One critter’s happiness is another critter’s sadness…
Does your Monday morning feel like a rotten egg? Well, The Nest has the perfect way to put that hop back into your step. This is the day we dig underneath all that fake plastic grass to bring up another sweet piece of ear candy from that giant Easter basket full of lost goodies we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy’s rocking her bunny suit she wore at the Playboy Mansion, while the Sponkies are still coming down from their sugar high. Here’s another golden oldie for all of my Peeps…
The late 70’s saw the rise of punk and its completely wild and anarchistic style in the UK. One band that was formed from the new sound was a quartet named Joy Division, who would tame punk’s sound to make it more approachable and…. well, quite frankly, more listenable to an audience who preferred their fine china not be tossed all about the place by youngsters with spiked hair.
I promise not to break anything, ma’am. I’ll only slightly dent things while slamdancing.
Joy Division is considered one of the more influential bands of its era despite the fact that it didn’t exist for very long. Much of this was due to the struggles and ultimate suicide of its lead singer Ian Curtis. Curtis, needless to say, was not having a good time of things. His marriage was failing, he was diagnosed with epilepsy, and both of those conditions only got worse when Joy Division suddenly found themselves becoming rock stars. Before Curtis ended things in May 1980, he did compile all of that pain into one of most famous songs of the post-punk movement… and one which is more of an obscurity in America because it was never a hit here. Sit back and enjoy the poignant, yet eclectic song “Love Will Tear Us Apart”…
Joy Division recorded two different versions of this song in early 1980, and while I don’t think this was the original version that was a hit in the UK, it is the version I came to know and love… and is much more uptempo than its sister track. It wasn’t released as a single until a month after Curtis’ death at the young age of 23. The instrumentation on this song is excellent, particularly the drumming and bass… and all accompanied by the haunting and unique voice of Curtis.
It’s easy to see why they named themselves Joy Division.
Love may have torn them apart, but Ian Curtis’ suicide did not. The rest of the members carried on, but decided to drop the Joy Division name and became noted new wave band New Order. This is a fact I was completely unaware of until I did the research for this post! I’ll have to feature a New Order song at some point on the DVA since they’re about as well known here in the US as Joy Division was despite having a trio of recognizable songs…
The Ty D Bol man assures us that it will be a Blue Monday…
I’ll have another lost song for you next Monday when routine bites hard…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I totally love the intro and the switch! … it was a surprise as they came back as new order in the 80’s, wasn’t it?…aaaah blue moanday… that fits to today…
Have you ever seen the video for Blue Monday? It has a Weim!!!
yes!!!! sadly not mine… :O)))
Sad about Curtis’ decision to move on to a more heavenly gig and I suppose you’re right – love did tear him apart to some extent. Glad the band pulled itself together though and went on……
Pam
When I was trying to find a picture of the band to use in this post, I noticed that pretty much EVERY photo of Ian Curtis had him looking some mixture of sad, angry or just plain emotionless. He must’ve had a real tough go of things. It must have lifted a weight off the rest of the band’s shoulders too, because New Order’s song are much more upbeat and peppy…
He probably brought all of them down as he sank deeper into his issues. Sad.
I honestly don’t know if I’ve heard this group in either of its iterations. Was never into punk but do like that jump up and down beat. Now I think I’ll need a sedative or a good yoga class to calm down.
I’d wager you’ve probably heard at least one of New Order’s songs before, you just didn’t know who it was…. or probably what the song was even called since all three of their songs I know have titles that are nowhere in the lyrics. Now I am picturing punk yoga….
Oh. dear. lord!
You were quite right, “The Joy Division” seems fitting and ironic. Well except for that guy on the right-hand side. HE looks like he has a naughty secret and finds it funny…
The naughty secret is that he’s the one who puts the “joy” in Joy Division…
Yep, I recognise that song. Ah, nostalgia.
That punk is gonna regret his tats and choice of hairstyle when he goes for that accountancy job next week…
Yeah, the boss with the gauged ears and nosering isn’t going to want some shabby looking person like him working for his firm…
I didn’t realise that they became New Order. Good to know they were able to move on after Curtis’s death.
I’d have never guessed it in a million years because the sound is so different between the two bands. Two-thirds of Fine Young Cannibals were guys from The English Beat… another case of two completely different sounds!
Thanks – I didn’t know that either. Very different, yes, but I liked both.
Joy Division is still one of my favourites as well as New Order, whose last tour was pretty amazing. Have you seen the film bio of Ian Curtis called Control? It’s excellent.