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Joy Division and the uncanny in music
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Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger
986 posts

Re: Joy Division and the uncanny in music
Mar 04, 2015, 23:06
I watched and very much enjoyed the JD prog last Friday. As well as making me feel a bit old, it also reminded me of being young and my first encounters with JD. The beginnings of that weird journey out of my teens at the arse-end of the 70's... from a wet, grey West Coast of Scotland council scheme into the 80's and another part of my life.

I wont go into first encounters with JD or how I love Unknown Pleasures or Closer. For me the revelation of JD came with three songs. Firstly the utter metal of "Dead Souls" which I'd taped off Peel in early 1980 (the 7" release never made it the distance up to Ayr). Then a wee bit later when "Still" plopped out onto the Armitage Shanks. I was grateful for some new stuff, but found myself drawn to only two tracks really... "The Only Mistake" and "The Sound Of Music" (and of course a complete version of "Dead Souls" without Peel's voice on it). I know TOM and TSOM were instrumentally "added to" after Ian's death but I don't think that takes anything away.
I loved the mighty metal majesty of those three JD tracks. I still think they eclipse everything else they ever did.
As for other uncanny music...

I read a few comments here mentioning Echo And The Bunnymen. I was heading to a funeral last November. It was a grim one. A long drive. I was late. The death was a suicide and I felt like shit. I got a puncture. I took a wrong turn at Newton St Boswells. I nearly ended up in England. I arrived late at the burial site as the family left in a bus.
My dead pal had liked a bit of The Bunnymen and we'd chatted about their performance at The Wickerman a few years before (an old crony of mine from Ayr was playing guitar in the live line-up). I paid my respects at his woodland grave and drove back home under biblical skies. Black clouds riven with silver and gold. Torrential rain. The Eildon Hills looked like Tolkien's nightmare. I stuck on a CD. The Bunnymen. A song "Stars Are Stars" - which I'd always liked - hit me full on. Great bass, amazing drumming, lovely spare guitar, uncrowded, uncluttered, a young twenty-one year old Mac singing like he mean't it. I kept the song on repeat until I got home.

The sky seems full
When you're in the cradle
The rain will fall
And wash your dreams
Stars are stars
And they shine so hard

Now you spit out the sky
Because it's empty and hollow
All your dreams
Are hanging out to dry
Stars are stars
And they shine so cold

I saw you climb
Shadows on the trees
We lost some time
After things that never matter

I caught that falling star
It cut my hands to pieces
Where did I put that box
That had my name in it

I saw you climb
Shadows on the trees
We lost some time
After things that never matter

Cards are played
And the clock's real heavy
Say you're numb
Make another day
You came here late
You've gone home early
Who'll remember now
You've gone away
Gone away
Gone away

I realised that although I'd been listening to that song for about 35 years, I'd never heard it properly before. It was uncanny.
In reply to:
Joy Division and the uncanny in music (Fatalist)		 Replies:
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