The First Time I Heard Joy Division/New Order

First Time I Heard #1

by Scott Heim (Editor)

The First Time I Heard Joy Division / New Order is Part I in an ongoing series where musicians and writers tell their stories of first hearing the music of an iconic artist or band. In this first volume, forty-five different musicians and writers remember their initial experiences hearing the seminal post-punk UK band Joy Division and/or its offshoot, New Order.

Contributors to the Joy Division / New Order edition include musicians such as Adam Franklin (Swervedriver); David Lewis Gedge (The Wedding Present); Emma Anderson (Lush); Aidan Baker; Lou Rhodes (Lamb); Christophe Den Tandt (The Names); Pieter Nooten (Clan of Xymox); Brian Thornell (Earlimart, Wrong Way Driver); Count (Halou); Mark Refoy (Slipstream, Spiritualized); Shane Butler (Quilt); Mia Clarke (Electrelane); David Hawes (Catherine Wheel); Matt Kadane (Bedhead, Consonant); Matt Elliott (The Third Eye Foundation); Mike VanPortfleet (Lycia); Thomas Meluch (Benoit Pioulard); Ari Neufeld (Breathless); Morgane Lhote (Stereolab); Matt Jencik (Implodes); Ben Mullins (Midwest Product); Philip King (Lush, The Jesus & Mary Chain); Dexter Tortoriello (Houses); Tim Keegan (Robyn Hitchcock); Steve Hovington (B-Movie); Matt Keppel (Microfilm); Henry Frayne (Lanterna); James Chapman (Maps); Greg Bertens (Film School); Steve Elkins (The Autumns); Jon Attwood (Yellow6); Mark Beazley (Rothko); Nigel Humberstone (In the Nursery); Dawn Smithson (Jessamine); and writers like James Greer (also onetime member of Guided By Voices); Mitch Cullin; Sylvia Sellers-Garcia; Ben Kopel; Alistair McCartney; D. Travers Scott; Mark Gluth; Ian Johnston; Daniel Allen Cox; Jaime Clarke; and Sheri Joseph.

The "First Time I Heard" book series is edited by Scott Heim, a novelist (Mysterious Skin, We Disappear) who is also a longtime music fan. Other installments in the series (or those forthcoming soon) include books on David Bowie, The Smiths, Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, R.E.M., Kraftwerk, My Bloody Valentine, Abba, Roxy Music, The Pixies, and others.

Genres: Music

104 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 17, 2012

About the author

Scott Heim was born in Hutchinson, Kansas in 1966. He grew up in a small farming community there, and later attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, earning a B.A. in English and Art History in 1989 and an M.A. in English Literature in 1991. He attended the M.F.A. program in Writing at Columbia University, where he wrote his first novel, Mysterious Skin. HarperCollins published that book in 1995, and Scott followed it with another novel, In Awe, in 1997.

Scott has won fellowships to the London Arts Board as their International Writer-in-Residence, and to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab for his adaptation of Mysterious Skin. He is also the author of a book of poems, Saved From Drowning (1993).

After living eleven years in New York, he relocated to Boston in 2002. Mysterious Skin was adapted for the stage, premiering in San Francisco; it was subsequently adapted to film by director Gregg Araki and Antidote Films. Scott's third novel is We Disappear (HarperCollins), published in February 2008.

Reviews

[Lord Beardsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first in this series that I've read. I love the idea of sharing the collective-yet-solitary experience of experiencing life-altering music. I definitely plan to read the rest of this series.

[Karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another set of The First Time I Heard....recollections, this time Joy Division/New Order. I believe this one was the first one published; it feels much more pulled together than the David Bowie one, which I found lacking. The writing seems better, and I relate more to the stories told, probably because most of the writers/musicians in this one seem to be of my generation and we "discovered" the bands at the same time.

I personally don't remember the first time I heard Joy Division nor New Order. I do know my first introduction to Joy Division was a Rolling Stone article on the death of Ian Curtis, and that everything about New Order's "Power, Corruption, and Lies" was life-altering; from the cover art, to the beginning strains of track one, side one ("Age of Consent"), my world's axis tilted.. Joy Division may have been the immediate, all-knowing soundtrack to my dark teenage heart, but that New Order album taught me the value of the past yet also to yearn for the future; hope despite heartbreak, the ray of light after regret.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scott Heim is great, and Joy Division's great. This is an anthology of a bunch of people talking about when they first heard Joy Division. Except half of them dont' remember. Or heard New Order. But it's still good. The writing's spotty, but there are some brilliant insights, and it's a quick read. If you love Joy Division, it's a nice tone poem.

[Paola Piliado · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. If you are new to the series, I would recommend this one or the Smiths one. Both have good stories and the feelings behind them made me want to be a fan of the bands too.