Joy Division... a ghost story

Gabba Flamenco Crossover

High Sierra Skullfuck
I got the Paul Morley book on Joy Division for Christmas and just finished reading it.

It's a compendium of all his writing on JD and other relevent pieces, with new writing linking them up and putting them in context, so that the text oscilates back and forth in time. It's the most personally revealing book on music I've ever read - Morley figures as largely in it as the band itself or any of the supporting cast. And although there is a certain amount of literary fireworks, the most moving parts of the book, which are a reconcilliation with his younger self and a recognition of how events shaped him, are very plain and unaffected. It must have been a incredibly difficult book to write.

The result is extraordinary - not just a book about the band itself, but about how people are obsessed and haunted by music, about the slippery relationship between time and memory and how the grieving mind pathalogically scans events long after they happened, trying to draw some kind of meaning from them. And a treasure chest of new ways one can think about this incredible band. Maybe the best book on music I've ever read. Big ups to Paul Morley!
 

swears

preppy-kei
Just watching this last night:
New Order talking in 1989 about Ian Curtis, Anton Corbijn, Paul Morley, success and err...U2.

You'll have to skip through the videos if you've seen them before.
 

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
Paul Morley was on Newsnight Review recently (maybe the end of year one) talking about "the genius of Ian Curtis" and stuff. OK, IC had his own style and a nice touch on angst-ridden lyrics. Not sure how that equates with "genius" though. Nor whether Joy Division would ever have amounted to anything without Martin Hannett.
 

continuum

smugpolice
Paul Morley was on Newsnight Review recently (maybe the end of year one) talking about "the genius of Ian Curtis" and stuff. OK, IC had his own style and a nice touch on angst-ridden lyrics. Not sure how that equates with "genius" though. Nor whether Joy Division would ever have amounted to anything without Martin Hannett.

That was the end of year Newsnight Review. They opened the show talking about the Joy Division 'Control' film. Burial got a mention later on in the program.
 
Paul Morley was on Newsnight Review recently (maybe the end of year one) talking about "the genius of Ian Curtis" and stuff. OK, IC had his own style and a nice touch on angst-ridden lyrics. Not sure how that equates with "genius" though. Nor whether Joy Division would ever have amounted to anything without Martin Hannett.

...or without Morley. I think he shaped the group as much anyone. its almost as though he willed them into existence. joy division became interesting after Morley's father committed suicide. this is no coincidence. coming to terms with his father's death was the real agenda behind Morley's JD writing, which in turn coloured everyone else's view of the group, including the group itself. i agree this is an extraordinary book.
 
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