#119: Love My Way by the Psychedelic Furs

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: April 1983
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #44
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #9
YouTube: “Love My Way”
Lyrics: “Love My Way”

Richard Butler was born in Surrey, England, in 1956. Butler started art school in London with the idea of becoming a painter. After graduation, he worked in a silk-screen print shop but got the idea to form a band. Timothy “Tim” Butler is the younger brother of Richard, and was born in 1958. Richard Butler formed the band in 1977 with his brother Tim. They were joined by guitarist John Ashton who was born in London in 1957. Vince Ely joined the band as a drummer in the classic Psychedelic Furs lineup in 1979, as did Ashton.

The Psychedelic Furs were part of the emerging post-punk scene. Post-punk musicians departed from punk’s fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experimental approach that encompassed a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk’s energy and do it yourself ethic but determined to break from rock cliches, artists drew influence from Germany’s krautrock scene and experimented with styles like funk, electronic music, jazz, and dance music. They experimented with production techniques of dub and disco. They also found inspiration in ideas from art and politics, including modernist art, cinema and literature. Other post-punk bands included Gang of Four, Talking Heads, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and The Cure.

In 1980, the Psychedelic Furs released their self-titled album. It climbed to #18 on the UK pop album chart. A 1981 release, Talk Talk Talk, reached #8 on the New Zealand pop album chart, and #30 in the UK. A track from the album, “Pretty In Pink” inspired the title for the 1986 film Pretty In Pink. When the film was released, “Pretty In Pink” climbed to #18 on the UK pop chart.

In 1982, the band released Forever Now with the lead single “Love My Way”.

“Love My Way” was cowritten by John Ashton, Richard Butler, Tim Butler and Vince Ely. Psychedelic Furs Front man, Richard Butler, had a specific audience in mind when he penned the lyrics to this song. He explained this in an interview with Creem in 1983: “It’s basically addressed to people who are fucked up about their sexuality, and says ‘Don’t worry about it.’ It was originally written for gay people.”

In the lyrics, Butler sings “So, swallow all your fears, my love, and put on your new face. You can never win or lose if you don’t run the race.” Despite the challenges, and apprehensions about others perceptions of who you are choosing to love, you have to step up to the starting line and enter “the race” (the dating scene). Both Richard and Tim Butler, and John Ashton, are living married lives with their respective wives. So, the song is written from the point of view of a heterosexual person being supportive of a gay friend or acquaintance pursuing their romantic road. The lyrics detail “Love my way, it’s a new road.” And so, this way of loving is novel, at least to conventional society. Moreover, “I follow where my mind goes,” invites the subject to give attention to their intuition, imagination, and the personal choices that follow from being inspired/attracted.

In 1981, being gay – or “a homosexual” as most nations in the early 80s would categorize a same-sex attracted person – made you subject to rules and penalties. “They’d put us on a railroad, they’d dearly make us pay,” suggest coercion. Of course, in Nazi Germany, homosexuals were given the pink triangle in concentration camps. Like Jews, gypsies, communists and others targeted under Hitler, homosexuals were taken to concentration camps by railroad.

Other lines in “Love My Way” detail the closed attitudes toward anyone who follows their ‘new road.’ “There’s emptiness behind their eyes, and dust in all their hearts. They just want to steal us all and take us all apart.” “Love My Way” is a song of alienation, identity, and perseverance.

“Love My Way” was included in the 1983 film Valley Girl which was released in April 1983.

Poster for Valley Girl

The soundtrack also included “I Melt With You” by Modern English which was a minor hit that year; “Who Can It Be Now?” by Men at Work, which was an international Top Ten hit between 1981 and 1983; And “Johnny Are You Queer?” by Josie Cotton.

Singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren contributed keyboards, saxophone and marimba on the band’s album Forever Now. Songfacts.com, in an interview with Rundgren, estimates that “Love My Way” is the most popular song featuring a marimba as a lead instrument. The Forever Now album was produced by Todd Rundgren and recorded at his studio, Utopia Sound. It was his idea to use the marimba on this track, and he played it. The demo of the song had a different instrument for those sections, but Rundgren had a marimba in the studio and thought it would be worth a shot. “It turned out that the little musical theme just sounded perfect with the marimbas, and became a signature element of the song. So it just was a question of availability. It’s not like I had to go rent some marimbas. I happened to have them.”
As well, Flo and Eddie – Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles – provided backing vocals.

“Love My Way” peaked at #7 in Ottawa, #13 in Boston, and Los Angeles, #15 in New York City, #16 in Charlottesville (VA), and Tacoma (WA), #17 in Pittsburgh, and #18 in Sherbrooke (PQ).

Internationally, “Love My Way” reached #9 in New Zealand, and #23 in Australia. The song stalled at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Love My Way” was later included in the soundtrack for the 1998 film The Wedding Singer, the 2006 British film Starter for 10, and the 2017 coming of age film set in Italy titled Call Me by Your Name.

Forever Now climbed to #4 on the New Zealand pop album chart, and #20 in the UK.

After Forever Now, Vince Ely left the band (though he rejoined the band from 1988 to 1990). The ‘Furs continued on from 1982 to 1988 as a trio.

In 1984, Mirror Moves reached #5 in New Zealand and #16 in Canada. A fifth studio album, Midnight to Midnight, climbed to #12 in the UK and #13 on the Spanish pop album chart. In 1986, the band had another album track crack the Billboard Top 30 on the Hot 100 chart with “Heartbreak Beat”. It climbed to #26 on the US national charts and #10 in Montreal on CKOI. In 1988, “All That Money Wants” topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, but didn’t crack the Billboard Hot 100. Two more tracks from successive albums, “House” and “Until She Comes”, both topped the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The former in 1990 and the latter title in 1991.

By 1992 the band dissolved, Richard and Tim Butler formed Love Spit Love. That band released several albums through the 90s, and in 1994 enjoyed a #3 Modern Rock Track chart hit “Am I Wrong”.

Ashton became a record producer and worked on a number of projects including Marianne Faithfull, the Sisters of Mercy, Red Betty, and Seven Color Sky. Ashton mixed and co-produced the Secret Post’s studio album From Train to Station, released in 2015, and oversaw recordings with Los Angeles band’s Silence. Ashton has also pursued a solo career and released his debut studio album, Satellite Paradiso, in 2014.

In 2006, Richard Butler released a solo self-titled album. The Butler brothers reformed the band in 2001. They have been performing in concert up to the present. In 2025 the Psychedelic Furs have been on a world tour.

A reformed Psychedelic Furs with the Butler brothers heading a new lineup released Made of Rain in 2020. The album reached #5 in Scotland and #13 in the UK.

September 10, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Psychedelic Furs: Grown Up Strange,” NME, September 22, 1979.
Ryan Davey, “Forever Now: A Retrospective of The Psychedelic Furs,” Ceremony, November 28, 2022.
Harvey Kubernik, “Howard Kaylan of The Turtles, Flo and Eddie and The Mothers of Invention, Shares Memories Of A Storied Life In Rock Music in His New Autobiography,” Record Collector News.com, May 8, 2013.
Hannah Nepilova, “The marimba: all you need to know about the ‘flutey’ sounding percussion instrument,” BBC, November 11, 2024.

CFRA 580-AM Ottawa Top Ten | April 29, 1983