In the 1980's, it was still fairly common for the record labels to produce different versions of albums for different markets, sometimes resulting in quite distinct "products". Accordingly, this was also a golden age for the import collectors, and I particularly remember UK copies selling in the USA for ridiculous prices. Globalization had not yet fully set in!
Other artists received far more radical makeovers to help them sell in certain regions, but even Howard Jones got a dose of the treatment on his second album. The title and the cover art remained the same, though the suits couldn't help changing the listing and the order of the tracks.
Track three was "Dream into Action" in the UK, but "No One Is to Blame" in the USA. It was clear that the latter, a slower ballad, was being eyed for success in America, but more on that later . . .
"Dream into Action" was, in contrast, a more "traditional" Jones composition, complete with industrial clanging noises and an upbeat message about living in harmony. I didn't pay it terribly much attention at first, and yet I can now, many years later, say that it has rather sneakily played a huge part in forming my own attitudes about the many unfortunate divisions in human life.
I have come to call it tribalism, or the love of any sort of –ism, where we feel better about ourselves when we choose to find someone else to hate. There is usually little thought involved in the matter, and it tends to derive from envy and resentment. Learn to tame that desire with understanding, and you in turn learn to overcome the division.
Stop imagining it. Start doing it.
Thanks to folks like Mr. Jones, I am no longer ashamed to proudly proclaim the essential unity of the human condition. I may now quote Marcus Aurelius about our "social nature", but it was Jones who gave me that first push. Thank you. It means people laugh at me quite often, and I am then able to smile in return.
—5/2007
A few words of commentary from Howard Jones:
And the song itself:
Howard Jones, "Dream into Action" from Dream into Action (1985)
Nobody ever seems to get it right
Even between friends there is a long gap
One of them makes a mistake, there is a fight
Whatever you do you have the benefit of the doubt
Whatever I do please understand
Whatever we do let's make a pledge to put it right
So we can end the rule of the division
Putting the dream into action, into action
Putting the dream into action, into action
Whatever you like to do then let that be my pleasure
Whatever you like to say I'll try to understand
Whatever I do please understand
Whatever we do let's make a pledge to put it right
So we can end the rule of the division
Putting the dream into action, into action
Putting the dream into action, into action
Whatever you like to do then let that be my pleasure
Whatever you like to say I'll try to understand
Whatever you do you have the benefit of the doubt
Whatever I do please understand
Whatever we do let's make a pledge to put it right
So we can end the rule of the division
Putting the dream into action into action
You are strong
We are strong
You feel it
We feel it
You are strong
We are strong
You are action
Putting the dream into action . . .
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