ACR: Good Together 1989 - the album that contains 'The Big E (I won't stop loving you)'
When you’re sick and tired of everybody lying to you
you just want to walk away….. walk right into better days
if you can just stop wanting it….. it will come to you
I know you try….. but don’t try too hard
when I see you cry….. it breaks my heart
I won’t stop loving you….. I still believe in you
when everything goes wrong….. you think you’re on your own
I won’t stop loving you….. I won’t stop loving you
In these changing times….. you see yourself on the outside
it’s getting harder to find your way
you’re living in hope from day to day
if you can laugh in spite of it….. there’s nothing you can’t do
I know you try….. but don’t try too hard
when you lie to me….. you break my heart
I won’t stop loving you….. I still believe in you
when everything goes wrong….. you think you’re on your own
I won’t stop loving you….. I won’t stop loving you
You just can’t take it anymore….. and then again
A lost cause is the only one worth fighting for!
I won’t stop loving you….. I still believe in you
when everything goes wrong….. you think you’re on your own
I won’t stop loving you….. I won’t stop loving you
It’s 1989 and the Berlin Wall is falling, Chinese pro-democracy protestors are facing down tanks in Tiananmen Square and others are being eliminated. Soviet forces withdraw from Afghanistan.
The Exxon Valdez runs aground off Alaska spewing oil over the whole East Seaboard. The Ayatolla Khomeini dies after first imposing a Fatwah on Salman Rushdie. A ring around Neptune is discovered and the USA invades Panama.
A Certain Ratio - A Manchester band for our times - then and now
In Manchester, A Certain Ratio, a band managed by Factory’s Tony Wilson bringing sidewinding jazz, funk, soul and indie together in the same food mixer, signed with A&M Records in 1987 and two years later the experimental, daring and dangerous Good Together was released.
The album failed to produce a hit, and led to the band’s departure from the label. However, a song found its way onto it sung by Simon Topping (who would later stand in for Ian Curtis with Joy Division at a concert in Bury’s Derby Hall on April 8 1980 which ended in a riot a few weeks before Curtis’ suicide). Called The Big E (I won’t stop loving you) – the song which is virtually impossible to find apart from on a few jealously guarded copies of the album, has continued to haunt people like me down the years.
The verse below is especially relevant to today’s situation. Poverty, hardship, world banking system collapse, corrupt politicians, earthquake and famine – and that’s just this week..
ACR state something that here at Powerchange we tend to subscribe to – namely that you can create your own state – and then declare your own state of independence – a republic called Happiness in the middle of the surrounding gloom:
In these changing times….. you see yourself on the outside
it’s getting harder to find your way
you’re living in hope from day to day
if you can laugh in spite of it….. there’s nothing you can’t do
I know you try….. but don’t try too hard
when you lie to me….. you break my heart
On the 22nd January I read Chris Salmon in the Guardian saying this, “ACR may be remembered as Factory Records slightly underachieving punk-funkers, but in this 1989 single they created one of the most gorgeous and touching Indie-pop love songs you’ll ever hear..” It inspired me to write this post. The song also appears as the brilliant and inspiring swansong on my 17 song compilation – The Greatest Indie Love Songs of all Time (Vol 1).
I can only track down a 12″ single version of the song – but each tick, tock and zip reflects the many times that it has been played over the years. Is it the great undiscovered love song for our times? Judge for yourself.
The 12" sleeve for ACR's 'The Big E'
The track was also released as a 12″ single and I have uploaded this slightly longer and less crackly version here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ntdhyounlmy/A1.
A Certain Ratio – The Big E (I won’t stop loving you).mp3
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