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Home , An Ideal for Living, Ian Curtis, Martin Hannett, Peter Hook, Sam Riley, Touching From a Distance

The Relationship Between ’s Music and His

投稿類別：英文寫作類

篇名： The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

作者： 張盛媛。國立台灣師範大學附屬高級中學。高三 1372 班

指導老師： 賴香如老師

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The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

Ⅰ. Introduction A. Motivation

In 2013, my guitar teacher introduced the band to me. I was shocked by their music at first because of Ian Curtis’s low voice, the strange melody, and the dark atmosphere through the whole . To be honest, I didn’t really like their music at that time. But my guitar teacher told me that The Killers1, which is my favorite band, had covered one of Joy Division’s song Shadowplay for the soundtrack of Ian’s biographical film Control. Since then, I started to listen to their music, search for their stories and thus became one of their fans. I’m fascinated with post-punk music, and Joy Division is the representative of this genre. In the summer of 2015, I finally had a chance to watch the film Control and found it touching and inspiring. On the other day, my twin sister and I unexpectedly found an original text book called —inside Joy Division, written by , who is exactly the bass player of Joy Division. Then I came up with the idea that it might be cool to write a research paper about this band. And I’m also interested in psychology, so it turned out to be a research includes music and Ian Curtis’s mental problems caused by his epilepsy.

B. Purpose of the research

The paper aims to understand Joy Division and Ian’s epilepsy more deeply and thoroughly. As a lead singer and guitarist of HSNU’s Hot Music Club, I am intrigued how emotions affect creation. Also, I want to extend post-punk music to other students and Taiwanese people. Last but not least, I hope this research would do help to those musicians who have the similar experience with Ian Curtis, including families and friends around them, who could understand their mental problems more and help them in the right way.

C. Methods & Procedure

I would start my paper with Ian Curtis’s life background, trying to explore what shaped his personality qualities, which will help clarify the reasons for his music styles. The depiction of his life is based on two reliable books Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division, written by Ian’s bandmate, Peter Hook and , written by Ian’s widow, Deborah Curtis. And the biographical film Control, which was also produced based on Touching from a

1The Killers: An American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. 2

The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

Distance. I also plan to analyze some lyrics to understand Ian’s thoughts about his life, such as She’s Lost Control and Isolation. Then I would search for related information about epilepsy and psychology through books, magazines, and the Internet. Last, organize, compare and analyze these information to interpret the relationship between Ian Curtis’s musical opus and his epilepsy.

Ⅱ. Thesis A. Ian Curtis’s biographic sketch and Joy Division’s background

Ian Curtis was born on July 15th 1956 in , . He admitted to the King’s School, ; while there he met Deborah (Debbie) Woodruff. Debbie was the girlfriend of Ian’s friend Tony Nuttal. When she and Tony split, she agreed to go on a date with Ian. They became engaged on April 17th, 1974 and got married in 1975. He was taking jobs in the Employment Exchange after his marriage, which helped people to get jobs. Still dreaming of a career in the music business, he placed an advert in the music press. It was all started from the ’2 gigs. For the young music lovers at that time, they were the index of youth’s rebellion and . Bernard Summer and Peter Hook decided to form a band on their way home in the night after the Pistols’ gig.

“We decided to follow the rules of punk… Rule one：act like the Sex Pistols. Rule two：look like the Sex Pistols. One Guitar, one bass.”(p.37, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

On December 9th, 1976, the night of the Pistols’ third gig in The Electric Circus, they met Ian, who was a guy with“hate”on his coat.

“We wanted a singer and a drummer but Ian had a drummer and guitarist, so— we couldn’t join up, even though we desperately needed a singer and he desperately needed a . We had to follow the rules.”(p.47, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

But before long, Ian’s two members left and he ended up joining Summer and

2Sex Pistols: An English punk rock band from London in 1971, which is seen as one of the pioneers of the punk movement in the 1970s in UK. 3

The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

Hook. They found the drummer, Stephen Morris at last. Inspired by David Bowie3’s song Warszawa, the band was named Warsaw at first, but the name Warsaw had become a barrier that stopped them from getting gigs because of another short-lived punk group Warsaw Pakt. They later changed their name into Joy Division in late 1977 for fear of being confused with Warsaw Pakt. And it was Ian who suggested the name. He found it in a book he was reading, House of Dolls4, by Ka-Tzetnik 135633.

