{"id":74,"date":"2018-12-05T10:36:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-03\/?page_id=74"},"modified":"2018-12-14T08:37:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T13:37:40","slug":"ian-curtis-and-epilepsy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus238-03\/ian-curtis-and-epilepsy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Curtis and Epilepsy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1977, Joy Division\u2019s \u201cShe\u2019s Lost Control\u201d tells the story of a woman suffering from epilepsy. A common interpretation of this song is that it is a veiled autobiography, Curtis trying to express his disability without it being fully publicized <\/span>(<\/span>Mick). Yet this interpretation doesn\u2019t make sense chronologically, <\/span>Unknown Pleasures<\/span><\/i>, the album the song was released on, came out in 1977 yet Curtis didn\u2019t have his first documented seizure until 1978 (Church). Curtis was not one to hide his inner demons, a first-person verse was later added to \u201cShe\u2019s Lost Control\u201d in 1979 that addressed his own epileptic experiences <\/span>(<\/span>Mick). 1980\u2019s \u201cLove Will Tear Us Apart\u201d contains lyrics referencing the taste one experiences before an epileptic seizure. Curtis\u2019 heroes were romanticized rock stars, Jim Morrison and his ilk, those that had experienced \u201crock death,\u201d \u201c<\/span>a rock star’s quite foreseeable death, like a logical, “fitting” conclusion to their lifestyle or art <\/span>(Church)<\/span>.\u201d<\/span> Post-mortem narratives of artists such as Morrison and Joplin have been driven by their untimely deaths and their struggle with addiction. Often their disease is framed as a boon to their artistry. Joplin even once said that <\/span>\u201cMaybe they can enjoy my music more if they think I\u2019m destroying myself.\u201d<\/span> Curtis was aware of the interaction between disability and narrative, so he used this knowledge to write his own. The reason \u201cShe\u2019s Lost Control\u201d is seen as reflective of Curtis\u2019 experiences is that Curtis retroactively gave the song such a meaning through adding the first-person verse. Curtis also retroactively changed the meaning of \u201cShe\u2019s Lost Control\u201d through his live performances (<\/span>Joy Division – She\u2019s Lost Control (Live at Something Else Show))<\/span>. A contemporary review of a live performance says \u00a0\u201c(Curtis) broke off into a wild manic dance routine unlike any I’d witnessed previously. The song finished leaving the crowd in a goldfish-like trance <\/span>(<\/span>Middles, Mick).\u201d The interesting aspect of this review is the awe that the writer experiences. This reaction feels like a vestige of its age. In the eyes of the more modern viewer (at least in mine) the performance is terrifying. \u00a0With the way that musicians were viewed at the time, “freak” behavior had connections to authenticity, especially with Joy Division because of their connection to the punk scene. There are many examples of Curtis calling out for help which were largely ignored by his bandmates and fans as \u201cfreak\u201d behavior was encouraged by the music scene at the time.\u00a0Most likely due to how he was being perceived as a pained artist, Curtis latched onto this image, incorporating this more serious persona into everyday life. Curtis intentionally commodified himself, in the process solidifying his own narrative (Waltz, Mitzi, and Martin James).<\/span><\/p>\n

With this performance, Curtis has not only linked the song\u2019s original meaning to his experiences in the abstract but given those experiences physical form through dance. His mouth claustrophobically close to the microphone, enhancing the overbearing nature of Curtis’ voice and drawing parallels to the metallic taste one gets before suffering from epileptic seizure. The importance of the danceability of this once austere song is shown through the new prominence of Stephen Morris\u2019 drumming, his style is<\/span><\/p>\n