When I was on maternity leave last year, I spent many a night up late after Dominic’s feedings. When my husband went back to work after being home for about 2 weeks, I took over all late night feedings for the duration of my leave so that he would be able to function at work.
Those late nights afforded me time to watch some interesting television. It was at that time that my “obsession” with Joy Division began.
I saw “Control” at around 2am one late night/early morning, which is a film directed and produced by Anton Corbjin about the band Joy Division. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because he directed quite a few Depeche Mode videos. When I saw the film, I recognized the style and was not surprised at all that Corbjin directed it. It stars Sam Riley as Joy Division’s singer, Ian Curtis. What a find Sam Riley was because he is a singer as well as actor (he was in a band), which allowed the use of Riley’s actual singing voice in the movie (and the actors who played the band really played their instruments). I really thought his vocals were remarkably similar to Ian Curtis, and gave another dimension of authenticity to the film.
I knew that New Order was born out of Joy Division, but I didn’t know all of the history behind what happened. I only knew that they had a different lead singer that died somehow before Bernard Sumner, but again, I didn’t know the circumstances. I didn’t realize that Ian Curtis committed suicide until I saw the movie.
I’m always drawn to music based biopics, but I think this one really grabbed my attention because it happened right at beginning of my musical discovery back in the 80’s. Depeche Mode paved the way for my dark and gothic electronic path, and New Order infused a little alternative light to that darkness.
But Joy Division was something else. There was an energy that was tinged with sadness in their music. I only knew “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, but I set out to discover all of their music quickly after the movie. Since Dominic spent most of his days of those first 4 months sleeping, I took that time to really delve into all things Joy Division. I bought a “Best of” Joy Division CD, the “Control” DVD and CD. I spent hours on the internet reading about them and bought 3 t-shirts (which I talk about in my “Net-A-Poseur” entry). I also read the book “Touching From a Distance” by Deborah Curtis, Ian’s wife. That definitely put things into perspective about what was happening in and around Ian during the rise of Joy Division.
Like those around him, I didn’t realize how self deprecating Ian Curtis’ lyrics were (from “Isolation”):
Mother I tried please believe me
I’m doing the best that I can
I’m ashamed of the things I’ve been put through
I’m ashamed of the person I am
Isolation, isolation, isolation
Sad, right? Members of the band themselves didn’t even realize that Ian was going down such a dark path. His epilepsy exacerbated the situation, along with making his marriage work, his affair with Annik Honore, and the birth of his daughter. All of this while trying to become a successful band. He was only 23 at the time, which was just enough to put a young man into a tail spin.
So when I really listened again to “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, I hear the anxiousness and regret in not being able to make things work. I felt like Ian was saying, “Look I’m trying, ok?” Yet, there was this energy in the actual music, and maybe that masked the lyrics a bit. It was expressed physically in Ian’s spastic, epileptic-like dancing, but also in songs like “Transmission” and “Digital”. It wasn’t always dark I guess, but it was definitely out of control.
Take a listen. You may not become the fan that I did, but it’s worth going back to rediscover and revisit what was there before New Order.
Photos courtesy of Google Images
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