Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (33 1/3)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" (33 1/3) (33 1/3) (33 1/3) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Though the recording of the album is naturally the centerpiece of the book, (Ott) delves enough into the evolution of the band and background events leading up to the recording of said album (as well as certain post-album events leading up to Ian's suicide) to properly provide context for said rekkid .you don't have to be a regular gear-rag reader to understand what he's talking about .overall recommended." David Hill, Shredded Paper Magazine, Fall 2004 issue
Product Description
33 1/3 is a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. Focusing on one album rather than an artist's entire output, the books dispense with the standard biographical background that fans know already, and cut to the heart of the music on each album. The authors provide fresh, original perspectives - often through their access to and relationships with the key figures involved in the recording of these albums. By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music. (A task which can be, as Elvis Costello famously observed, as tricky as dancing about architecture.) What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors - musicians, scholars, and writers - are deeply in love with the album they have chosen.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Unknown Pleasures" is a recording that like Jeff Buckley's "Grace", has become near mythical as a memorable initial recording followed by the singer's early death with no time to subsequently disappoint fans by later output. As a result many writers on limited evidence feel able to extrapolate their views and this book is sadly no exception.
Chris Ott is clearly a long time US based devotee of the group and their output and as an American has done a lot of homework on the Mancunian rock scene of 1976-1980. He covers well how it grew out of copying the London led punk scene and was then left behind by Joy Division as they moved on from their initial incarnations as the Stiff Kittens and Warsaw. His detailed coverage of the early recordings and John Peel "Top Gear"sessions and the growing contact with Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson plus producer Martin Hannett (whose cutting edge if erratic approach to new recording techniques was used so effectively but at the cost of alienating group members by his control freak approach), is the best retelling of the story I have seen to date.
Where the book starts going astray is half way through as we move to the recordings of the songs that made it to the final LP and the remainders that were used on later releases and compilations. That Ian Curtis developed quickly as a great lyricist and singer and that he was a major catalyst with other members of the group in how songs were developed is well covered - however the haliography with which Ott imbues him and the interaction of his private life (relying heavily on his widow's recent biography) lead to an overemphasis on the tragic suicide that occurred shortly after and little evaluation of the LP and its subsequent impact (the small sales of 15,000 in six months being little explanation of why the recording is cited in many "best of" lists). Instead what is provided is a retelling of Curtis's quick and sad decline in health and the tragic interaction of drugs and manic live performances reflecting the growth of intensity in his epilepsy seizures. One sad result is the rest of the group become a mere backdrop, which as New Order subsequently showed they were clearly not.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a start point, let me just say that I think that Siriam's review is pretty much on the money and he has expressed much of what I might have written in this review.
This is not so much a book about Unknown Pleasures, more a book about Joy Division that manages to avoid anything much to do with Closer. In this respect, it doesn't do precisely what it says on the cover, but having started on the tack it has, you sort of wish that it had kept going and dealt with Closer too.
This is the first book I have read in the series, so I am not sure what to expect. I think what I might have expected was a real in depth analysis of the album in question. In this analysis, I would want to know more about the lyrics and would probably expect to see them reproduced. It wouldn't be much to ask. There is a general discussion of some of Curtis' lines, but nothing that really approaches textual analysis. As a guitar player, I would also really have liked to have known what amps and equipment were used and if possible, how these choices were decided on. Reading around this suggests that Sumner used Vox guitars, which are an unusual choice. Why? How did they contribute to the Joy Division sound, if indeed they did?
The writing is OK but at times typical rock journalist, which has a tendency to be slightly bombastic ,as if it has real literary pretensions. It isn't easy to write about music, though, to get the reader to experience what the author as listener has experienced. There was a passing comment on Proust which just betrayed deep ignorance of his work, but I can't be bothered to leaf through the book to tell you what it was.
In summary, a good and interesting book on Joy Division for the fan, though if you have read around the subject, I am not sure that this work is going to enlighten you over much. It won't tell you a huge amount about the album in question than perhaps you already know.
This is not so much a book about Unknown Pleasures, more a book about Joy Division that manages to avoid anything much to do with Closer. In this respect, it doesn't do precisely what it says on the cover, but having started on the tack it has, you sort of wish that it had kept going and dealt with Closer too.
This is the first book I have read in the series, so I am not sure what to expect. I think what I might have expected was a real in depth analysis of the album in question. In this analysis, I would want to know more about the lyrics and would probably expect to see them reproduced. It wouldn't be much to ask. There is a general discussion of some of Curtis' lines, but nothing that really approaches textual analysis. As a guitar player, I would also really have liked to have known what amps and equipment were used and if possible, how these choices were decided on. Reading around this suggests that Sumner used Vox guitars, which are an unusual choice. Why? How did they contribute to the Joy Division sound, if indeed they did?
The writing is OK but at times typical rock journalist, which has a tendency to be slightly bombastic ,as if it has real literary pretensions. It isn't easy to write about music, though, to get the reader to experience what the author as listener has experienced. There was a passing comment on Proust which just betrayed deep ignorance of his work, but I can't be bothered to leaf through the book to tell you what it was.
