andy McCluskey) – 4:09
Side two
- "Navigation" (Paul Humphreys/McCluskey) – 3:26
[edit] 12" vinyl single
- UK: DinDisc DIN 40-12
Side one
- "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" – 4:09
Side two
- "Of All the Things We've Made" (Humphreys/McCluskey) – 3:31
- "Navigation" – 3:26
[edit] 3" Mini CD single
- Virgin CDT27 released 5th December 1988
- "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" (12" Version) – 4:13
- "Joan of Arc" (12" Version) (McCluskey) – 3:51
- "Navigation" – 3:30
- "Of All the Things We've Made" – 3:27
The sleeve erroneously states that there are 12" versions of "Maid of Orleans" and "Joan of Arc" on the CD single.
[edit] Promotional video
For the promotional video, the outdoor shots were made at Fountains Abbey, the indoor shots at The Manor Studio. The video featured Julia Tobin, an actress from the Royal Shakespeare Company.[2] The promo video is included on the video version of The Best of OMD and on the bonus DVD of the 2007 reissue of Architecture & Morality.
[edit] Chart performance
| Chart (1982) | Peak position |
Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Austria [3] | 2 | |
| Belgium | 1 | |
| Canada | 32 | |
| Germany | 1 | |
| Ireland [4] | 5 | |
| The Netherlands [5] | 1 | Gold [6] |
| Portugal | 1 | |
| Spain | 1 | |
| Switzerland [3] | 4 | |
| United Kingdom [7] | 4 |
[edit] Sleeves
The cover was designed by Peter Saville, Carol Wilson and Brett Wickens and was inspired by a stained glass design by Anton Wolff.
There are several sleeve designs for the 12" version. The original sleeve design featured an embossed coin motif on a silver foil. It was only released for a limited time, because the band didn't like this design. It was replaced with a similar stained glass sleeve as the 7" version in several variations.
[edit] References
- ^ McCluskey, Andy (2007-09-20). Maid of Orleans intro. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
- ^ Waller, Johnny; Humphreys, Mike (1987). Messages. Sidgwick & Jackson, p. 103. ISBN 0283992344.
- ^ a b Austrian Charts. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
- ^ Irish Charts. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
- ^ De Nederlandse Top 40, week 10, 1982. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
- ^ NVPI.nl, Dutch certification database. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
- ^ everyhit.com search results for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
