Plexus Joy Division

Paul Morley, highly respected journalist and cultural commentator since the late 1970s, here delivers a comprehensive collection of his writings over the years on Joy Division.Morley, out of Stockport, was never an official member of the Factory/JD collective (unlike Wilson, Hannett or Saville) but commented on and had close ties to all of the main players who made up this maverick scene to such an extent that everyone now assumes he was a part of it all along.This gives Morley a fairly unique vantage point, being an outsider looking in while simultaneously being an insider looking out! This allowed him to be both passionate and dispassionate at one and the same time, a trait he has continued to exhibit throughout the past forty years.No where does this shine so strongly than when he is musing on the subject with which he has become most famously linked, Joy Division. From witnessing the band's debut performance (as Warsaw, May 1977) through their development from raw and very rough punk outfit into one of the most stunningly inventive (and intense) bands this country will ever produce, to being one of the very few, I would surmise, non-family members to witness Ian Curtis' dead body lying in its coffin, Morley was a first-hand witness to the rise and abrupt stop to this most iconic of bands.The manner of Curtis' death also provided an unsettling link to Morley's own personal past as his Father had also taken his own life, ironically just as Warsaw were taking their first tentative steps as a band. This clearly provided a link from Morley to Curtis, and subsequently Joy Division, which the author would only gradually come to acknowledge over the passing of time.The book comprises virtually everything Morley wrote about JD whilst working for the NME, including articles on other bands (OMD, ACR) in which he makes reference to Joy Division within them. There are also articles for other publications from 1984 - 2004, and a number of retrospective essays on JD, interspersed through the book's 381 pages, written around the time of the book's original publication in 2007.As other reviewers have pointed out, Morley is very verbose in his use of language and style, writing with a depth (when given enough free rein to do so by various editors down the years) which appears positively labyrinth when put beside today's 140-character world-view standards. Always thought-provoking, insightful and erudite (a trait he shared with Tony Wilson), Morley shone an individual light when commenting on one of the most creatively fertile periods in British post-1945 culture. Some readers may find this hard going on occasion, but the book is all the better for it.Taken together with the photographs of Kevin Cummins and Anton Corbijn, this book provides the perfect critical analysis (contemporary and retrospectively) to one of the greatest bands of all time, a band who lived and ultimately died for their art (and it was art, beyond mere rock/pop music in form and content).A band who necessitate a commentator of Morley's stature to explain why their influence continues well over forty years after their sudden demise, why they are as relevant today as they were in 1979.

Just the best book about the band ever

Mr Morley does it again! Fantastic read for anyone with even a passing interest in one of the greatest bands of all time. A must for anyone.

A cerebral, spectacular look inside the Manchester scene from one of the best writers in rock history. The book takes you back to the post punk era then to the present for Morley's feelings, and inspirations for his writings, which are very poignant, especially his revealing how his fathers death boookends the journey of Joy Division, and how it may have subconciously influenced him.This is the best book I have read on the enigmatic Manchester scene, which I have always been fascinated with. If you are the same, this is a must have.If you have read or own the 1984 book "An Ideal For Living" which chronicled every gig of Joy Division with the writings of Paul Morley, you will be reading things that you have in the past, but "Piece By Piece" is presented in such a more organized and engrossing fashion that it is worth purchasing.I would give 5 stars, but would like to have seen more rare or unseen illustrations.Title quote is from the song "Heart and Soul" by Joy Division

Excellent value and excellent service.