Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, Joy Division with "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
"Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille was one of the biggest hits of the '70s. It was a number one hit and spent two years on the charts. It won a Grammy and sold countless copies. 35 years on, it holds two other unusual claims to fame. It's now regarded by many as one of the worst songs of all time and it was the inspiration (albeit in a sarcastic way) for one of the all-time great punk anthems.
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Ian Curtis of Joy Division hated that song. For him it was a bitter reminder of the turmoil in his life. Curtis was suffering from severe depression and epilepsy.
But his biggest struggle was with the blame he was shouldering for the problems in his marriage. He had fallen in love with another woman and was racked with guilt. He poured his anguish into a song, the title of which was an ironic reference to the Captain & Tennille hit. He called it "Love Will Tear Us Apart." The lyrics of the song address his wife Deborah directly and are a confession of his dark feelings.
When Curtis brought the song to his bandmates, they were so excited about the hit potential of the song that they didn't take notice of the hopelessness expressed in the lyrics. Ian Curtis was calling out for help and no one heard him. The song was released in April of 1980. A few weeks later, Ian Curtis took his own life.
The song went on to become the band's only hit and lives on as a timeless classic. In 2002, NME magazine in the UK named it the greatest single of all time. It's topped several such lists and has been covered by Bjork, U2, Arcade Fire and Thom Yorke, to name just a few from a list of hundreds.
The surviving members of Joy Division went on to form a new band called New Order. They had a huge hit in 1983 with "Blue Monday" and are still active and successful today.
Here's Joy Division's dark and beautiful response to Captain & Tennille, and their biggest hit. This is "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:
Booker T and the MGs "Green Onions"
Neil Young "Rockin' in the Free World"
The Left Banke "Walk Away Renee"
Lou Reed "Walk On The Wild Side"
The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go"
The Animals "We Gotta Get Out of this Place"
Dusty Springfield "Son of a Preacher Man"
Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You"
Mott The Hoople "All the Young Dudes"
New York Dolls "Personality Crisis"
George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA"
The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends"
James Brown, 'Hot (I Need to be loved loved loved)'
Ray Charles, 'I Don't Need No Doctor'
Curtis Mayfield, 'Freddy's Dead'
Gang Starr, 'Beyond Comprehension'
CCR, 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain'
Howlin' Wolf, 'Smokestack Lightning'
Bobby Womack, 'Across 110th Street'
Foggy Hogtown Boys, 'Man of Constant Sorrow'
Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here'
Neil Young, 'Cortez The Killer'
Bob Dylan, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'
Elvis Costello, 'Watching the Detectives'
Jimmy Cliff, 'The Harder They Come'
The Verve, 'Bittersweet Symphony'
Roberta Flack, 'Killing Me Softly with his Song'
Glen Campbell, 'Wichita Lineman'