MANCHESTER (May 18) — A very gloomy (that is to say, happy) day for the shoe-gazers, the aging new wavers, and the melancholic of all ages on this, the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis' demise. Depressed, epileptic, and just plain unable to face the decade that came to be known as "The 80's," Ian Kevin Curtis simply gave up and cashed in on the day before Joy Division's first tour of North America was to begin. Neither New Wave nor Punk, Pub Rock nor Prog, yet a little bit of all things, Joy Divison's music was both perfect for and ahead of its time and place. You could mope to it. You could shag to it. You could dance to it. You could snort to it. All in one night, if you were lucky.
Curtis' legendary performances included dance moves inspired by his epileptic seizures. This often made it hard for his bandmates to know when his dancing had stopped and an actual seizure had begun, as this clip from the 2007 Anton Corbijn biopic Control so powerfully demonstrates.
In a strange coincidence that has so far been ignored by conspiracy theorists, Ian Curtis died on the same day Mount Saint Helens erupted in Washington.
Thanks, Kevin. Rising from the Helenic ashes of Joy Division, of course, was the slightly sunnier New Order. But Joy Division's influence extended far beyond that. The Smiths, The Cure, Siouxie and the Banshees, Moby, Radiohead and The Arcade Fire are just a few of the artists who owe Mr. Curtis and his band a huge debt of gratitude for finding a way to make self-loathing eminently danceable.
R.I.P. IC. Let's take things out with their masterpiece, and the first song I ever bought on iTunes, "Love Will Tear Us Apart." The subtitle of the song should be (But Self-Loathing Will Bring Us Together).
Buy The Best of Joy Division on iTunes here.
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