May 1989 by Andrew Collings
New Musical Express
So you thought
THE CURE's first single was Lovecats, . Think again sucker as
ANDREW COLLINS tumbles through the 11 years littered with kitchen sink angst,
psychiatrist couch wails, spotty shirts and empty lipstick containers that
brought them from the spiky stab of Killing An Arab to the
whispering hush of Lullaby.
I took a few steps
towards the spring. The Arab didn't move. Even now he was some distance away.
Perhaps because of the shadows on his face, he seemed to be laughing. (The
Outsider, Albert Camus)
It is poignant,
indeed, that Albert Camus' existential classic The Outsider should
inspire a young Robert Smith to write a song called Killing An Arab,
the very first installment in the vinyl history of The Cure.
In the book, Camus tackles the
indifference of the universe and the alienation that results from subverting a
Godless society's rulebook. If today's Cure are seen as eccentric ragdoll Pop
beacons - the acceptable face of weirdness, kidstuff, even - then it can only
be as a result of staring their own self-estrangement in the face and painting
a clown's smile on it.
There are those (our younger
viewers) who are secure in the belief that The Cure's first single was the
jelly-and-cream Lovecats, . On the other side of the universe
exist those who mourn the death of The(ir) Cure that followed the soul-scraping
depths of Pornography. Either way, the story of The Cure is one
that spans an entire decade of changes - musical, physical and spiritual.
In effect, whether by design or
happy accident, they have turned their 'outsideness' to their own advantages,
Robert Smith is the Outsider who came in from the cold.
In 1974 Smith lost his virginity to
Mary ("the nicest girl in the school"). That the two are today
happily married might say something about the man who has escorted his
polymorphous Cure from classroom distraction in Crawley through to main
attraction all over Europe. His first electric guitar was a Christmas present
in 1972, by 1976, a group called Malice were rehearsing odd covers of David
Bowie and Alex Harvey songs.
January 1977, Smith was expelled
from school, and the band changed their name to Easy Cure. They won an
Ariola-Hansa talent competition in May which resulted in no vinyl release but
plenty of paid-for equipment and demo time. Hansa dissolved the contract in
March '78, refusing to put out Killing An Arab for fear of
offending the Arabs.
Then, with Smith on vocals, school
chum Lawrence Tolhurst on drums and Michael Dempsey on bass, and with their
name clipped to The Cure, they met Chris Parry, A&R at Polydor, and things
began to happen.
DECEMBER 1978
With a fair amount of gigs behind
them (including slots with UK Subs, Wire and Generation X),
December 78 was a crucial month for The Cure. They made their John Peel debut
on the 4th, had their first music press interview published on the 16th (with
Adrian Thrills for the NME - "I suggest you catch The Cure immediately')
and released their debut 45 Killing An Arab on the 22nd
(initially on indie Small Wonder, then through Parry's new subsidiary Fiction,
with whom The Cure have stayed ever since).
Beginning with a silly mock-Arabian
retrain, a simple descending bass scale lowers us into a spikey stab of Pop
despair. 'Staring at the sky, Staring at the gun, Whichever I choose It amounts
to the same, Absolutely nothing " moans a seemingly inconsolable Smith
over a tight arrangement of locomotive drums, splash cymbals and pounding bass.
The Cure managed to half-capture the
intricacies of The Outsider's pivotal scenario, which is no mean feat for a
young, middle-class guitar band. There is none of the arbitrary unpleasantness
of newtown punk, just an inspired sense of frustration not normally associated
with Pop music.
MAY 1979
Fiction put out the band's first
album, Three Imaginary Boys , an evasive title reinforced by no band
shots on the sleeve, nor title tracks on the label. This deliberate crypticism
was interpreted by some as snot-nosed and conceited, including NME's Paul
Morley who wrote: 'They garnish their 12 little ditties with unreliable
trickery, not content to let ordinary songs die ordinary deaths Fatigue music
So transparent. Light
and - oh, how it nags.
In truth it is a messy album,
flitting from the fastback Pop of Grinding Halt and Fire In
Cairo, through kitchen-sink angst ('10.15 Saturday Night', 'So What')
to the shape of things to come, longer, drawn-out meanderings like 'Three
Imaginary Boys and Another Day.
The Cure are often miscast as Pop
kids who disappeared up their own navels, but even at this young stage, Smith
was never a get-down-and-party lyricist - it was just youthful energy that
potted his objections and doubts into raucous three-minute bursts.
JUNE 1979
'Boys Don't Cry' is still regarded
by some as Robert Smith 's finest Pop single, Fuelled more by melancholy than
malice, it squeezes all the happy - sad emotions of a holiday romance in
Blackpool into one magic moment.
