Love will Tear Ian Curtis Apart

In Chapter 10 of Mix Tapes and Empty Buildings, Mix daydreams about musicians of the past. Each of the musicians that he thinks about die young. He believes that his love of their work keeps their work alive. Mix would have to be a real obscure music fan to know Ian Curtis. The band he fronted, Joy Division, didn’t make any noise in America. 

I still had Mix mention him. 

The story of Joy Division and Ian Curtis is another one of those what could have been stories. You can read books about Curtis and his Wikipedia page is full of details. So I’m not going to write a bio here. “Love will tear us apart” is the big song that you should know. Musically, you can hear New Order forming in the synth and keyboards of that song. The build up of notes in the refrain and intro are different from other Joy Division songs. Curtis’s deep voice cuts through the music and into your ears. When he gets to the chorus, his voice rises, not falsetto by any means. The up and down of the vocals and swelling of the music keep the song from banal. In the “Love Love will tear us apart”  chorus you hear his voice drop to this bass rattling “again.”

The song got airplay in America on college radio. The band had enough talk that a tour was about to begin. 

It was known that Curtis had issues with epilepsy and some of those bios about him say the real issue was depression and drugs. 

Right before the big tour that could’ve launched them, Ian Curtis hung himself.

This great song that showed emotion and range came out and would never be followed up. Curtis would never explore what his voice could do. Joy Division wouldn’t break in America. They made a music video for the song. Just look how young and vibrant that band was. 

Joy Division was an early influence on U2. They admit it and just listen to the first two albums. 

If you get the chance listen to the song, it will stick with you all day.