“‘Joy Division’was the name given to groups of Jewish women kept in the concentration camps for the sexual pleasure of the Nazi soldiers. The oppressed, not the oppressors. Which in punky,‘No Future’sort of the way was exactly what we were trying to say.”(p.5, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

Their self-released 1978 debut EP, caught the attention of the Manchester television personality , who signed them to his independent label, . Joy Division’s debut album Unknown Pleasures, recorded with the producer , was released on June 15th, 1979. This album received sustained critical acclaim as a pioneering post-punk record. And its white-on-black radio waves cover, designed by Peter Saville 5 , has become well-known. As the band's popularity grew, Ian was diagnosed with epilepsy on January 23rd, 1979. He found it increasingly difficult to perform at live concerts because he might occasionally collapsed into . Moreover, his marriage was falling apart because he had an extramarital affair with a Belgian journalist Annik Honore. He met her during gigs in August 1979. All of the above worsened his severe depression and eventually led to his tragic ending of committing suicide at home on May 18th, 1980. It was the day before the band was scheduled to leave for America. Ian was cremated on May 23rd at Macclesfield Crematorium. Inscribed in his grave stone is , the title of Joy Division’s first chart hit. Two months later, Joy Division’s second album Closer was released on July 18th. In 1995, Curtis's widow Deborah published a biography of Ian—Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division and in 2012, the bassist Peter Hook published a book entitled Unknown Pleasures: inside Joy Division in the UK. His life and death have also been dramatized in the films (2002) and Control(2007). The former mainly presents a fictionalized account of the rise and

3David Bowie: An English singer, songwriter, and actor. His music has significant influences on rock and roll for decades. 4House of Dolls: A novel about the Nazi’s concentration camp by Ka-tzetnik 135633 in 1955. 5Peter Saville: An English graphic designer and art director, best known for the record sleeves he designed for Factory Records. 4

The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

fall of Factory Records, while the latter depicts Ian’s life based on Deborah’s book Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division and Debbie served as a co-producer on the film. Hook voiced his comments in his book,

“The guy in Control, , played him as being much more arty and conventionally pretty than he was in real life, whereas in 24 Hour Party People had a bit more of the real-life Ian’s edginess and intensity.”(p.45, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

B. Evaluation and Analyses of Ian Curtis’s music a. Features of Ian Curtis’s music opus and stage performance

Ian was the main lyricist of Joy Division. He got inspired by the fragments of his life, the people he met, and his emotional fluctuation, or mood swings. The imagery and words were revolving around coldness, pressure, darkness, crisis, failure, collapse, and loss of control. The atmosphere of silence, death and fright permeates through his music. As for the structure and form, the abundance of repetition is the feature of Ian’s lyrics, without obvious chorus.

“It has no chorus, which is something that I think Ian was very, very good at－the way he played with the structure of the lyric but without ever losing what it was about the song that makes it strong.” (p.256, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

Also, unlike most of the rock bands, the bass lines in Joy Division’s music are very clear and heavy. The guitar is used to create rhythm and chords while the bass is used as the main theme, an obvious feature we can hear from most post-punk music, including the Post-Punk Revival6 in 21st century.

“I mean the great thing about Joy Division was that we used the bass to write the songs. Most bass players are just used to back up a song, to fatten it up.” (p.252, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

And his bandmates admitted that they didn’t pay a lot attention to what he was writing at that time. They often composed the background music first, then

6Post Punk Revival: A genre or rock that developed in the late 20th and the early 21st centuries. The elements of this style included post punk, garage rock, new wave etc. 5

The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

Ian chose the lyrics which went perfectly with the music. Not until Ian’s death did the other members decide to focus closely on his lyrics and try to understand Ian’s situations and feelings back then. “This sounds awful but it was only after Ian died that we sat down and listened to the lyrics.” said Morris in 2007. “You’d find yourself thinking, ‘Oh my God, I missed this one.’ Because I’d look at Ian‘s lyrics and think how clever he was putting himself in the position of someone else. I never believed he was writing about himself. Looking back, how could I have been so bleeding stupid? Of course he was writing about himself. But I didn’t go in and grab him and ask, ‘What’s up?’ I have to live with that.”(Wikipedia, 2016) Also, Hook wrote,

“Again, I wasn’t really paying that much attention to the lyrics. It’s teamwork. You just see your teammate doing his bit, he looks and sounds up to speed, so, great, that leaves you to concentrate on your own side of things. There’s no analysis going on.” (p.256, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

This explains why they didn’t care much about what Ian was writing. It was like a common band rule, secret agreement and respect.

