Everything's Gone Green at 33

One score and 13 years ago this week, New Order released “Everything’s Gone Green” as a single — a masterpiece that proved to be genius producer Martin Hannett’s final opus with the band and their first using computer-generated sounds. It hit me like a blue bolt the first time I heard it and it never left. Forgive the pun, N.O. fans, but I was hooked. Though fellow Mancunians The Smiths are my favorite, this song is in equal measure bright and dark, relentless and unapologetic, post-punk and dance. New Order heard the future long before everyone else and rendered it in a generous lead-in and lead-out as an offering to DJs for easier mixing, changing club culture forever (and a technique widely credited for the success of “Blue Monday,” the highest-selling 12” vinyl single in history). If I could represent my brain via music, these would be its sounds and sequences. 33 years of gratitude to New Order. Studio track here: http://bit.ly/13VFlng and live performance from 1981 (with Bernard playing Ian's old white Vox Phantom) here: http://bit.ly/1zOp8Le