Love Will Tear Us Apart Again

This is the Christmas blog.

Except it's not really about Christmas. Except it also kind of is.

I'm here to talk about two songs that came to my mind this morning: "Christmas Unicorn" by Sufjan Stevens and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division.

At first they seem starkly unrelated, but if you listen to both you might notice a literal and striking connection between them. About two thirds into "Christmas Unicorn," Sufjan cops the chorus from "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Not ripping it off, of course, he gave credit where credit's due, but what Sufjan ended up doing by ripping the chorus from that specific song and reappropriating it for the context of his song was give some serious food for thought.

An explanation or two is in order.

For those of you who don't know, Sufjan Stevens is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter whose music over the years has ranged from borderline Christian folk (Seven Swans) to dance-tastic electronic indie rock (hello, Age of Adz), with just about everything in between. It's no secret that Sufjan is quite the Christian, and a lot of his songs have spiritual overtones; at the same time he has a remarkebly turbulant love-hate relationship with Christmas as a holiday. That's on top of the fact that a lot of his more spiritually inclined songs deal with doubt and grief, rather than blind worship, but what makes his relationship with Christmas so interesting is that he loves Christ but seems to hold an intense grudge against the holiday as a materialistic hellhole, with people fighting over its commercial and religious aspects, and both suffering as a result.

"Christmas Unicorn" the final track on his most recent Christmas album (yes, he's put out more than one), Silver & Gold, which like his previous Christmas-related output contains mostly covers, although given how big this album is it also has a good number of original compositions, of which "Christmas Unicorn" is the longest, most memorable, and most desperate.

It's a song about the holiday's deep pagan roots, going so far as to imply that rather than non-Christians hijacking Christmas, perhaps it was the Christians (more specifically the Roman Catholic Church, thanks) who hijacked Christmas from the pagans. Almost everything we associate with the holiday in terms of iconography was not originally Christian (the mistle toe, the reef, and yes, even the unicorn, etc.), and that's not even mentioning the commercial, non-religious iconography.

Quite a few of my fellow users on this site, some of whom I follow and admire, stick very close to their guns when Christmas comes around, and start throwing Bible quotes around like they're confetti; but in their defense, there's not much else to latch onto if you want to celebrate Christmas as a Christian holiday, supposing you're of that persuasion.

This sounds like it's leading into a rant about how some folks like to practically wear badges on their shirts like they're boyscouts which say, "Hey guys, just a reminder that I really love Jesus," and how all the dick-riding seems to ignore that there are literally millions of people, some of whom live just down the street from you, some of whom could even be you, who need a secure job or a coat for when it gets cold outside or a place to live in that isn't a shelter or a relationship with someone they can be happy with and who doesn't abuse them waaaaaaay more than they need Jesus. That was the rant, though, so I think I'll be moving on.

You know what's not very Christian, though, aside from much of Christmas itself? Joy Division. The greatest band to only put out two albums, or if you're more of a New Order fan like me, the greatest predecessor to a great band. Assuming you haven't listened to Unknown Pleasures and Closer, I'm also assuming you're the kid who got a bunch of socks and underwear for Christmas when you were younger.

But I'm here to talk about a song that actually isn't on either of those albums. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was a non-album single that came out in 1980, shortly before the release of Closer (and also before Ian Curtis, the band's frontman, decided to rage-quit from life), and it has what is perhaps the most famous chorus in all of post-punk; in fact it's the very title of this blog.

Now, if you've listened to enough Sufjan and Joy Division, you might guess that they're not the most optimistic when it comes to happy and fulfilling relationships. Sufjan never married (not that not being married is bad, I'm going somewhere with this, don't worry) and seems to have gone through a series of boyfriends and girlfriends (because I'm about 99.9% sure he's bisexual) over the years; Ian Curtis did get married, but his marriage was short-lived and miserable, and his widow would have some rather harsh words about him after his passing.

Taken separately, the two artists paint a picture of love that is often disappointing, despondant, hurtful, although sometimes ecstatic. Taken together, though, and combined with the cynicism of "Christmas Unicorn" and its so-called holiday spirit, you get something that says something deeper and grander about human relationships; not just romantic ventures, but the inevitable colliding and clashing of relations between people, and how even in the deepest throes of joy there is the danger that despite (or maybe even because of) that joy, the parties will be torn apart. Or tear each other apart, depending on how it goes.

"Love will tear us apart" seems like a paradoxical phrase, because when we think of love (and also Christmas, especially Christmas) we tend to think of unity, harmony, a coming together of brothers and sisters, be it spiritual or literal. It's the time to be the most optimistic and the most grateful for what you've been given.

Yet it's only temporary. It began not long ago and it will end sooner than you think.

A couple months ago, my paternal grandmother died. She was quite old, but she did not live the best of lives; she lived with her youngest son, or rather her youngest son lived with her. Her house was like that of a hoarder's; she only rarely got to see her daughter (my aunt, my father's sister), despite not living far away, because of how rocky and abusive things were.

My uncle, the man who lived with my grandmother, would soon follow her. He died earlier this month, from a likely combination of lifelong alcoholism and prescription med abuse. He was 48 years old.

There isn't much left of my father's side of the family. Yesterday we went to spend time with my mother's side of the family, which thankfully is doing well on the whole, and we had a good time. We can no longer do such a thing for my father's side; it is no longer possible.

Sometimes you have to wonder, if you love someone and care for them, if it would be better to leave them or to stay with them; the latter option is not always the best. Sometimes, love will tear us apart.

Comments

[Super Trampoline]

For being a self proclaimed Sufjan Stevens fan you think I’d of listened to his Christmas albums by now.