Post by Del Boy on Jan 2, 2016 23:10:57 GMT
15
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
At number 15 is Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
This single makes our number 15 with 7 votes (UKC-13)
Love Will Tear Us Apart charted on 28th of June 1980
it peaked at number 3.
This song is from the album Closer.
Dirty Epic writes :
Writing this more as more of a New Order than Joy Division fan it’s easy to play up many of the myths about Ian Curtis/ Love Will Tear Us Apart. Yes Ian’s problems with epilepsy, Joy Division’s increasing fame and his marital problems with wife Debbie and affair with Annik Honoré were affecting him badly and are glaringly obvious if listened not so hard enough to LWTUA. But I feel this also ignores one of the best moments of pop music from the 1980’s.
Unlike the subsequent Joy Division album Closer which it doesn’t (originally) feature on LWTUA is more accessible and is perhaps is the Joy Division signature tune as Blue Monday is to New Order. From Bernard Sumner’s haunting keyboards, Steve Morris’s robotic drumming, Peter Hook’s high bassline’s and Ian Curtis trademark lyrics producer Martin Hannet pulls it all together in a ethereal sound which would stand along with their 1979 track Atmosphere as one of the most moving songs in popular music. In retrospect it’s a worthy tribute to Curtis who days before a tour of North America sadly took his life in Macclesfield on 18th May 1980. Perhaps many of the myth’s of Ian Curtis, Joy Division, Factory, Manchester’s music scene and even Macclesfield for that matter began that day too. But in a way I feel this is too convenient and ignores the complete body of work Joy Division that produced. In roughly three years they transformed from punk influenced knock about kids to post-punk innovators. Yes Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton and in particular Martin Hannet all had a major influence on this as much as Ian’s love of literature from the likes of JG Ballard and William Burroughs too. When they eventually did become New Order they did make it to America, New York specifically and they immersed themselves into New York’s punk-funk and electro club culture. This along with creative differences with Martin Hannet over the production of their debut album Movement, allowed them to shake off their Joy Division shackles and go in the very successful electronic dance-rock/indie rock direction they did from the 1981 single Temptation all the way to their 2015 and very successful album Music Complete which has still got the ghost of Joy Division lurking in tracks like Singularity and Academic – along with many trials, tribulations and tears along the way.
It’s a shame the musician’s union strike of 1980 put paid to LWTUA’s promo being played on TOTP as I’m sure it may made more of an impact on the chart than the number 13 it reached that June. Having said that it has been re-released in subsequent years and held fairly decent chart positions and it would be interesting to see what Ian Curtis would have made of this legacy and success of Joy Division/New Order as well as the wider influence they’ve had upon the music scene for almost four decades.
All what-if’s? if Ian had have lived… I’ll leave those for others to discuss but here’s to Ian, Bernard, Hooky and Steve for producing a timeless classic. RIP Ian.
Dirty Epic writes :
Writing this more as more of a New Order than Joy Division fan it’s easy to play up many of the myths about Ian Curtis/ Love Will Tear Us Apart. Yes Ian’s problems with epilepsy, Joy Division’s increasing fame and his marital problems with wife Debbie and affair with Annik Honoré were affecting him badly and are glaringly obvious if listened not so hard enough to LWTUA. But I feel this also ignores one of the best moments of pop music from the 1980’s.
Unlike the subsequent Joy Division album Closer which it doesn’t (originally) feature on LWTUA is more accessible and is perhaps is the Joy Division signature tune as Blue Monday is to New Order. From Bernard Sumner’s haunting keyboards, Steve Morris’s robotic drumming, Peter Hook’s high bassline’s and Ian Curtis trademark lyrics producer Martin Hannet pulls it all together in a ethereal sound which would stand along with their 1979 track Atmosphere as one of the most moving songs in popular music. In retrospect it’s a worthy tribute to Curtis who days before a tour of North America sadly took his life in Macclesfield on 18th May 1980. Perhaps many of the myth’s of Ian Curtis, Joy Division, Factory, Manchester’s music scene and even Macclesfield for that matter began that day too. But in a way I feel this is too convenient and ignores the complete body of work Joy Division that produced. In roughly three years they transformed from punk influenced knock about kids to post-punk innovators. Yes Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton and in particular Martin Hannet all had a major influence on this as much as Ian’s love of literature from the likes of JG Ballard and William Burroughs too. When they eventually did become New Order they did make it to America, New York specifically and they immersed themselves into New York’s punk-funk and electro club culture. This along with creative differences with Martin Hannet over the production of their debut album Movement, allowed them to shake off their Joy Division shackles and go in the very successful electronic dance-rock/indie rock direction they did from the 1981 single Temptation all the way to their 2015 and very successful album Music Complete which has still got the ghost of Joy Division lurking in tracks like Singularity and Academic – along with many trials, tribulations and tears along the way.
It’s a shame the musician’s union strike of 1980 put paid to LWTUA’s promo being played on TOTP as I’m sure it may made more of an impact on the chart than the number 13 it reached that June. Having said that it has been re-released in subsequent years and held fairly decent chart positions and it would be interesting to see what Ian Curtis would have made of this legacy and success of Joy Division/New Order as well as the wider influence they’ve had upon the music scene for almost four decades.
All what-if’s? if Ian had have lived… I’ll leave those for others to discuss but here’s to Ian, Bernard, Hooky and Steve for producing a timeless classic. RIP Ian.