The single 'True Faith' by New Order in collaboration with producer Stephen Hague was written during a whirlwind tour in 1986 and released in 1987. The song gave New Order its highest placing in the U.K. chart at No. 4, as well as becoming the band's first single to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. peaking at No. 32.
"I can't tell you where we're going
I guess there was just no way of knowing
I used to think that the day would never come
I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun …"
Bernard Sumner told 'Uncut', "I had an idea for the bassline, Gillian (Gilbert, keyboards) had some string ideas, Stephen got some drums down. When we got the track going, I was sent off to the flat we had in London with a bottle of Pernod and told not to show my face again until I'd written the lyrics."
On reflection in 2012, Bernard Sumner told 'GQ.com', "The only way I can write what I consider to be good lyrics is to put myself through the mill. This is staying up late, having a bottle of wine and wait for inspired words rather than premeditated words.
The words that I'm most happy with are the ones that come from my subconscious, rather than my conscious. They just feel right.
"One of the things I like about music is it's an abstract art, totally abstract, where you can convey an emotion, which I find amazing.
Your lyrics steer people towards emotions without ever giving too much information away. You're an expert at drip-feeding drama.
Also, it's a glimpse of my personality. It's what I'm like as a person. I don't give everything away.
"I tend to write in images as well, which is very good when it comes to putting together videos.
I tend to think in images and feelings, rather than non-abstract concepts. If I listen to a piece of music before I start writing lyrics, it gives me a mood. My head constructs a series of images and I'll use words to describe those images."
'True Faith' made a comeback in 2011 with George Michael performing. Bernard continued, "It was interesting to hear George Michael's version of 'True Faith' because I really thought he brought the lyrics out. It was less about the music and more about the lyrics. It was for Comic Relief (charity). So he did a bit of an R&B-tinged version and people either loved it or hated it and I thought it was great.
"As I say, I write from my subconscious and at the time I don't really know what it's about. Hearing another artist's version of it really illustrated what the song was about. I think my songs have their moments." Stephen Hague told 'soundonsound.com' in 2005, "For 'True Faith' the band came with some elements of the groove, a basic bass-drum/snare-drum pattern — it was something they had been kicking around for a while — and there was also a rough version of the programmed bass part in terms of its rhythm, along with a couple of chord changes for the verse and chorus.
"There was no song written yet, just a direction. The idea for the partial bass line came from an 'unknown' track on a compilation cassette that Barney (Bernard Sumner) received from a friend of his in New York. It was stuff recorded from Kiss FM, which was quite new at the time, I think ... Because they figured that I was, if not a proper songwriter, at least a collaborator, it was sort of a given that I was going to be involved in helping to pull the songs (including '1963') together."
