how I wish we were here with you now: In A Lonely Place

It truly pained me to see the marked devaluation of these songs, the last known recordings of Joy Division.

A YouTube poster, whom we shall not call out and "honor" by name except as Mr. YouTube, has made a travesty of this material - not by posting the music, but by the presentation and his utter callous disregard for the sensitivity and nature of these recordings - by his series of YouTube posts featuring (most) of these recordings.

I have no idea how this individual obtained these tracks, masterings that (probably outing myself here much more than is my wont) I did, ultimately at the band's behest in preparation for the recent Record Store Day 2011 12" release.  I won't divulge my sources for this material, because that's ultimately of no matter here.  What is important is that the respect is given to these songs that they deserve.

I truly dislike the way these recordings surfaced publicly, obviously outside the official 12" release which I fully supported.  There was no discussion, no humility, no essential background given within the YouTube postings - because Mr. YouTube had access to none of that (and I doubt he can define humility if it were demanded of him - one only need to see his comments on his YouTube page, and elsewhere, for evidence).  Whether it be detailed liner notes inside a CD/box set package, a detailed press release, a detailed blog post with insider information, or, the "the statement is the music" ideal as realized by Saville's considered minimalism of the official 12", this material - by its nature - deserves careful, respectful treatment which completely escaped the YouTube postings.  Not that I believe Mr. YouTube would have done so anyway, even given half the chance.

I am ultimately in favor of all this material being "out there" as it does no one any good to hoard, when they've escaped band/label clutches in the first place.  I am no gatekeeper to the doors of the Joy Division vault, but I do try to respect wishes for privacy and restraint when asked, and can say with certainty I've lived up to that.  The unreleased material I've posted here in the past didn't arrive with the same strings as the rehearsal material, which is one of the many reasons you haven't seen these tracks here before.  Events forced me to bring some respect and honor to the material with this post, and the companion post over on our sister blog Recycle, sooner than planned.

I had originally envisioned this post being a compendium of the rehearsal tracks in question: two early lyric takes on "In A Lonely Place", three mostly-finished versions with the "final" lyric, and then the "Ceremony" rehearsal - all mastered for release.  What surfaced on the official 12" was the next-but-last take of "IALP" and the previously-known "Ceremony" rehearsal, with the 12" leaving on the cutting room floor the other known takes of "IALP".  We used the Recycle post to surface the full version of "IALP" as excerpted on the Heart and Soul box set, as a "bonus" to the tracks used on the 12".

I'm making the executive decision, mine and mine alone, to withhold the "full" set of rehearsal takes for the time being.  Will the rest see the rational (i.e. not trainwreck-style) light of day?  I believe so, but now is not the time or place.  We are lucky we have - and lucky the band saw fit to release - what we do now: full lyric versions of Ian Curtis foreshadowing his suicide, literally days before doing so.  These were never believed to exist, within general circles.  Respect for the family, the band, etc. kept these out of public light and I completely understand the reason why.  Why now?  I don't know.  I'm grateful they exist, grateful we - as fans - have the opportunity to catch this last, tragic, piece of Joy Division history.

I will not honor requests for copies of anything not posted here, so save your keystrokes and don't ask.  I will not publish comments asking for the rest of the set.  Do I have other unreleased material?  Don't ask, because you won't get an answer, especially one that satisfies your question.  Wearing my other hat as a fan, believe me, I understand the want is there.  But it is not my place to satisfy that, at this time.  Respect that, respect the music, and treat it with the honor and consideration it deserves.  Because it is beautiful and tragic.

JOY DIVISION
April/May 1980 Rehearsals
mastered by the Analog Loyalist 2011
Stereo

For mastering notes and other errata, please see the Recycle post.  Those are lossy M4A tracks, while these are lossless FLAC.

01 In A Lonely Place (final lyric, take 2 - Record Store Day 12" take)
02 In A Lonely Place (final lyric, take 3 - Heart and Soul full take)
03 Ceremony (rehearsal take)
04 In A Lonely Place (edit mix of takes 2 and 3) *
05 In A Lonely Place (brief instrumental snippets)

* Track 04 was assembled from bits of 01 (take 2) and 02 (take 3) and presented to the band as an alternate "best of both takes" version for consideration for the 12", and rejected.  Takes 2 and 3, on their own, each have their own flaws which we tried to minimize by a bit of comping between versions.  The band - understandably - chose to go with an unedited version, warts and all, not to say the warts detract!

FLAC set here.  Please do not repost elsewhere; if I find these elsewhere I will remove this post and post nothing further of this material.