45 REVELATIONS
One of the sacred songs of the serious “post-punk” crowd, the folks who keep their faces blank, their clothing black, and their music bleak, is “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division, featuring the late Ian Curtis. Now, although I have no use for the gloom generation in general, don’t get me wrong—despite (or maybe even because of) Curtis’s dismal singing (no range, no pitch, very little musicality, period), “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is a great song.
45 REVELATIONS
One of the sacred songs of the serious “post-punk” crowd, the folks who keep their faces blank, their clothing black, and their music bleak, is “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division, featuring the late Ian Curtis. Now, although I have no use for the gloom generation in general, don’t get me wrong—despite (or maybe even because of) Curtis’s dismal singing (no range, no pitch, very little musicality, period), “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is a great song.
And as with most great songs, singers who can sing have been attracted by the prospect of putting their own stamp on it. Paul Young was the first to try, and I thought he did a fine job, respectful but not over-reverent. But you should have heard the howls of sacrilege in England (here, too). It was as if Dee Snider had been picked to sing the national anthem to open the National PTA convention.