Out of the mouth of genius

10:30am Friday 9th May 2008

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DO you ever wonder what might have been?

Ian Curtis, the tragic lead singer of 70s Manchester band Joy Division, left us with lyrics that we're shocking in terms of just how intense and profound they were.

Even if you're of the wrong vintage to enjoy the music of this short-lived group, try, if you can, to read his words. They're pure poetry. How could a man, barely out of his teens, produce lyrics like this?

When I was 23 my aims in life were to watch football, drink copious amounts of lager and buy clothes and CDs. Curtis was and had been writing lyrics that would send a tingle down your spine nearly 30 years after his suicide. Amazing.

Joy Division morphed into New Order, who soon became the purveyors of radio-friendly electro pop.

Had Curtis lived I think he would have left the band and gone on to become one of the greatest contemporary poets this country has ever seen.

He felt life's slings and arrows more keenly than most and maybe you have to be made like that in order to be a great writer.

Although he was raised in Macclesfield, Curtis was actually born in Old Trafford so, I suppose, we could technically claim him as one of our own.

I can remember interviewing the cult guitarist Vini Reilly, when he was living in Altrincham, and I asked him if he remembered Curtis as being a depressive.

Bearing in mind that Joy Division's music isn't party material and Curtis topped himself, Vini said he was just a normal bloke, who liked doing what normal blokes do, such as going to the pub with the lads and talking about football.

I'd love to know if anyone in the academic world thinks the lyrics of Ian Curtis should be a set text on an English Literature course.

Am I the only one who thinks like this, or has anyone else, outside the world of music, woken up to his genius yet?