Telegraph (song)

"Telegraph" is a song by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), and the second single from their studio album Dazzle Ships (1983). "Telegraph" was originally slated to be the first single released, but being unhappy with the mix and with pressure from Virgin, the group instead opted for "Genetic Engineering".

The first OMD release in the wake of Dazzle Ships' critical panning, "Telegraph" also met with hostility from the music press. It has since been positively reappraised by outlets including Rolling Stone, who recognised the track as "decades ahead of its time" and one of the "100 Best Songs of 1983". "Telegraph" was the band's first single not to enter the UK Top 20 since "Red Frame/White Light" in early 1980. The song was included on the CD and cassette versions of the band's first singles compilation album The Best of OMD in 1988 (in a remix unique to that release), but was omitted from their second singles compilation The OMD Singles in 1998.

Background
The song was first recorded in 1981 at The Manor studios and had been under consideration for the Architecture & Morality album. The lyrics on the original 1981 version and the 1983 version are different in places, reflecting the harder edge the original version presented. The 1981 version was released on the 2008 re-released Dazzle Ships album as an extra track. The original inspiration for "Telegraph" came from Andy McCluskey's strong feelings against politics and religion at the time. These motifs were weakened for the version on Dazzle Ships.

Reception
The first OMD release in the wake of parent album Dazzle Ships' critical panning, "Telegraph" also received negative appraisals. Mike Gardner of Record Mirror described the song as "a well-recorded piece of nonsense that doesn't show any ideas apart from starting and ending", while Smash Hits journalist Dave Rimmer called it "jolly, jangly, deliberately obscure and dull as proverbial dishwater".

In a retrospective review, however, Stewart Mason of AllMusic hailed the single as "insanely catchy" and "brilliant, a tongue-in-cheek ode to an all-but-obsolete technology that had once been state of the art." He added, "As the state-of-1983 electronics of the arrangement sound more and more quaint, the irony grows sharper." The Quietus founder John Doran viewed the song as "perhaps the apex of [OMD's] achievements in painting vignettes of love and yearning in an age where society dictates that lovers are often apart." Rolling Stone ranked the track as the 76th-best of 1983, with critic Rob Sheffield writing, "'Telegraph' is the crown jewel [of Dazzle Ships], a satire of how people keep falling for the utopian promises of new social media. (Talk about a song that's decades ahead of its time.)"

Chris Keller of The Big Issue also lauded "Telegraph" but favoured the "delectable" extended 12" version, which he felt "really lets the song show its teeth".

B-side
A new track entitled "66 and Fading" features as the B-side to both the 7" and 12" releases of "Telegraph". The long instrumental track continues the band tradition of including more experimental songs as B-sides. The song was not featured on Dazzle Ships and remained exclusive to this release until the inclusion of an edited version in the Navigation: The OMD B-Sides album in 2001 and then reinstated to its full length on the remastered special edition of Dazzle Ships in 2008.

"66 and Fading" is composed of the same chords as the track "Silent Running" (included on Dazzle Ships) but reversed and slowed down.

7" vinyl single and 7" picture disc
Side one Side two
 * UK: Telegraph VS 580
 * UK: Telegraph VSY 580
 * 1) "Telegraph" (Paul Humphreys/Andy McCluskey) – 2:57
 * 1) "66 and Fading" (Humphreys/McCluskey) – 6:31

12" vinyl single (extended version)
Side one Side two
 * UK: Telegraph VS 580-12
 * 1) "Telegraph" (extended version) (Humphreys/McCluskey) – 5:53
 * 1) "66 and Fading" (Humphreys/McCluskey)

Live versions
A live version of the song recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London was released as the B-side of the "Tesla Girls" single in 1984. The song was not included in the set list of the special live performance of Dazzle Ships at The Museum of Liverpool in November 2014, although was reintroduced into the live performances of the album in London and Germany in 2016.