The Cavern
Rock & Words
JOY DIVISION
"Disturbing and purging my mind
Back out of my duties, when all's said and done
I know that I'll lose every time"
"C"
Main Decade: 80’s
Main Era:
Post-Punk (1980-???)
Key Members:
Ian Curtis, Vocals
Bernard Summer, Guitar and Keyboards
Peter Hook, Bass
Stephen Morris, Drums and Electronic Percussion
Key Songs:
Transmission, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Atmosphere, She´s Lost Control, Disorder, Day on the Lords, New Dawn Fades, Shadowplay , Interzone, Atrocity Exhibition, Isolation, Passover, Heart and Soul, Twenty Four Hours, The Eternal, Dead Souls, Digital, Insight, Leaders of Men. Glass.
Joy Division is a band of the internet age. You might say, "What are you talking about, Homer? The internet didn't even exist when Joy Division released their best work. You're crazier than a goat, you damn fool!" Well, don't get me wrong, but just like Frank Zappa, La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata, My Bloody Valentine, Can, or Pescado Rabioso, these are undoubtedly examples of "best-kept secrets." What do I mean? Well, every country, for whatever reason, has good artists, but over time they only transcend their local borders, rarely reaching international audiences, or they remain a kind of underground phenomenon. In other words, they're known, but very little outside their country; generally, the only ones who know them are die-hard music lovers (like us). After the 2000s, these kinds of groups became known to everyone thanks to the flow of information on the internet, which is an infinite library of information. Suddenly, some people became pseudo-music lovers, and our generation transformed into an endless machine for listening to oldies. Today, as many see it, and with the constant retro trend in our culture, Joy Division has become a pop icon for the new hipsters sweeping our land. Beyond that, Joy Division is a clear example of how our culture is degenerating into a retro trend due to a lack of originality, so much so that we look to underground giants like Ian Curtis and company as new role models.
In any case, starting with a pessimistic intro is fitting for a band like this, but this group is also an example of perhaps the last reinvention that rock has had in its history. I'm not just talking about Joy Division, but about the entire movement that took place between 1978 and 1984 called Post-Punk, to which the lads from Manchester belonged.
Post-punk emerged from the desire to break with punk itself, which was perceived as lacking originality. The first to denounce this was undoubtedly John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, whose post-Sex Pistols band, Public Image Ltd., championed the complete deconstruction of rock, incorporating influences from jazz, krautrock, and reggae. He sought a fresh approach for his band; the main idea was to start from a different point. Where rock featured melodic guitar riffs, they opted for bass lines; where the same rhythm was prevalent, they chose to alter the time signatures. PIL was undoubtedly the primary source of inspiration for the young punk rockers who didn't know where to go after the Sex Pistols.
Meanwhile, the artistic trend also grew. The rejection of art by punks, which they considered elitist, was reversed, and the trend went further, seeking inspiration in the most influential artistic movements of the modern era: Constructivism, De Stijl, Dadaism, the Bauhaus, etc.
Although the movement still retained its punk connection, as the critique became truly broad, post-punk bands emerged that, in addition to criticizing the system, also criticized politics, society, and everyday life, while other groups wanted to criticize and change the system from within through major record labels. The "Do It Yourself" ethos grew in many groups, and the first independent record labels emerged, free from the distribution of the industry giants. Among them, thanks to journalist Tony Wilson, was Factory Records, which would eventually become another British landmark of the era.
Thus, by 1978, Post-Punk was on the verge of exploding from the underground. Small movements and some future icons were emerging in many English cities. In Leeds, Gang of Four were making their mark in a highly politicized city. In Sheffield, electronic experimentation reigned supreme with the appearance of Cabaret Voltaire and the future new wave icons, The Human League. From the United States came underground acts like the absurdist Devo and the expressionism of Pere Ubu. In London, Scritti Politti were also making their mark, while other groups were already beginning to stand out outside the underground, such as Talking Heads, The B's 52, Wire, and PIL. Manchester, at that time an artistically devastated city, couldn't be left behind, and its two main underground icons were The Fall and Joy Division.
Joy Division formed in 1977, influenced by the Sex Pistols' performance in Manchester in '76. Bernard Sumner, Terry Mason, and Peter Hook decided to form a band and each bought a guitar, drums, and bass, respectively. After some time, having gained some experience, they met Ian Curtis, who had also been at that Sex Pistols concert, and the idea of forming a band excited him. This led to the first lineup of Joy Division, under the name Stiff Kitens. Eventually, Mason left, Steve Brotherdale joined but was later dismissed, and Stephen Morris then permanently joined on drums. They found Morris in a music store advertisement, and Ian later remembered that he had been a classmate of his. Stiff Kitens then changed their name to Warzaw, in homage to the first track on side B of David Bowie's album Low, and also to the city of Warsaw, one of the cities most affected by World War II.
