Love Will Keep Us Together/Tear Us Apart
This week's blog topic—"My favorite popular song"—was inspired by the 40th anniversary of the breakup of the Beatles. I learned today that it's also the 30th anniversary of the suicide of Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the late-'70s punk band Joy Division. After Curtis died, the remaining members of Joy Division became the more commercially successful New Order.
Ian Curtis's widow confirmed that he wrote Joy Division's most popular song, "Love Will Tear Us Apart," as a grim rejoinder to the Captain and Tennille's sunny '70s paean to shiny love, "Love Will Keep Us Together." Would it be pretentious for me to say that, taken together, the songs sum up the decade? How about because the Captain and Tennille is how I remember the '70s (I turned ten in 1979, and had a pretty good childhood), but Joy Division is how it really was?
Love, love will keep us together
Think of me babe whenever
Some sweet talking girl comes along singing her song
Don't mess around,
You gotta be strong
Just Stop [stop], 'cause I really love You
Stop [stop], I'll be thinking of you
Look in my heart and let love keep us together
You, You belong to me now
Ain't gonna set you free now
When those girls start hanging around talking me down
Hear with your heart and you won't hear a sound
Just Stop [stop], 'cause I really love you
Stop [stop], I'll be thinking of you
Look in my heart and let love keep us together, what ever.
Young and beautiful
Someday your looks will be gone
When the others turn you off
Who'll be turning you on
I will, I will, I will, I will
Be there to share forever
Love will keep us together
Said it before and I'll say it again while others pretend
I'll need you now and I'll need you then
Stop 'cause I really love Ya
Stop I'll be thinking of Ya
Look in my heart and let love keep us together
When routine bites hard
And ambitions are low
And resentment rides high
But emotions won't grow
And we're changing our ways,
Taking different roads
Love, love will tear us apart again
Love, love will tear us apart again
Why is the bedroom so cold?
Turned away on your side
Is my timing that flawed
Our respect run so dry
Yet there's still this appeal
That we've kept through our lives
Love, love will tear us apart again
Love, love will tear us apart again
Do you cry in your sleep
All my failings exposed...
Gets a taste in my mouth
As desperation takes hold
Why is it something so good
Just can't function no more?
Love, love will tear us apart again
Love, love will tear us apart again
Love, love will tear us apart again
Love, love will tear us apart again
The triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism.”
—Craig Ferguson, describing Doctor Who
About Huntington
Senior Editor Huntington Sharp has a dogged commitment to le mot juste. He loves his work at Red Room "because it's like being a fly on the wall of the most brilliant salons in the world, all at the same time." Prior to his current position,...
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The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
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Incredibly True
Thanks, Hunt. Never saw the two songs in the same context before, but we've both learned much from our favorite songwriters and their art.
Thank you for sharing Hunt!
Thank you for sharing Hunt! Wow what great lyrics! Soul touching!
Separated at birth/death
The bitter gall in my mouth left by the first tastes like truth of the second.