Unknown Pleasures

Noticed a few posts complaining about lack of original thread ideas...so...

It's 1979, and strangely, Martin and Tony Wilson have turned up at your door with a couple of tapes containing numerous post-production Joy Division songs, and want YOU to compile Unknown Pleasures

Would you change anything? Slip in "Exercise 1" anywhere? Pound "Wilderness" off in favour of another track? Or just make it a five track EP?

Can't say I'd change much...Maybe switch "Disorder" from the opening to a bit later on, and put "Exercise 1" as the opener...

...er...somewhat original thread..?

Agree with Exercise 1 as the opener - always liked the sinister quality of this track.

Perhaps Wilderness swopped for Autosuggestion which is underated in my opinion.

White side

Disorder They Walked in Line Shadowplay New Dawn Fades She's Lost Control

Black Side

Day of the Lords Exercise One From Safety to Where Insight I remember Nothing

Transmission as the first track, swap the version of She's Lost Control for the remix, job done.

The best album of all times

Chris Nash wrote:

Must say, I wouldn't put 'Transmission' on it - I don't think it would 'sit right' alongside the other tracks

Agreed

redo vocals on "New Dawn Fades", redo "Wilderness" in a more punk way and redo "Ice Age" and add it. tell Hannett to take less heroin and add some actual bass to the songs

"Exercise One" might have been an interesting start, a bookend with "I Remember Nothing". 12 songs would fit easily. Or maybe it woulda bogged it down too much.

How about a good version of "Warsaw"? The amateur proto punk side of the band gets cheated somewhat on Unknown Pleasures.

and add some siren samples because some reviewer will say there are sirens on the record and others will copy him without listening to the record.

looks like some of the songs recomended for inclusion might not have been written in time for inclusion,, transmission wasnt recorded until july 79,, exercise 1 wasnt played live till the august,,79

would leave it as it stands flawless debut from the best thing to come out of warsaw.

when your looking at life

i wouldn't put transmission in there. exercise one would have been a good second track to disorder.

disorder exercise one day of the lords candidate new dawn fades atrocity exhibition she's lost control wilderness shadowplay

'no love lost' would have been a great way to start the album. i love the beginning guitars--there's no build up, they just come in full-throttle.

Animadversion wrote: i wouldn't put transmission in there. exercise one would have been a good second track to disorder.

disorder exercise one day of the lords candidate new dawn fades atrocity exhibition she's lost control wilderness shadowplay

atrocity exhibition??? did they have a time machine around those days?

Reading Morley's wordy and occasionally obtuse work on JD (cheers, Mr. Nash!), PM makes the point that Unknown Pleasures was truly several steps on from Warsaw and An Ideal For Living so including songs like Warsaw etc wouldn't have sat well with the overall dynamic of the album.

I was listening to it again the other day and the flow of it is amazing: kicking it off with Disorder sets it up nicely for the changes of tempo and feel of songs like Insight, She's Lost Control etc. It was interesting to note that both From Safety To Where? and Autosuggestion were improvised on the spot i.e not really written at all. I hadn't considered that before but the way Barney's guitar tries several different things during the song kind-of indicates to me that, now the tape was running, he had to get something down!

It's a class act but then so is Closer...

Ps Atrocity Exhibition is without parallel as Closer's opener (as it were).

" transmission wasnt recorded until july 79,, exercise 1 wasnt played live till the august,,79"

No - Transmission was on the 1978 RCA sessions, and Exercise One was on the January 79 Peel session - both could easily have been available for UP - indeed - the Still version of Exercise One was recorded at the Unknown Pleasures sessions.