While the Sex Pistols' influence was evident at the time, Warzaw were already exploring more artistic avenues. Thus, while their image resembled the Nazi aesthetic of World War II, their music was influenced by Bowie and his German period, Brian Eno's distinctive sound that was beginning to gain traction in the industry, and the albums Bowie produced during that era for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. These were at least Warzaw's initial influences. They would later release an LP through RCA, which they rejected due to dissatisfaction with the final production. This became a rare bootleg, lost to time and only officially released in 1994.
This is where Factory Records becomes important. Factory Records was a record label led by Tony Wilson, a journalist deeply involved with the music of the time. The idea was for Factory to be the record label for the bands that played at his nightclub, The Factory. In their debut, Joy Division, already under that name, played live, releasing an EP, *A Ideal for Living*, which particularly impressed Tony Wilson, who later signed them to his record label.
The arrival of producer Martin Hannett would be another key turning point in their story. He would completely change Joy Division's sound, giving it a more minimalist feel and influencing them with Krautrock and industrial music, immersing them in the burgeoning electronic music scene.
The recording sessions are said to have been legendary. Martin Hannett wasn't exactly a "sane" producer; he was eccentric and even violent in his working methods. This undoubtedly bothered the band members, who had had bad experiences with previous productions. They also held anti-record-production punk ideals, but they eventually learned the hard way. Finally, with the release of *Unknown Pleasures*, Joy Division realized they had a revolution on their hands.
The album was revolutionary in the UK, with its minimalist aura, soaring melodic bass lines, slow, atmospheric tracks, and dark yet romantic lyrics from Ian Curtis, whose voice was reminiscent of Jim Morrison. They established themselves as the leading figures of Manchester and Factory Records, and Peter Saville's iconic cover perfectly captured the psychological darkness that permeated the band's sound, transforming it into the quintessential post-punk album, the one that best defined the genre's sound.
The weight of all this happening so fast took its toll on poor Ian Curtis, who had to juggle a rock band on the brink of success, future icons of a movement, his alienating office job, and a deteriorating relationship with his wife, all while grappling with the guilt of infidelity. At this pace, a European tour followed. The story goes that upon returning from this tour, Ian suffered another setback: his first epileptic seizure. In addition to dealing with epileptic seizures, Ian had to contend with the medication to which he developed a minor addiction, and which also had certain side effects. So, amidst all the success, the young Ian had to force himself to live in depression until the end of his days…
The band's following grew ever larger. Singles like "Transmission" were released, and audiences were no longer 50 people, but 500 or even 1,000. Ian even suffered some seizures on stage. The pressure he felt was evident, but he couldn't tell them he wanted to quit, being at that moment the leading figure of the most promising band in the British Isles.
It is in this context that Closer, Joy Division's second album, was born—a truly desolate and mystical record with a sound influenced by electronic percussion and surrounding Ian with a shamanic aura. It ended up being, at the same time, a kind of crucifixion for Ian Curtis, with truly devastating lyrics. While those on the first album were desolate, they still had a certain hopeful and romantic air. On the second album, however, the lyrics are truly those of a person who has lost to the world, who can't bear it, who has been completely overwhelmed by the present and there's nothing that can fix it… NOTHING!!!
Thus, after Joy Division received the important news of their first US tour, Ian simultaneously received the news that his wife was leaving him… And in the solitude of his home, while listening to Iggy Pop's *The Idiot* and watching Werner Herzog's *Stroszek*, which depicts the life of a tormented artist who ultimately commits suicide, Ian decided to hang himself at the age of 23 in his kitchen to leave this world.
Closer was released, and singles like the well-known "Love Will Tear Us Apart" would further solidify Ian Curtis's legacy. Over time, the former members of Joy Division would form New Order, becoming influential figures in the future of electropop, while Martin Hannett would produce several well-known groups, have a falling out with Tony Wilson, and then, in the late 80s, produce Happy Mondays until his death from a heroin overdose. Meanwhile, Tony Wilson would continue his struggle with his label to find another Joy Division, a quest that would never materialize.
The Post-Punk movement stagnated; between the arrival of New Wave and the disappearance of truly great bands like Joy Division, or the rejection of quality productions due to mere ideals, among other things that are difficult to understand, Post-Punk, as journalist Simon Reynolds would say, would be one of Rock's great Unfinished Revolutions.
However, Joy Division's legacy endures. Among the many compilations of unreleased material, such as Still from 1981 or Substance from 1988, up to the release of the album Warsaw in '94, we also had, in the 2000s, several films, documentaries, more compilations, and books about an underground myth that today, thanks to the constant flow of information, we all know.
The final conclusion is that Joy Division represents one of Rock's greatest "what ifs," in a decade of the 80s in which the mainstream lost its powerful musical touchstones. Could Joy Division have saved 80s Rock? Would the Post-Punk movement have taken hold? Nobody knows; "what ifs" don't exist, and I'll leave that to your imagination.
It goes without saying that Joy Division was a melodramatic story with a sad ending. I don't know if it was by their own design, but a band whose name is based on the group of Jewish women the Nazis used for sexual gratification clearly couldn't end well.
By Homer
May/1/2014