OCTOBER 1979
The follow up, Jumping Someone
Else's Train is also a perfect, condensed POP jaunt, steeped in you the
club cynicism that's almost belied by it, careful guitar work and jolly train
track drums.
If someone were to adhere to a diet of
Cure singles they d save themselves a lot of undue worry Even when The Cure
play with madness (see Charlotte Sometimes or Hanging
Garden) it is in a far more palatable form than some of the excess
baggage found at 33 rpm.
Nevertheless. as summarised on the
pruned, more rounded US version of The Cure's first movement ( Boys Don't
Cry - which was Three Imaginary Boys minus the weak link… plus the
two singles) the early shape of Robert Smith's vision was about to undergo its
first transition
Michael Dempsey left the band
feeling alienated by Smith's more protracted, indulgent musical style. He was
replaced by Simon Gallup on bass, and Matthieu Hartley joined on keyboards (a
clue in itself).
The sun was
beginning to burn my cheeks ... it was the same sun as the day of mother's
funeral. (The Outsider).
Prepare to wallow
A Forest was a momentous occasion, a turning point, The Cure's
first hit (affording them their TOTP debut) and the sort of song to confine a
thousand teenagers to their bedrooms with old diaries and a red light bulb. It
is a paranoid masterpiece: a celebratory spiral of symbolism and delicate
self-abuse. The forest itself is nature's own Kafka-esque maze, where Smith's
cry echoes into the trees' as he searches for the elusive girl.
The LP Seventeen Seconds was
heard - a continuation of this existential web, wherein A Forest
becomes upbeat (along with Play For Today which might be a
refugee from the first LP). In Your House , Seventeen
Seconds ( 'a measure of life') and Three set the overall
tone recurrent, unflinching essays of confused, almost incurable despondency.
The sleeve is, aptly, all grey except for a last smudge of colour (one to which
the retrospective reviewer must now say goodbye.)
Following a year of extensive home
and away touring (after which Hartley left) The Cure made their most unified
bid for psychiatrist's couch potatoes to date. The LP Faith , dressed
totally in grey this time, is a shrine, a monument, and nothing less Tolhurst's
drum patterns are so hypnotically unplayful, Gallup's bass so encased in the
general melee of keyboard atmosphere and blunt-instrument guitar, the listener
is either left mesmerised or divorced beyond reconciliation.
There are no inbetweens with these
poems of faith and doubt The title track remains The Cure's most gloriously
depressing hour (Five years later, Robert admitted to crying during a rendition
at The Albert Hall. "I wish everything I did had such a strong effect on
me.")
A single, Primary,
reached No 43 and typically, it was Faith's most accessible track.
OCTOBER 1981
It would be glib to say that The
Cure's grey Period was 'over' - never actually remedied, it merely evolved
through a new therapeutic approach The single Charlotte Sometimes
bridged the gap between "Faith" 's luxurious basking and the active
exorcism which was to follow. If this all sounds rather serious and foreboding.
that's because it bloody well was.
The Cure has become a love-or-loathe
phenomenon Sixth form poetry and 'Grammar school angst' were popular handfuls of
mud slung at Robert Smith's medicine show.
'Charlotte' sees him
lamenting a female Outsider, a "sacred princess The drum sound is curt,
the enveloping synth net extends its reach. and the final cut is a frightening,
incomplete musical catharsis. Lovely stuff, but not for the lighthearted!
APRIL 1982
"It doesn't I matter if we all
die" snarls Smith the back-combed vampire clown on Pornography 's
opening assault, One Hundred Years . An unwritten John Carpenter film
soundtrack where the victim is his own killer, and sex is death The colours of Pornography
are red and black, filling in the most impenetrable Cure of their career.
This is a scapel-happy beast with no
movement in its legs - the guitars lash out like undead tongues, and Smith the
protagonist lays bare his restless soul on the rack of erotic imagery.
One more day like today and I'll kill you, A desire of flesh and real
blood, And I'll watch you drown in the shower, Pushing my life through your
open eyes I most fight this sickness, Find a cure ( 'Pornography'
)
This album hurts "It wasn't I
really violent," commented Smith, "It was the inability to be
violent." 'Phil Spector in Hell I,' said NME s David Quantick
Ironically, the LP's wailing singIe,
'The Hanging Garden' reached a remarkable No 34 in the charts. Somebody out
there was tuning in.
AUGUST 1982
By this time, The Cure were
beginning to crack. Robert recorded a new track, Lament for Flexipop
magazine, just Steve Severin of The Banshees and himself.
NOVEMBER 1982
'Let s Go To Bed' was a more
important turn for the band than their own halfhearted involvement suggested.
