Be One of Us #19 - "Leaders of Men"
@teamfreak16 (43655)
Denver, Colorado
December 7, 2019 1:17pm CST
Hang on, we're rolling! Welcome back to Be One of Us, a random countdown of 50 songs with "of" in the title. We are at #19: "Leaders of Men" by Joy Division.
You can see people wearing their t-shirts all over the place, often sported by folks that wouldn't actually know a Joy Division song if it bit them in the ass. It's hip these days to sound like Joy Division. Bands such as Interpol and She Wants Revenge have carved out nice careers with the Joy Division sound (and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry were doing it way, way back before it became hip to do so!)
Such is the legend of Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, collectively known as Joy Division, until the troubled Curtis hung himself on the eve of an American tour.
"Leaders of Men" was a track from Joy Division's 1978 debut EP, An Ideal for Living. This was back in the beginning, when Sumner, Hook, and Morris decided to form a punk band after attending a Manchester Sex Pistols concert. And while the tune is not "punk" in the traditional sense, it's also not quite the "slit your wrists" doom and gloom for which the band would soon become known.
As for those t-shirts? I've got that beat in spades. I found a really groovy Joy Division welcome mat that I will soon be purchasing for my apartment. Take that, models in Joy Division shirts!
(Info verified by Wikipedia)
2 people like this
2 responses
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
7 Dec 19
41 years ago. Hard to believe. They were the real deal.
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43655)
• Denver, Colorado
7 Dec 19
How many musicians can say that they were in not one, but two legendary, highly-influential bands? Not many. But these guys can.
2 people like this
@FourWalls (86829)
• United States
7 Dec 19
I have the “obvious” Joy Division song on a list I’m compiling for a countdown in January.....
1 person likes this




