The song Joy Division knew would “last forever”
There are moments in music when everybody stops to acknowledge a specific moment. A song or album is released, and regardless of people’s affinity towards it, it’s something that everybody recognises as a culturally significant moment for the art form. This happened when Led Zeppelin released ‘Stairway to Heaven’, Michael Jackson released ‘Thriller’, and Joy Division released their classic ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.
The song has completely withstood the test of time, as it finds a place on the dancefloors of the greatest indie clubs in the country. It continues to inspire modern bands looking for a sound that defies expectations and has even found a home on football pitches as teams worldwide make chants out of the iconic melody. Its timelessness makes it even sadder that Joy Division lead singer, Ian Curtis, wasn’t here for the release of the track.
It became apparent to members of the band that the song was something special before it was released. However, it wasn’t their intuition that told them the song would be a classic; rather, it was the amount that their producer, Martin Hannett, was obsessing over the song. Hannett would spend hours on end in the studio mixing and remixing the song until it sounded right. His obsession with the track told Joy Division they must have been on to something special.
“I couldn’t understand why he was constantly remixing it – four or five times in different studios,” said Peter Hook, recounting Hannett’s obsession with the song. “I remember getting phone calls at 3am off Rob Gretton – I had to get down to Strawberry Studios immediately because Martin was remixing ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ again. He was obsessed with it. Martin sensed it was a song that was going to last forever and wanted to make it really special.”
The rest of the band liked the song, but they didn’t see its potential like Hannett did. They recognised that there was a disconnect between ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and some of their other songs, but didn’t realise that the thing that separated the track from some of their other work would be what made people love it so much.
“It was a funny song for us because it was quite poppy, a contrast to the rest of the Joy Division stuff,” Peter Hook said when discussing the track. “We weren’t that struck with it. The ones that were our favourites were ballsy and angsty, like ‘Shadowplay’ or ‘Transmission’, because you could hide behind the song. ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ was fragile and a lot lighter. We knew it was good but not great.”
Ian Curtis was responsible for spotting the melody. Generally, the band would jam, and Curtis would know when to stop them. If he heard something good, he would ask them to repeat it and then work out the rest of a song from that point on. He died thinking that ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ would be another standard Joy Division song; instead, it’s a track that changed the course of pop music as we know it.
