New Order “Regret”

Back in 1993, New Order released their sixth studio album, Republic. It has one of my favorite songs by the band (“Regret”), but because New Order didn’t include the lyrics in the CD I bought back then (standard practice for the band), I misheard some of the lyrics — or at least I think I am. Case in point, when Bernard Sumner sings:

You may think that I’m out of hand
That I’m naive, I’ll understand
On this occasion, it’s not true
Look at me, I’m not you

All these years, I thought he was saying “I love you” instead of “I’m not you” — which changes the entire message of the song for me. Still, among the many things I really dig about this song are the opening verse and the intro with the guitar and the synth strings playing off each other with fast fades between the two. Oh, and the cynicism of that opening verse probably plays to my Gen X sensibilities. There’s just something kind of funny (and sad) about the narrator of the song singing:

Maybe I’ve forgotten
The name and the address
Of everyone I’ve ever known
It’s nothing I regret

I mean, if I forgot the name and the address of everyone I’ve known, it would probably mean I’m either in a very dark place, or I really don’t have any friends that I stay close to. But it’s that opening guitar riff (and later bass work by Peter Hook) that works so well. I tried playing it on guitar using some tabs posted on Ultimate Guitar, but it wasn’t sounding right. And then through the University of YouTube, I found this guy doing a demo of the chords for the song — and that bass groove, too. I hope it helps with your guitar playing. It took me a few tries, but I finally got it.

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