ceremony

Ceremony

This is why events unnerve me,
They find it all, a different story,
Notice whom for wheels are turning,
Turn again and turn towards this time,
All she asks the strength to hold me,
Then again the same old story,
World will travel, oh so quickly,
Travel first and lean towards this time.

Oh, I’ll break them down, no mercy shown,
Heaven knows, its got to be this time,
Watching her, these things she said,
The times she cried,
Too frail to wake this time.

Oh I’ll break them down, no mercy shown
Heaven knows, its got to be this time,
Avenues all lined with trees,
Picture me and then you start watching,
Watching forever, forever,
Watching love grow, forever,
Letting me know, forever

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Just as Joy Division were about to break into The Big Time before an American tour, singer and lyricist Ian Curtis hung himself. It was a tragic loss to music, one of the great ones, and their song Ceremony points to where they were headed. Curtis died before they had time to record it in the studio, so all that exists are a few poor quality live and rehearsal versions. The youtube clip above is one of these and is sound only with no video, but even in this low quality form the strength of the song and of Curtis‘s performance shine through. The song was recorded properly by New Order later, but most JD fans think Bernard Sumner’s voice doesn’t fit the song as well as Curtis’s did.

The roots of Curtis’s deep depression are very well charted in the excellent recent film Control and if you haven’t seen it, it is well worth a look, but be warned that it is a dark and bleak story. It’s curious that just before he died, Curtis watched Werner Herzog’s equally dark and brilliant film Stroszek, which ends with a chicken dancing for food (beat that for a metaphor for America) and a suicide by shotgun.

Tom.