Dead Souls

Dead Souls - Joy Division (1980)

This is why I wanted to start this blog in the first place: finding out about bands and songs that I've never heard of before, and spreading the knowledge to you. 

See a live performance here.

Joy Division formed in 1976 after 2 founding members,Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook , friends since elementary school, both attended the second ever concert of the Sex Pistols  and became inspired.  And if you don't know who they are, stick around, they'll be featured later on.  They quickly got the other two members of their band Stephen Morris and Ian Curtis. 

After a few years of local touring in the UK and their self published EP , they caught the attention of the independent label Factory Records and released their first album Unknown Pleasures in 1979.  Then, Ian, their front man and primary lyricist, was diagnosed with seizures and his health began to diminish.

On the eve of their first American tour, Ian Curtis committed suicide. 

They released their second album Closer after his death which gave them their highest chart success with Love Will Tear Us Apart. 

This brings us to the release of the song Dead Souls.  A rare single titled Licht und Blindheit gave us the songs Atmosphere and Dead Souls.

My own take on the song is this: I like it. Yeah, that's a bit of a quick
review, but it's accurate.

The song goes for about 2 minutes before the
first word, making me think upon first listen that it was an instrumental. The
melody itself has a touch of emotion to it, but in my opinion it's not
depressing at all. Then the lyrics come in: "Someone take these dreams away /
that point me to another day." This invokes in me the darker feelings that Ian
had inside of him - his concerns about his health (he was experiencing
increasingly serious epileptic seizures), his inability to sleep, and his
worries about his relationship with his wife - were closing in and leading to
his eventual death.

I can definitely see their influence, even though
they weren't around long. Before "Alternative" was a musical style, they were
doing it. Their influence is still felt today from bands like Smashing Pumpkins
and Nine Inch Nails who did a cover of this very song for the soundtrack of The
Crow.
Definitely a song worth checking out.