“Saying that, reading the lyrics now, his use of repetition and onomatopoeic delivery is startling.” (p.256, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

Ian’s live stage performance was also another signature of Joy Division. He often performed with his own unique dance moves, which with his arms flying up in a semicircular, hypnotic curve and kept shuddering in a convulsive way. This style of movement was referred to as his epileptic fit. And his intense dancing contrast sharply with other members’ calm and straight-faced performance. However, his performance caused problems sometimes and it demonstrated the danger of his illness. Sumner said, "We didn't have flashing lights, but sometimes a particular drum beat would do something to him. He'd go off in a trance for a bit, then he'd lose it and have an epileptic fit. We'd have to stop the show and carry him off to the dressing-room where he'd cry his eyes out because this appalling thing had just happened to him."(Wikipedia, 2016) They seldom interacted with the audience. Paul Morley7 wrote, "During a

7Paul Morley: An English music journalist. His book Joy Division: Piece by Piece was published in 2007. 6

The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

Joy Division set, outside of the songs, you'll be lucky to hear more than two or three words. Hello and goodbye. No introductions, no promotion."(Wikipedia, 2016) b. Analysis of She’s Lost Control and Isolation (a.) She’s Lost Control

In Chapter 25 “Unknown Pleasures Track by Track”, Hook explained the background story of the song She’s Lost Control,

“Ian was apparently moved to write this lyric after an incident at work. It’s about an epileptic young lady who was having problems finding and keeping job, who eventually died while having a .” (p.255, Peter Hook, Unknown Pleasures—inside Joy Division)

This song reveals Ian’s frustration, fear, anxiety, and anger of losing control of himself. When he saw the lady die of sudden spasm in front of him, it was a mirror-like event which reminded him of his own future of worsening epilepsy.

“And she gave away the secrets of her past, and said I've lost control again, And seized up on the floor, I thought she'd die.”

The young lady gave away her secrets, which means she showed her epileptic seizures and she couldn’t control it. Epilepsy was considered such a stigma that sufferers would try their best to hide from. Also unexpected convulsive seizures in public also agonized Epilepsy patients. Ian was frightened of the lady’s condition then and it reminded him that epilepsy might also lead his life to a miserable death.

“And she showed up all the errors and mistakes, And said I've lost control again. But she expressed herself in many different ways, Until she lost control again. And walked upon the edge of no escape, And laughed I've lost control.”

Ian thought the lady’s seizures were errors and mistakes. In the same way,

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The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy his epilepsy was a mistake of his life.The uncertainty and ugliness of convulsive seizures had a grave influence on his music career. Suffering from epilepsy was like walking upon the edge of no escape because he never knew when the spasm might happen. He couldn’t escape from it. It was a disaster that would happen suddenly anytime and he couldn’t do anything during the seizure. The word “laugh”means a helpless and self-deprecating attitude of this disease.

“I could live a little better with the myths and the lies, When the darkness broke in, I just broke down and cried. I could live a little in a wider line, When the change is gone, when the urge is gone, To lose control. When here we come.”

Ian wished that he could have taken his epilepsy easy and that he could have remained self-composed about the myths and lies of his life. But again and again, when the darkness broke in, which means the seizure started, he was defeated by the grave power of Epilepsy, feeling completely helpless.That was why he never felt optimistic about his disease.

(b.) Isolation

This track is from Joy Division’s another album Closer, which was the one released after Ian’ death. In other words, it included those songs－his last words to tell the world through music－he had written before killing himself.

Painstaking devotion and love, Surrendered to self preservation, From others who care for themselves, A blindness that touches perfection, But hurts just like anything else.”

The blindness refers to those who care for themselves. Ian felt inferior, different, and abnormal in contrast with others. People’s insensitiveness and indifference caused him to surrender to self preservation. For a person who suffers such a misery, it is only when being alone that he can accept and enjoy the real self. It is a blind and temporary comfort zone. The ironic point is that the isolation is both pleasure and torture to him. It touches perfection, but it hurts like anything else as well, for it brings him more fears than delight.

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The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

“Mother I tried please believe me, I’m doing the best that I can. I’m ashamed of the things I’ve been put through, I’m ashamed of the person I am.”

In this part, it is quite obvious to sense Ian’s inferiority complex toward his life. He had tried his best but in vain to conquer his epilepsy, divorce, and all the other pressures. Feeling ashamed to be epileptic and alienated, he was tired of his miserable life.

“But if you could just see the beauty, These things I could never describe, These pleasure a wayward distraction, This is my one lucky prize. Isolation, isolation, isolation.”

