So This is Permanence: Joy Division Lyrics and Notebooks

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Draft lyrics written on scrap paper his wife Deborah brought home from her job at the local council Photograph: PR Well, here you can see the lines surrounding the couplet, and Curtis’s crossing-through of an alternative line from earlier in the song: “to see what went wrong”. Turn to “She’s Lost Control” and there’s another line that didn’t make it to the record: “and in horror that one day I’d learn the truth ...” You needn’t read too much into such omissions, but you can spend a fruitful few minutes speculating on why the lines were dropped. The lyrics for Joy Division’s 1979 single Transmission, in Curtis’s distinctive capitalised handwriting Photograph: PR The next section contains alternative lyrics, some unrecorded songs, and a bit of prose. And the final section of the book contains artwork, photo's of some of the books in Ian's library that were important to him and also some fan letters to him. Those were the days: when artistic, intense young men and women (although it tended to be men) could see not only what was great about Rimbaud or Kafka, but also what was great about the Sex Pistols – and then form a band. It’s a pleasure to find in this book the cover of Curtis’s copy of Rimbaud’s poems, and also the bookplate in the copy of The Art of Coarse Acting that he was awarded for the history prize at the King’s school, Macclesfield (it’s rather touching that Curtis kept it; it doesn’t sound like his cup of tea).

Some of the most famous songs of the band include "Love Will Tear Us Apart" , "She's Lost Control", “Transmission” , and "Dead Souls". urn:lcp:sothisispermanen0000curt:epub:e5420d77-6b4b-44d4-8a47-a919fb586774 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier sothisispermanen0000curt Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s26gcv3f8sr Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781452138459 Lccn 2015563614 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-1-g862e Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.6337 Ocr_module_version 0.0.15 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-WL-0000161 Openlibrary_edition Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-05-05 15:14:33 Associated-names Savage, Jon, editor, writer of introduction; Curtis, Deborah, editor, writer of preface Autocrop_version 0.0.12_books-20220331-0.2 Boxid IA40466021 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Does she still play Joy Division’s music? “I don’t,” she says softly. “I can hear it if I want to. It’s there in my head.”It is fascinating to read Curtis’ song lyrics in their original hand written versions with visible deletions, corrections, changes and additions – it gives us at least a little insight into the mind of Ian Curtis and the process of his song writing. Clear also is the development and progression in Curtis’ song writing abilities over the short course of time they were written (1977-80). Deborah met Ian when she was a teenager in Macclesfield. He was an awkward, lanky figure who wore skinny jeans and eyeliner. By then, he was already a cult figure locally: a poet and a writer who carried his work around in a plastic bag, even after his band found success. You just took the cue from [Ian] singing and it built up to the vocals. It sounds really simple but that was one of the first one things we did after we finished Unknown Pleasures. I think it started with something that’s like a northern soul song, which we’ve kind of done on “Interzone”, which is the beat in the middle, then I just started playing half time and then we got the slow verse part for it. I really like the way it’s kind of moody and sort of snakes along then suddenly it gets really very spirited. Furious, I think. A little bit like “Insight” on Unknown Pleasures, but a lot more accomplished. For those who don't know the story of Ian, he was the lyricist, songwriter and front man of the band Joy Division. He suffered from seizures which grew considerably worse as the bands fame increased. Curtis was born in 1956 and committed suicide on 18 May 1980. His wife has written a biography of his life, which was published 1995 titled "Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division".

An early version of Love Will Tear Us Apart. Curtis played with variations of ‘your’, ‘this ’, and ‘the bedroom’ in earlier drafts Photograph: PROf course, many of these lyrics have been published before in Touching From A Distance and the Heart and Soul box set and they are certainly worth revisiting it is, however, This Is Permanence’s appendices that are the true revelations. In them we get to see lyrics in their alternative and early forms plus prose, artwork, fanzines, letters, and books that Ian was drawn to. It is in this section where we truly get to see Curtis’ work ethic. Lyrics are altered, titles are swapped (for example Shadowplay is originally entitled Interzone) and we see a writer who is obviously conflicted about revealing his true feelings. This is none more explicit than in his reworking of Love Will Tear Us Apart which sees him alternating from first person to observer, from “this” to “your”. Although this particular book is nothing near a biography of Ian Curtis or the band, there is a brief history of Ian in the forward written by his widowed wife Deborah, also a bit of band history in the introduction by Jon Savage. The media amplification, deification and santification of a lost artist as something far greater than they ever were, or ever could be Also included in the book as an appendix are artwork, gig posters, book covers, fan letters and other ephemera - kept by Curtis along with his hand written lyrics, prose and other writings, reportedly in various plastic bags. The book opens with a foreword by Ian’s widow Deborah (whose Touching From A Distance remains a beautifully honest account of her life with Ian and a benchmark in myth debunking autobiography) who gives a brief overview of her relationship with Ian and her reasons behind releasing these writings. She explains how his writings “became an extension of his body” and how he was very private and protective of them.

The book "So This is Permanence: Joy Division Lyrics and Notebooks" provides, just as the title implies, plus much more. If you were a fan of Joy Division or not, it must be admitted that the band had a major impact on music at the time. I myself was a great fan of the band, so this book is an incredible treat to own.

However, in the case of Ian Curtis – the last point is a moot one; the overwhelming majority of everything said and written about Curtis since his death has (for the most part) not been media fuelled ghoulish sanctification or hyperbole. Ian Curtis really was as gifted and talented a writer and performer as is written. All of which brings me to “So This is Permanence: Joy Division Lyrics and Notebooks.” As a Joy Division release, it is exactly what one would expect: beautifully designed, bound in gray cloth and printed in white ink, an homage to their posthumous album “Still.” It’s a luscious look behind the curtain of a musician who took his craft as a writer, and his role as a singer, incredibly seriously. Though his words are presented without music, they never come across as poetry. That’s partly because, I think, it’s impossible to read the words without hearing the atmospheric austerity or driving motorik laid down by Barney, Hooky, and Stephen. But it’s also because, by having the scans from Ian Curtis’s notebooks, you can see — and feel — the urgency of his writing, and can imagine him pacing in his Macclesfield flat searching for the right word, or weaving disparate phrases together to fit a song taking shape during rehearsals. An appendix of fragments, early drafts, and lyrics for songs never composed, offers even more insight into Curtis’s process. A second appendix — a hodgepodge of fanzines, show bills, fan letters, and the covers of books from which Curtis drew inspiration — rounds out a book that is both lovely and lovingly assembled. As with all artists (and there are many) taken away from us at a very young age and in their creative prime, there are three things which must always been born in mind, namely: She says she does, occasionally, take out the lyrics and read through them. “Having the whole thing together as a body of work, the music and now the lyrics, is wonderful,” she says. “I wish he was here. He’d be so proud.” Reading This Is Permanence it is obvious that the main influence of Curtis’ lyrics was human suffering whether that be from the victims or perpetrators point of view. In his early writings, when he refers to “I” or “we” Curtis is placing himself into the narrative more as an actor or storyteller yet as his well documented personal issues begin to take hold, we see the “I” and “we” become literal building up towards the final album Closer and singles such as Atmosphere and Love Will Tear Us Apart.