Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)

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"Maid of Orleans"
Song
B-side"Navigation"
"Of All the Things We've Made"

"Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" is a song by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and was the third single released from their third studio album Architecture & Morality. The track has been described by OMD frontman Andy McCluskey as the group's "Mull of Kintyre".[1]

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 and both reached the Top 5 of the UK Singles Chart—although this single was more successful internationally, topping the charts in several countries including Germany, where it was the biggest-selling single of 1982.[1] It also reached number 5 in Ireland and number 7 in New Zealand. The single was the last release on the Dindisc label.

Ned Raggett in AllMusic has described the song as "epic", concluding: "With another bravura McCluskey lead and a mock-bagpipe lead that's easily more entrancing than the real thing, it's a wrenching ballad like no other before it and little since."[2] In 1989, Radio Veronica listeners voted "Maid of Orleans" the 60th greatest song of all time.[3] In 1991, MTV Europe named the single's accompanying video as the 37th best ever made.[4]

"Maid of Orleans" has been recorded by various artists including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, hip hop group 3rd Bass and DJ Quicksilver. It was used during the climax and closing credits to the final episode of the second series of BBC television program Ashes to Ashes.

The song

Maid of Orleans had originally been written by Andy McCluskey on 30 May 1981, the 550th anniversary of Joan of Arc's death. The song is in 6/8 time, giving it a waltz-like style. 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:[5]

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 its 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 [sic] 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.

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 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.

Track listings

7" vinyl single

  • UK: DinDisc DIN 40

Side one

  1. "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" (Andy McCluskey) – 4:09

Side two

  1. "Navigation" (Paul Humphreys/McCluskey) – 3:26

12" vinyl single

  • UK: DinDisc DIN 40-12

Side one

  1. "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" – 4:09

Side two

  1. "Of All the Things We've Made" (Humphreys/McCluskey) – 3:31
  2. "Navigation" – 3:26

Two different sleeve designs were issued, firstly a silver coin design, and a stained-glass design (similar to the 7" picture sleeve) with three different variations.[6]

3" Mini CD single

  • Virgin CDT27 released 5 December 1988
  1. "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" (12" version) – 4:13
  2. "Joan of Arc" (12" version) (McCluskey) – 3:51
  3. "Navigation" – 3:30
  4. "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.

Promotional video

For the promotional video, the outdoor shots were made at Brimham Rocks and Fountains Abbey[7] near Aldfield, North Yorkshire in December 1981 during the snowy winter and the indoor shots at The Manor Studio. The video was directed by Steve Barron and featured Julia Tobin, an actress from the Royal Shakespeare Company as Joan of Arc.[8] 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.

Chart performance

Chart (1982) Peak
position 		Certifications
(sales thresholds)
Australia (Kent Music Report)[9] 78
Austrian Singles Chart[10] 2
Belgian Singles Chart 1
Canadian RPM Singles Chart[11] 32
Dutch Singles Chart[12] 1 Gold[13]
German Singles Chart[14] 1 Gold[15]
Irish Singles Chart[16] 5
New Zealand Singles Chart[17] 7
South African Singles Chart 19
Spanish Singles Chart 1
Swiss Singles Chart[10] 4
UK Singles Chart[18] 4 BPI: Silver[19]
Preceded by Dutch Top 40 number-one single
13 March 1982 (1982-03-13) – 3 April 1982 (1982-04-03) (4 weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Aurora" by Nova
Preceded by German Singles Chart number-one single
9 July 1982 (1982-07-09) – 23 July 1982 (1982-07-23) (3 weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Ich will Spaß" by Markus
Preceded by
"Ich will Spaß" by Markus
 German Singles Chart number-one single
6 August 1982 (1982-08-06) (1 week) 		Succeeded by
"Ich will Spaß" by Markus

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 more than one 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.

Alternative versions

There is only one studio recording of the song, identical for both the album and single releases. A remix entitled Maid of Orleans (Afterhours Mix) by Mulu was released on the remix disc which accompanied the French edition of The OMD Singles compilation album in 2003.