The ‘beauty” might symbolize the fake harmony he seemed to deal with fear. He could never describe it because it was never real. Maybe he realized and conceded that somehow the isolation worked for him on inspiration and ideas for music. That was why he made a self mockery to describe it as a lucky prize, which is actually not at all.

C. Applying related psychological theories for Ian Curtis’ life

According to Edward T. Higgins’ self-discrepancy theory, our internalized standards are divided into three “self-guides”— the actual self, the ideal self, and the ought self. People are affected by the gaps between them. The actual self is who we perceive ourselves to be or what we believe others see us as. The ideal self is who others or we would ideally like ourselves to be. And the ought self is who we believe or are told we should be, mostly comprised of obligations, morality, and a sense of duty. The gap between our actual self and ideal self will cause disappointment and low self-esteem because of not accomplishing what we’d like ourselves to be. Reflecting on Ian’s condition, his ideal self was to perform well on stage, make good music, have a wonderful marriage, and live healthy without any disease. But in reality, he suffered a broken marriage, pressure from Joy Division’s tour, and his epilepsy which would cause sudden epileptic seizure during performances. As for the gap between our actual self and ought self, it will cause a

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The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

sense of moral worthlessness, social anxiety, and guilt. Ian’s seizure on stage didn’t accord to the expectations from other band members, the band manager, and Joy Division’s fans. Also, he wasn’t loyal to his marriage to Debbie. The above conflicted with his ought self. From the song Disorder,

“I’ve been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand. Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal person?

As we can see, he wanted a guide to help him, lead his life, and tell him what to do with his misery. He failed to be a normal person that he wished to be, which corresponds to the theory. These negative emotions influenced his music, especially the lyrics. In addition to the harm epilepsy did to him, the dark atmosphere through Joy Division’s music was exactly the reflection of Ian’s life experience. At last, all the stress he had suffered along with other complicated factors resulted in his suicide at home. There was no definite reason that caused him to end his life. It might include a follow-up to his icon Jim Morrison8, who died at the age of 27 in 1971. Moreover, from the book Touching from a Distance, Deborah indicated that Ian had all along had an idea of dying at a young age.

Ⅲ. Conclusion

To sum up, Ian Curtis suffered from epilepsy, stress, and depression. These have influenced his characteristic stage performance, lyrics, and emotions. Through his music, we feel the pain and fear of an epilepsy sufferer, sense that he was powerless toward his situation, and desperately needed help. Self-discrepancy made his condition worse, but on the other side, it also stimulated his inspiration and imagination on writing songs, which eventually led to a grievous legend in the music history. As for those who suffer the similar experiences, people around them should keep aware of their behaviors and care more about them. Help and care are needed, in order not to make the same mistake that people around Ian had made, which caused them to regret it for good. Last but not least, the methods and procedure of this paper are mainly to collect, interpret currently available information, and analyze the lyrics. For researchers in

8Jim Morrison: The vocalist of , an American rock band from Los Angeles in 1965. He died at the age of 27 in Paris, possibly from a heroin overdose. 10

The Relationship Between Ian Curtis’s Music and His Epilepsy

the future, it is expected to follow up with further research on Ian from different angles, such as medical psychology or music appreciation.

Ⅳ. References

A. 陸洛、高旭繁 (譯) (2012)。心理學－日常生活中的應用。臺北市：新加坡 商聖智學習亞洲私人有限公司台灣分公司。 B. 鄭兆琪 (譯) (2006)。你的第一本搖滾入門書-樂玩樂酷就是搖滾 2。台北 市：音樂向上股份有限公司 C. Hook, Peter. (2013). Unknown Pleasures－Inside Joy Division. United States of America：It Books. D. Curtis, Deborah. (1995). Touching from a Distance. United Kingdom：Faber and Faber. E. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. December 22nd, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Division, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Curtis, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She%27s_Lost_Control, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_Pleasures, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_(2007_film), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_from_a_Distance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-discrepancy_theory. F. Joy Division Central. January, 5th, 2016, from http://www.joydiv.org/iancurtis.htm. G. Comm. Theory. February, 16th, 2016, from http://jeffcomm215.blogspot.tw/2012/02/self-discrepancy-theory-is-theorythat .html H. Epilepsy Foundation. June 2nd, 2016, from www.epilepsy.com I. Song Meanings. June 2nd, 2016, from www.singmeanings.com J. Sicotests. June 3rd, 2016, from www.sicotests.com/psyarticle.asp?id=336

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