Joan of Arc (McCluskey)is the title of an OMD song which first appeared as a single A side, released on 09 October 1981. It later featured on the third studio album Architecture & Morality, side two track one.
It is one of two songs written by Andy McCluskey about the French saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc, c.1412-1431) which feature as consecutive tracks on the album and were released as consecutive singles.
McCluskey had originally started work on the ‘Maid of Orleans’ version of Joan of Arc but then abandoned it to concentrate on this version. In 2019 he had this to say about the writing of Joan of Arc:
“To give you an idea of how it worked [then], if you think of the song ‘Joan of Arc’, that started with me laying down 5 minutes of myself singing the note A and putting in an echo. Then another 5 minutes of me singing random harmonies around it. Then I played glockenspiel randomly in A major, and then I put down a click [track]. Then I started to write a song over that [instrumental] bed track.I put down the bass and chords, and then I finally got a vocal and drums. And that’s how ‘Joan of Arc’ was created. ‘Joan of Arc’ would not have that same texture or atmosphere if I had not started from those completely abstract elements” (source)
The lyrics are written from the point of a view of a person telling the tale of the death of Joan and his longing to get in touch with her and actually be with her. The first person plural is also used ‘listen to us good…’, ‘..everything we tell..’. Typically there is no chorus although the words ‘without me’ are repeated several times.
The song has a quiet solo choral solo voice (actually McCluskey’s) fade-in and gradually builds up to a climax. the lyrics refer to ‘a little Catholic girl’ and the titular Joan is only mentioned once by name. There is also no ‘hook’ melody as had been the case with previous singles. The fade-out also features layers of solo choral voices.
McCluskey wrote Joan Of Arc on the 550th anniversary of her death (30 May 1981).[1]
The final version was produced by OMD & Richard Manwaring.
Posted from: https://omitd.fandom.com/wiki/Joan_of_Arc_(song)