Song · Joy Division
“Warsaw” by Joy Division
From the EP An Ideal for Living (1978)
“Warsaw” by Joy Division appears on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 2002 and 2023. It was first released in 1978 on the EP An Ideal for Living. Its best result is #400 on the Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,464 alternative song of all time.
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"Warsaw" kicks off An Ideal for Living, Joy Division's 1978 EP, and it's punk already staring into darker corners. The band produced it themselves; Ian Curtis wrote the words, and the music is credited to Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner. It was meant for a debut album that got scrapped, and those sessions later circulated on bootleg under the Warsaw name.
The subject is Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, who flew to Britain in 1941 hoping to broker peace and was captured after landing near Eaglesham in Scotland. The song opens with a fake count-in built from his prisoner-of-war serial number, and the chorus hammers away at its first three characters, code for the European theatre of war and a German prisoner. It later landed on the Substance compilation.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 440 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 400 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2023 | 452 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
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