# The Strange Magic of: Joy Division



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The theme of our previous selection, U2's "Gloria" at Red Rocks, was UP! In stark contrast, we now enter the dark, staccato, DOWN world of lead singer Ian Curtis of the tastelessly and misplacedly-named Joy Division. Curtis, with bandmates Bernard Albrecht (g), Peter Hook (b), and Steven Martin (d) evidently came together as a result of Albrecht and Hook attending a Sex Pistols concert and concluding that lack of musical training was no bar to becoming Rock Stars, and, in the Punk world of the day, such training was seen by some as an actual disqualifier. Despite all this, Joy Division offers compelling listening in their recorded live concerts, where their raw energy is given full exposure and not muffled or neutered in studio manipulation. We know that Curtis, a victim of epilepsy, took his own life in despair over his condition and the state of his marriage, and that these issues and similar ones served as triggers for his haunting lyrics. But from the ashes of Joy Division sprang the excellent New Order, though again perhaps not a particularly well-chosen name. Here we have Joy Division live, singing _She's Lost Control_.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The lyrics....

"She's Lost Control"

Confusion in her eyes that says it all.
She's lost control.
And she's clinging to the nearest passer by,
She's lost control.
And she gave away the secrets of her past,
And said I've lost control again,
And of a voice that told her when and where to act,
She said I've lost control again.

And she turned around and took me by the hand
And said I've lost control again.
And how I'll never know just why or understand
She said I've lost control again.
And she screamed out kicking on her side
And said I've lost control again.
And seized up on the floor, I thought she'd die.
She said I've lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.

Well I had to phone her friend to state my case,
And say she's lost control again.
And she showed up all the errors and mistakes,
And said I've lost control again.
But she expressed herself in many different ways,
Until she lost control again.
And walked upon the edge of no escape,
And laughed I've lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.
She's lost control again.
She's lost control.

I could live a little better with the myths and the lies,
When the darkness broke in, I just broke down and cried.
I could live a little in a wider line,
When the change is gone, when the urge is gone,
To lose control. When here we come.


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## juliante (Jun 7, 2013)

No other band sounds like joy division. In a good way.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

Joy Division wrote some of the most depressing music ever written. I like it. Their song 'Disorder' rocks!


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## Bayreuth (Jan 20, 2015)

I was sixteen when the movie "CONTROL" came out. It is, to this day, the movie that has influenced me the most. All that sadness, all that frustration... It was something I almost didn't know existed.

Joy Division might very well be the most underrated band of all times (maybe The Who? maybe Chic? Whatever). I love their music, I love their lyrics but, above all, I love that gloomy, sad aroma each of their albums have. On my top 10 of best bands of all time


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## Guest (Mar 7, 2016)

Bayreuth said:


> I was sixteen when the movie "CONTROL" came out. It is, to this day, the movie that has influenced me the most. All that sadness, all that frustration... It was something I almost didn't know existed.
> 
> Joy Division might very well be the most underrated band of all times (maybe The Who? maybe Chic? Whatever). I love their music, I love their lyrics but, above all, I love that gloomy, sad aroma each of their albums have. On my top 10 of best bands of all time


I say this decidedly not as a fan, but in the UK Joy Division are held in deity-like status.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

dogen said:


> I say this decidedly not as a fan, but in the UK Joy Division are held in deity-like status.


I was going to add, in Manchester I'd dispense with the "-like"! I write as a fan myself, but my best mate was inconsolable when Ian Curtis died, and went into a depression himself, such was his hero-worship of Joy Division.


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## Bayreuth (Jan 20, 2015)

dogen said:


> I say this decidedly not as a fan, but in the UK Joy Division are held in deity-like status.


Sadly, I can't say the same for Spain. They are not really well-known, probably because The Beatles and The Rolling Stones draw all the attention. However, I should say that those who know them do held them in deity-like status.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

dogen said:


> I say this decidedly not as a fan, but in the UK Joy Division are held in deity-like status.


I feel very much like Joy Division is a group that those that want to appear special says that they like. It is more or less one of these groups you are supposed to like and I feel uncomfortable with that.


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## juliante (Jun 7, 2013)

Sloe said:


> I feel very much like Joy Division is a group that those that want to appear special says that they like. It is more or less one of these groups you are supposed to like and I feel uncomfortable with that.


Surely that is the realm of pre-teen / teenage behaviour? Maybe I am an unusually rounded person...but do any grown ups really pretend to like any kind of music or bands because they feel expected to or to appear 'in' with a scene??? If they do then they er - need to grow up.


