John Lennon’s Real Love & Joy Division’s Isolation: An Essay

How does one say this about that, I ask you. Do you know? There seem to be certain themes in music that hold a power over the listener. The idea of John Lennon’s “Real Love” and Joy Division’s “Isolation” both express something longing and unattainable to where the music is almost creating an atmosphere of a musical dream around rather skeletal lyrics. I would say that Joy Division’s “Isolation” with Ian Curtis’s especially languid vocals create for an air of epic hopelessness and intense discomforting pain. For the Lennon cut, and especially in its original stripped-down piano-driven demo form, there is a sense of hope, but the overall mood, at least in my mind, is discussing the reality of all brands of life and feeling, no matter how clinically or emotionally intelligent…are unquestionably fleeting.

Of course, in art, there is this sense of survival, of immortality. Certainly, while Lennon was all too human and obviously a fragile mortal like any other, the power of the creative spirit he injected into his chosen art form of music creates a lasting triumph. But still, the suffering in a song like “Real Love” cannot be denied and it is deeply troubling to me, an unsettling feeling that makes me feel like eating tree bark. Musically, Joy Division’s “Isolation” is like some suicidal Disco Dance number, a real toe-tapping experience. The keyboard and bass driven melodies mingled with the mechanical beat are curiously charming, but hovering over the proceedings is an entirely spiritually exhausted Ian Curtis with his head full of so many worms and spider webs, that it is difficult to get a handle on things and soon…the song fades out of view.

The Joy Division cut gives the listener less to hang onto from an emotional standpoint, but you will be shaking your bottom a wee bit more than would be the case with the Lennon song…and to be blunt, clinically depressive dance music is an interesting concept. Regardless, mingle these two songs together, and based upon their respective strengths, you’ll have yourself a delicious lemonade treat. Not exactly the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, but pretty damn sweet songs in their own right. Help me help you, and we’ll change the skyline too, okay?

Joy Division, John Lennon, Ian Curtis

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