In summary, a good and interesting book on Joy Division for the fan, though if you have read around the subject, I am not sure that this work is going to enlighten you over much. It won't tell you a huge amount about the album in question than perhaps you already know.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
19 reviews
27 of 34 people found the following review helpful
A book about ian Curtis, not the LP
20 Nov 2004
Format:Paperback
"The title "Unknown Pleasures" in all likelihhood refers to Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past", a divisive, drawn out autobiography of the author's wilful self-absorbed youth" (Page 82)
If that sentence does not grate then this book is definitely for you as it admirably sums up the author's approach - "Unknown Pleasures" is a recording that like Jeff Buckley's "Grace", has become near mythical as a memorable initial recording followed by the singer's early death with no time to subsequently disappoint by later output . As a result many writers on limited evidence feel able to extrapolate their views and this book is sadly no exception.
Chris Ott is clearly a long time US based devotee of the group and their output and as an American has done a lot of homework on the Mancunian rock scene of 1976-1980. He covers well how it grew out of copying the London led punk scene and was then left behind by Joy Division as they moved on from their initial incarnations as the Stiff Kittens and Warsaw. His detailed coverage of the early recordings and John Peel "Top Gear"sessions and the growing contact with Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson plus producer Martin Hannett (whose cutting edge if erratic approach to new recording techniques was used so effectively but at the cost of alienating group members by his control freak approach), is the best retelling of the story I have seen to date.
Where the book starts going astray is half way through as we move to the recordings of the songs that made it to the final LP and the remainders that were used on later releases and compilations. That Ian Curtis developed quickly as a great lyricist and singer and that he was a major catalyst with other members of the group in how songs were developed is well covered - however the hagiography with which Ott imbues him and the interaction of his private life (relying heavily on his widow's recent biography) lead to an overemphasis on the tragic suicide that occurred shortly after and little evaluation of the LP and its subsequent impact (the small sales of 15,000 in six months being little explanation of why the recording is cited in many "best of" lists). Instead what is provided is a retelling of Curtis's quick and sad decline in health and the tragic interaction of drugs and manic live performances reflecting the growth of intensity in his epilepsy seizures. One sad result is the rest of the group become a mere backdrop, which as New Order subsequently showed they were clearly not.
If that sentence does not grate then this book is definitely for you as it admirably sums up the author's approach - "Unknown Pleasures" is a recording that like Jeff Buckley's "Grace", has become near mythical as a memorable initial recording followed by the singer's early death with no time to subsequently disappoint by later output . As a result many writers on limited evidence feel able to extrapolate their views and this book is sadly no exception.
Chris Ott is clearly a long time US based devotee of the group and their output and as an American has done a lot of homework on the Mancunian rock scene of 1976-1980. He covers well how it grew out of copying the London led punk scene and was then left behind by Joy Division as they moved on from their initial incarnations as the Stiff Kittens and Warsaw. His detailed coverage of the early recordings and John Peel "Top Gear"sessions and the growing contact with Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson plus producer Martin Hannett (whose cutting edge if erratic approach to new recording techniques was used so effectively but at the cost of alienating group members by his control freak approach), is the best retelling of the story I have seen to date.
Where the book starts going astray is half way through as we move to the recordings of the songs that made it to the final LP and the remainders that were used on later releases and compilations. That Ian Curtis developed quickly as a great lyricist and singer and that he was a major catalyst with other members of the group in how songs were developed is well covered - however the hagiography with which Ott imbues him and the interaction of his private life (relying heavily on his widow's recent biography) lead to an overemphasis on the tragic suicide that occurred shortly after and little evaluation of the LP and its subsequent impact (the small sales of 15,000 in six months being little explanation of why the recording is cited in many "best of" lists). Instead what is provided is a retelling of Curtis's quick and sad decline in health and the tragic interaction of drugs and manic live performances reflecting the growth of intensity in his epilepsy seizures. One sad result is the rest of the group become a mere backdrop, which as New Order subsequently showed they were clearly not.
20 of 32 people found the following review helpful
These positive reviews are all fake!
23 Jun 2004
Format:Paperback
Obviously Chris Ott has signed in under all these different names to give his own book positive reviews If have have ever seen a fake name before, then certainly 'David Forsythe' is it!
This book is totally derivitive and not worth buying. Whole paragraphs seem to be lifted from the Deborah Curtis book. Chris waxes on in a prose style not worthy of a freshman in college. I think he should go back to his failed indie rock band.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Oh sigh.
11 Feb 2008
Format:Paperback
I thought this would be an overly pedantic study of the album, but it is really more of an overview of ALL of Joy Division's recordings with little focus on "Unknown pleasures" itself. This wasn't unwelcome to me as someone who always gets confused as to the chronology of Joy Division recordings. Moreover, the book contains a decent (but not overwhelming) amount of biographical anecdotes which, ultimately, makes this a very readable and enjoyable book.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
