A Man Could Get Lost

Origin
“A Man Could Get Lost” was written by David Ball in 1979 and has become one of earliest songs performed by the duo. The song describes the loneliness, sadness and anxiety occurring on the streets of a big city.

Record and release
“A Man Could Get Lost” was one of early Soft Cell tracks to be included in duo's debut single. It was recorded in Stage One Studio, December 1980, and produced by Daniel Miller. Track uses Almond's first take vocals. Song appeared on mistitled 7″ single A Man Can Get Lost, as an A Side, and released on March 1981 with 12″ Memorabilia.

Demo
A demo record of “A Man Could Get Lost” indicates that initially song had completely different music and the second verse lacked of overlapping lines from final version, which describe negative feelings of the hero of the song. The demo was recorded in Leeds Polytechnics studio around 1979, along with many other early Soft Cell tracks. It first become widely known trough bootleg releases, such as Science Fiction Stories. It got first official release in 2005 with compilation of Soft Cell early demo recordings Demo Non Stop, then was remaster on Keychains And Snowstorms box set in 2018, titled as ‘early version’.

Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing
“A Man Could Get Lost” was one of single songs to be re-recorded for Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing remix mini album in 1982. This version is instrumental and has additional percussion and scratch sound effects. This version was also released as B side on Canadian 7" version of following single, What!.

Remixes
A remix of the song by Marcello was released as part Heat: The Remixes compilation in 2008. Another remix, by John of the Pleased Wimmin, was released on limited Club Remixes EP in 2018; this remix is instrumental thus closer to Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing version.

Live versions
Live recordings of the song, both early and single versions, would appear on various bootleg releases for a very long time. First official release of such record can be marked by Keychains And Snowstorms box set, released in 2018: its DVD contains a footage of Soft Cell’s live show in Amnesia club, Leeds, May 1981, where single version of the song was performed. On July 16, 2018, “A Man Could Get Lost” was recorded live in the Warehouse club, Leeds. A video fragment of the performance was shown in Soft Cell: Say Hello, Wave Goodbye documentary. The record was released on limited 10″ EP on July 26, 2019, within deluxe Say Hello Wave Goodbye box set.

Personnel

 * Original version
 * Vocals – Marc Almond
 * Written-By, instruments – David Ball
 * Production – Daniel Miller
 * Engineering – Pete Maben
 * Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing version
 * Production – Mike Thorne
 * Engineering – Don Wershba
 * Mixing – Harvey Goldberg

Availability
“A Man Could Get Lost” appears on following records.

Original, demo, ‘Ecstatic’ and ‘Marcello Remix’ versions are also available on streaming platforms.

Listen

 * Official uploads on YouTube