Live performances

The song has been performed at live shows on a regular basis since the Architecture & Morality tour in 1981.[20] A live performance from 1981 was filmed for the Live at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane concert in December 1981, initially released on VHS (1982) and laserdisc (1984) [21] and later on DVD [22]

Maid of Orleans was chosen as one of the songs to be performed with an orchestra for the Night of the Proms concert tour in December 2006, effectively McCluskey and Humphreys' first live performances together since the pair had split in 1988. The performances of Maid of Orleans and Sailing on the Seven Seas were issued on CD.[23]

Live recordings have been made available on the Walking on the Milky Way CD single (1996), the Architecture & Morality & More album (2008), Dazzle Ships at The Museum of Liverpool CD/DVD (2015) and on Architecture & Morality / Dazzle Ships – Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2016). The song was also performed with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in June 2009 as documented by the Electricity DVD release.[24]

Covers

In 1993 Flemish band Leopold 3 scored a top 10 hit in Flanders with "Volle maan", a version of "Maid of Orleans" with Dutch lyrics.[25]

The song was recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1996.[26]

Watergate (aka DJ Quicksilver) recorded a cover version as "Maid of Orleans (The Battle II)" in 1999.[27]

Other bands have covered the song: Mila Mar in 2000,[28] Third Bass[29] in 2001, Voi feat. DJ Frost & Talla 2XLC,[30] Z-People in 1998,[31] S.O.S. in 1997[32] and many more.

In 2009, Maid of Orleans was covered by the German DJ and radio presenter DJ Happy Vibes as a house track.[33]

References

  1. ^ a b Stanley, Bob. How to lose 3 million fans in one easy step. The Guardian. 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  2. ^ AllMusic Review by Ned Raggett (8 November 1981). "Architecture & Morality - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 November 2016. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ "Rocklist.net...Radio Veronica (Holland) Top 500". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Top 100 Music Videos of All Time". MTV Europe. December 1991.
  5. ^ McCluskey, Andy (20 September 2007). "Maid of Orleans intro". Retrieved 20 September 2007.
  6. ^ "OMD - Maid of Orleans". discogs.com. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  7. ^ Menu. "Omd Q&A : Videos – Messages". Omd-messages.co.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  8. ^ Waller, Johnny; Humphreys, Mike (1987). Messages. Sidgwick & Jackson. p. 103. ISBN 0-283-99234-4.
  9. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 224. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  10. ^ a b "Austrian Charts". Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  11. ^ "RPM - Library and Archives Canada | RPM - Bibliothèque et Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  12. ^ "De Nederlandse Top 40, week 10, 1982". Radio538.nl. Retrieved 12 February 2008.
  13. ^ "NVPI.nl, Dutch certification database". Nvpi.nl. Retrieved 12 February 2008.
  14. ^ "Charts-surfer.de". Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Orchestral Manoeuvr. In The Dark; 'Maid Of Orleans')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  16. ^ "The Irish Charts - All there is to know". Irishcharts.ie. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  17. ^ "charts.org.nz - Discography Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark". © 2006-2010 Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  18. ^ "Chartstats.com". Retrieved 15 January 2009.
  19. ^ "British certificates: searchable database". bpi.co.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  20. ^ "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark". setlist.fm. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  21. ^ "Live at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane". discogs.com. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  22. ^ "Architecture & Morality (Collector's Edition CD & DVD)". discogs.com. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  23. ^ "Release - Night of the Proms 2006". musicbrainz.com. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  24. ^ "Joan of Arc song". musicbrainz.com. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  25. ^ "ultratop.be - Leopold 3 - Volle maan". Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  26. ^ "Rock Dreams: Purple Rain". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  27. ^ "Maid Of Orleans (The Battle II)". Watergate. 1999 (Germany). Underdog Records.
  28. ^ "Mila Mar - Maid Of Orleans (CD)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  29. ^ "Third Bass - Maid Of Orleans (Vinyl)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  30. ^ "Voi Feat DJ Frost & Talla 2XLC - Maid Of Orleans (Vinyl)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  31. ^ "Z-People - Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans) (Vinyl)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  32. ^ "S.O.S. (8) - Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans) (Vinyl)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  33. ^ "DJ Happy Vibes Feat. Jazzmin – Maid Of Orleans". Discogs.com. Retrieved 18 May 2016.

External links

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