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## Guest (Mar 8, 2016)

Joy Division is a band that has stuck with me over the years - many bands have not. I came to them in reverse, having first liked New Order, then exploring backwards and discovering they had an earlier incarnation. I was always drawn to the bass playing of Peter Hook, and that almost lead guitar-like playing of his was a unique sound that was brilliant. Nothing virtuosic, like a Les Claypool, but still memorable. I read a book that he wrote about Joy Division, and it gave some great insights into the band.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Sloe said:


> I feel very much like Joy Division is a group that those that want to appear special says that they like. It is more or less one of these groups you are supposed to like and I feel uncomfortable with that.


There comes in life, for the fortunate, a moment of personal liberation when you understand that you can like or dislike anything in the arts, despite what anyone else thinks. It is hard for the peer-group-sensitive younger person to attain that moment, but when it comes, it is exhilarating. Then you will be able to approach Joy Division directly and judge whether or not you like them. In my case, like almost everything in the arts, I find I like some things that some particular artist/musician has created, and not others. I myself am not a big fan of Joy Division--lots of groups I like more--but I do like what I like, and that's all that matters.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Strange Magic said:


> There comes in life, for the fortunate, a moment of personal liberation when you understand that you can like or dislike anything in the arts, despite what anyone else thinks. It is hard for the peer-group-sensitive younger person to attain that moment, but when it comes, it is exhilarating. Then you will be able to approach Joy Division directly and judge whether or not you like them. In my case, like almost everything in the arts, I find I like some things that some particular artist/musician has created, and not others. I myself am not a big fan of Joy Division--lots of groups I like more--but I do like what I like, and that's all that matters.


Just something I wanted to say. I am not that fond of Joy Division anyway but if other like them it is fine. I believe that those who likes Joy Division are fully honest in that they like them.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Sloe said:


> Just something I wanted to say. I am not that fond of Joy Division anyway but if other like them it is fine. I believe that those who likes Joy Division are fully honest in that they like them.


A fine response. If everyone on the TC Forum felt this way, it would be, as The Cure put it, Just Like Heaven!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Strange Magic said:


> The theme of our previous selection, U2's "Gloria" at Red Rocks, was UP! In stark contrast, we now enter the dark, staccato, DOWN world of lead singer Ian Curtis of the tastelessly and misplacedly-named Joy Division. Curtis, with bandmates Bernard Albrecht (g), Peter Hook (b), and Steven Martin (d) evidently came together as a result of Albrecht and Hook attending a Sex Pistols concert and concluding that lack of musical training was no bar to becoming Rock Stars, and, in the Punk world of the day, such training was seen by some as an actual disqualifier. Despite all this, Joy Division offers compelling listening in their recorded live concerts, where their raw energy is given full exposure and not muffled or neutered in studio manipulation. We know that Curtis, a victim of epilepsy, took his own life in despair over his condition and the state of his marriage, and that these issues and similar ones served as triggers for his haunting lyrics. But from the ashes of Joy Division sprang the excellent New Order, though again perhaps not a particularly well-chosen name. Here we have Joy Division live, singing _She's Lost Control_.


Finally, a good band. I had started to lose hope in the Strange Magic series.

To this very day 'Closer' remains the most depressive rock album I've ever heard but in an earlier period of my life it provided some much needed catharsis. I remain forever indebted to Joy Division.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

H


Morimur said:


> Finally, a good band. I had started to lose hope in the Strange Magic series.


Morimur, where is our relationship going!?:lol:


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Strange Magic said:


> H
> 
> Morimur, where is our relationship going!?:lol:


_To the center of the city where all roads meet, waiting for you..._


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## Alydon (May 16, 2012)

I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Joy Division by a friend in the early eighties, and believe me at the time, and even now, they weren't and are not an easy listen. The abiding memory I have of the group was a strange darkness - certainly Curtis and his unusual stage manner gave the feeling everything was very near the edge - and seeped in this darkness was a lilting beauty which was occupied by the fragile, the damaged, the outcasts and the ***** of light throughout which makes life worth living. Once you are a Joy Division fan, you are for life and there's no going back, you have formed a communion in that half-light world of wonder and despair and cannot escape the mesh of the music and lyrics which fused together brings that incredibly rare thing - genius. We who bought Closer and Unknown Pleasures were viewed as different as we had managed to go over on the other side and survived the experience. The album Still, reiterated the legend which had been sealed with the suicide of the band's lead singer, who though known to have suffered mental illness had seemingly been offered up as though in an artistic statement, which could have been no different, and we fans continued to live our everyday lives, lives which had been stripped to the bone as we had been touched by a group like no other. Nearly thirty years on I'm sitting down outside on a sunny Sunday morning and feel bored, I need a musical infusion, something to shake the cobwebs away. I pick a CD at random, and it's Joy Division's Closer; the music hits me all over again and it's as though the raw power has never faded from the first time my friend played them all those years ago.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

