Waxing Nostalgic: Joy Division, “She’s Lost Control”

By Jeffery X Martin

Joy Division was the ultimate Manchester band, encapsulating that town’s darkness, smoke, and despair in their music as surely as if they had encased it in Lucite. It’s a paperweight. It’s a time capsule. It’s like eavesdropping on someone’s lowest thoughts, hearing the sounds their brains make, the constant loop that brings about madness.

Joy Division burned darkly and fast, becoming legendary with the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis. Rail-thin, pale, and epileptic, Curtis was the epitome of “tortured artist.” Themes of depression and helplessness run through his lyrics.

If all you had ever heard had been “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” you could be forgiven for thinking Joy Division was a sweet little synth-pop band. You’d also be incredibly wrong. Joy Division’s music is a mess, like listening to four people tell different stories at the same time. Peter Hook’s six-string bass is often the dominant instrument, carrying the melody forward while the other instruments run around like spastic children, threatening to trip the whole thing up at any time.

“She’s Lost Control” is the perfect example of this. The electronic drums are sparse and sound like garbage can lids and four-second fuses. Hook’s bass line, played in the upper register, dominates the song, but seems to have nothing to do with Curtis’s part, a veritable monotone. When the guitar comes in with a poorly tuned ascending progression, one can’t help but wonder what the hell is going on here. Structurally, this song is shattered beyond repair. Chords are missed or skipped entirely. The whole thing stutters and jerks, like a car with a faulty transmission.

It isn’t until you listen to the horrible things Curtis is saying that everything starts to become clear.

She screamed out, kicking on her side, and said “I’ve lost control again.”

Curtis’s epilepsy would make itself known at inopportune times, such as on stage. He would have seizures on stage. The show would stop and he would be escorted back to his dressing room. Of course, he found this intensely embarrassing.

Seized up on the floor, I thought she’d die. She said, “I’ve lost control again.”

Peter Hook told a story to UK newspaper, The Guardian, about a time when Curtis disappeared from the studio for two hours. The band became worried. Hook found Curtis in the bathroom. He’d had a seizure and fallen, cracking his head against the sink.

Evidence seems to indicate that he was writing about himself, but there is no way to really back up that theory. Not now. Curtis hanged himself in 1980.

It’s never been easy to listen to Joy Division, and Curtis seemed like one of those guys who was doomed from the start. There’s nothing happy about a Joy Division song, and they paved the way for more post-punk introspection and self-loathing. A lot of those guys were just posers, though.

Ian Curtis warned us about how he was feeling and we insisted he tour. He shouted and everybody heard, but no one listened, not even his bandmates. And when he finally took ultimate control, he lost everything else.

If for some unfathomable reason you don’t own a copy of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, you can listen to “She’s Lost Control” on the Waxing Nostalgic playlist, exclusively on Spotify.