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Unlike
other bands to emerge from England in the Sex Pistols'
wake, Manchester’s Joy Division cloaked themselves
in mystery. The group disdained interviews, and their
albums contained no liner notes, group picture, or even
a list of the band members. Their mystique was cultivated,
but it was the death of singer Ian Curtis (on May 18,
1980, the eve of the band’s first US tour), followed
by the remaining members' quick reemergence as the successful
dance band New Order, which brought down the official
veil of silence on Joy Division.
Despite the little known about the group, Joy Division's
music inspired a generation of British mope rockers, shoe
gazers and Goths, including the Smiths, the Cure and Bauhaus.
In this country, too, Joy Division's recorded legacy attracted
a cult following of alienated boys in black and darksider
girls in white pancake make-up. Both of the band's official
albums (Unknown Pleasures and Closer)
have been released here, as well as a posthumous collection
of outtakes grouped with a live concert (Still)
and two previous compilations (Substance Joy Division
1977-1980 and Permanent: Joy Division). Bootlegs
of Joy Division's concerts are available on disc, and
tapes are actively traded on the internet. There are a
number of books on the band such as Mark Johnson’s
An Ideal for Living: An History of Joy Division.
But instead of dispelling the fog, all of this activity
worked to construct a myth around the group. Ian Curtis
was viewed by his fans as a sort of prophet for martyred
love: his suicide, at 23, a blow for the ideal, a refusal
to accept the failings in this veil of tears. All of that
changed in 1995 with the publication of Touching from
a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division by Deborah
Curtis. In its pages, Ian Curtis is revealed by his estranged
wife as an epileptic whose depression was exaggerated
by hard drinking and by the barbiturates used to prevent
his seizures (which sometimes happened in the middle of
concerts). Deborah Curtis presents a selfish and self-absorbed
man who was a disloyal husband and an indifferent father
to their young daughter. She shows band members and management
helping to hide Curtis's adultery and pressuring him to
continue in the band even after repeated suicide attempts
made it clear that the responsibility could kill him.
So determined is she to shine a light in every corner,
that we are even told what record Ian Curtis listened
to while hanging himself (Iggy Pop's The Idiot). Ian Curtis
is not just knocked off his pedestal; he is left less
an artist than fodder for the Jerry Springer show.
The release of the 4cd Heart and Soul last year
in England (available in the US only as an expensive import)
returns the focus from Ian Curtis to Joy Division. Now,
almost twenty years after their first recordings, Joy
Division holds up. To be honest, Curtis isn't the most
talented singer—he is frequently flat and has a
tendency to let his voice trail off at the end of phrases—nor
is Joy Division the tightest of bands. But they had whatever
the peculiar elements of ambition, effort, talent, personality
and chemistry that when mixed result in a band capable
of producing magic. Ian Curtis had a mesmerizing voice,
deep and thick, and while he frequently moaned his laconic
and troubled lyrics, he could also scream out with hurt
and passion. Only Stephen Morris's synthdrum contains
a hint of the music which followed in Joy Division's wake;
unlike the dance pop Joy Division inspired, Bernard Sumner's
guitar playing is worthy of Black Sabbath. Full of feedback,
it relies on notes more often than chords, echoing the
melody, which is carried on most songs by Peter Hook's
bass.
Compiled
and sequenced by writer Jon Savage, Heart and Soul
argues implicitly that Joy Division's greatness can
survive a straightforward presentation. Heart and
Soul traces the prodigious growth of Joy Division
from early post-punk recordings as Warsaw to "Love
will Tear Us Apart," a final single, recorded heavy
with keyboard and with Curtis affecting a vocal style
closer to Sinatra than Johnny Rotten. Also included are
previously unreleased concert recordings made over the
band's final seven months together. Savage provides an
accompanying booklet with complete lyrics, extensive liner
notes and band photographs. "It advances the story
line," Savage says. "It makes Ian into something
that he really was but never could be because their was
this mystery about the band. Still, I think the mystique
holds up in an essential way because the music is so good."
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