The group often criticised Martin Hannett's production (especially on _Closer_) as apparently it didn't replicate the power of their stage act - however, I think the echo-laden but compressed dryness of the sound that Hannett got complimented Joy Division's particular kind of monochrome starkness perfectly.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Alydon's post hints at why some of us anyway often never "outgrow" our musical interests--once a part of us, they are retained.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Good choice, Strange Magic. Here we can meet.


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## Guest (Apr 18, 2016)

Joy Division were a part of my growing up and remain a part of my growing old. I see no reason to grow out of them.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The all-controlling forces that either allow or prohibit YouTube clips have decided that U2's glorious Red Rocks live version of _Gloria_ may be too intense for younger viewers and have pulled it. So I have decided to skip over U2 in my resurrection of these two-year-old Strange Magics of:

Maybe later.

So we turn and return instead to Joy Division. I always preferred their live work and here is more: _Transmission._


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I saw Joy Division in 1979 supporting The Buzzcocks.

I thought they were interesting. At the end of the set Ian Curtis seemed to collapse and had to be carried off by some roadies.

I always wondered whether it was an act or whether he really had fainted or whatever.

I didn't give them much thought after that except when "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was released ( I think it was played on the tour during which I saw them).


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I managed to get a ticket to see Genesis at Birmingham Odeon in 1980 - it was their first UK tour for three years and they were playing mid-sized venues so tickets were like gold dust. Some days later I found out that Joy Division were playing at Malvern Winter Gardens the same night. I was torn and thought about selling the Genesis ticket but of course I didn't know what was going to happen to Ian Curtis then so I thought 'never mind, they'll be back sometime' - it turned out that Joy Division played only four more gigs.


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2018)

From Genesis to Joy Division? Snap. As I began to lose interest in the one (Abacab for God's sake) I began to take an interest in punk, new wave etc which I had previously reviled. I fell in love with Closer almost immediately in 1980, but too late, of course. Seeing New Order in 1983 seemed like arriving after the party...wake.


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## Oakey (Nov 19, 2017)

One of my favourite bands and highly influential. I also like New Order very much because of the integration of electronics in a 'band' sound. Unknown Pleasures is a masterpiece though.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Genesis: old? new? Joy Division? New Order? Love them all! Bandwidth. It's all about bandwidth .


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

My ultimate favourite rock band. In my town, we have several places were punk, post-punk, darkwave and other Madchester-like bands are played very often. Our progressive rock scene is pretty much dead but the 70s, 80s & 90s bands from Leeds and Manchester are immortal.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Great band Joy Division, loved their music although it did not stay at the center of my attention for years to come, probably because, great as it is, it is also a bit onedimensional. New Order: listened to them in the beginning but never really got interested in them.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Casebearer said:


> Great band Joy Division, loved their music although it did not stay at the center of my attention for years to come, probably because, great as it is, it is also a bit onedimensional. New Order: listened to them in the beginning but never really got interested in them.


My method of preference is to judge an artist, a band, a composer, an anybody in the arts, by their choicest fruit--their overall output can later be assessed and lists made of this and that. But the primary focus is the individual work, and though one can appreciate a large variety of art and artists, one is always grateful for the much rarer commodity--something one really and wholeheartedly likes. New Order, like so many other groups, has a small core group of songs (like _Ruined in a Day_, for example) that stick with me, while the rest can be discarded. I think that is a common reaction, though maybe not.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Let me guess. Joy Division’s favorite band was Jim Morrison and the Doors. It shows quite a bit. Nothing wrong with that, but still, I find it hard not to be constantly reminded. I salute Curtis for his desire to write about darkness and control and the human side of things.


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

Great band. Their music touched my soul in my teenage years. It made me stronger and it never really depressed me, also because I always could dance to it, either in my bedroom or on a public dance floor.

To me, The Wombats just nailed it:

_Let's dance to Joy Division
And celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong
But we're so happy_.


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