Joy Division and Astronomy (Among Other Things)

Sasha Frere-Jones posted this song "Disorder (Live)" from Les Bains Douches on his blog, Songs You Taught Me, a long time ago. 

Since I'm basically too young to have listened to Joy Division unironically, it was great to hear this really raw version of the music, and get some insight, thanks to Mr. Frere-Jones, on the band as viewed by pop culture, then and now. It's also one of those songs that for whatever reason I can listen to OVER and OVER again. Literally, right in a row. More than four times even! Which is relevant because my dad once told me this story about how when he was a hippie he would listen to "Suffragette City" by David Bowie really loud as many times in a row as he could, and I think he said that he hit his maximum at four times. Dad, any comment? 

Also, David Bowie is another example of someone who I should have been too young to have listened to unironically, but since my parents introduced me to their music at a young age, I was lucky that Bowie made the cut. Joy Division, not so much. This reminds me that I should probably do a post about all the music my parents made me listen to when I was young. Like Prince! I can always picture looking at the album cover for the Purple Rain record in our living room, sitting in front of the record player. It was so misty, and I loved the flowers on the side!

To get back on track, which is back to Joy Division, as evidence that I wasn't cool enough to like Joy Division before I knew that I should, I knew this above artwork before I connected that it was from one of their album covers. If you want to know a LOT about this very famous album artwork, check out this thorough history of Peter Saville's artwork that was originally for the January 1971 issue of Scientific American and is actually credited to Jerry Ostriker, and is a representation of the successive pulses from the first discovered pulsar. What is a pulsar? Wikipedia tells me that it is a "highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation."

Now I have successfully turned this post about Joy Division into a post about David Bowie into a post about my parents' music taste in general into a post about album artwork into a post about astronomy! I almost added a part about how Sasha Frere-Jones wrote a really awesome review about Sleigh Bells a while ago and it is so quotable. But I'm saving it for another day. And they say the internet isn't ruining my ability to focus. You're welcome!