Gallup had left, so the song was basically a Smith Tolhurst duet, and if it was
borne out of disinterest, it sounds like a fresh start. A jolly, if slightly
awkward excursion into dance, it presents The Cure with a huge weight lifted
from their chest. It got to No 44.
JULY 1983
With The Cure a spent force, a dead
duck in the eyes of many following disintegration of the line-up, an Oxford
Road Show appearance in which Rob, Lol and Brilliant drummer Andy Anderson
faltered through two old Pornography tracks and Smith's temporary
enrollment into old mates Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Walk
was the biggest surprise of the year.
A humorous paddling-poolfull of
ideas. The Cure's most carefree song thus far, arid - Smash Hits ahoy - a
monster hit, peaking at No 12 The video for The Walk features Smith in
as many coloured shirts as there are edits, and (gasp) a glimpse of his whimsical
side Off-beam videomaker Tim Pope can be credited for this - his wacky style
has complemented the 'New Cure' ever since.
And I too felt
ready to life my live again. As if this great outburst of anger had purged all
my ills. (The Outsider)
With Anderson an
official member, complemented by old mucker Porl Thompson on (double) bass, The
Cure extended playtime once again, with the kitsch jazz sandwich Lovecats,
A real family favourite, all Disney surreality and purring 'Bob' Smith
scrunching his face up for the kids. Student discos up and down the land did a
bastardised Twist and spots were worn on shirts.
Accompanied by a dodgy sit-down TOTP
appearance, The Caterpillar was a single that made The Cure's previous
forays into underbelly low-life feel like a bad dream. Light, fluffy and
optimistic, it seemed to hint that Smith's creepy-Crawley skin was shed for
good.
However, anyone using it as a
yardstick for its parent LP, The Top was in for a punch in the guts. Shake
Dog Shake, the opening blow, is a stray from Pornography,
a deliberate warning not to relax
too much. Elsewhere, the album is a hotch-potch of old and new. NME's Danny
Kelly deemed it "dreadful", "ambitious", and a wretched
failure".
Next to the more vicious elements
within, The Top 's tuneful peaks often appear ill-at-ease and unresolved
But we could always put this down to Smith's self-professed mid-life crisis.
OCTOBER 1984
The obligatory live album Concert
was released. Andy Anderson, meanwhile, was sacked in Tokyo, and replaced briefly
by Psychedelic Furs drummer Vince Ely, then The Thompson Twins Boris
Williams
FEBRUARY 1985
Old bassist Simon Gallup rejoined
the band.
JULY 1985
Coinciding with Robert Smith's
longest, most ridiculous post-modern moptop ever, Inbetween Days was release
and sent to No 15 in the charts, This new, tumbling Pop sound seemed to fit The
Cure (now a solid five-piece BAND again) like the custom-made baggy suits they
sport in the video - as loose and casual as the jangly acoustic guitar stream
that carries the song towards its catherine wheel conclusion.
The album that followed was simply
The Cure's first confident, consolidated Pop menu. With enough loopy bits to
prevent it from ever becoming over-safe, "The Head On The Door" is
full of childlike bravado and naive maturity. The words are pithy, harmless and
cute, and Smith's voice sings for the first time. "Such innocence should
be cherished if not taken very seriously, " conceded NME's Mat Snow.
The next single Close To Me
was one of the band's first to fairly and squarely represent the LP from which
it was culled. A breath-catchy love song with claustrophobic undertones,
brilliantly caricatured by Tim Pope in the video featuring your lovable, shaggy
Cure inside a wardrobe teetering an the edge of Beachy Head.
Meanwhile, across the Channel, The
Cure had become the biggest thing in France since Toulouse Lautrec.
APRIL 1986
An odd career decision, considering
the band's burgeoning sense of optimism, Boys Don't Cry was released,
remixed with a newly recorded vocal by Smith. Reaching No 22, it was perceived
by The Cure s second generation fans as a brand new song. I've liked The Cure
ever since they started, ever since Lovecats (a fan outside the Royal
Albert Hall gig)
The singles album Standing On A
Beach followed (plus compilation video). It proved The Cure to be on a par
with Madness and Depeche Mode as one of the most reliable singles bands of the
decade.
MAY 1987
After another year of touring
(mostly abroad, including a 20,000 seater gig at Buenos Aires Footy Stadium)
the dangerous double LP Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me hit the racks,
emblazoned with an enlargement of Smith's now legendary smeared lips on the
cover.
It's all over the place (as 1
8-track collections are wont to be) - an extended delight for hard-Cure tans,
but perhaps best served by its four splendid singles. 'Why Can t I Be You?' is
delicious big-band nonsense: Catch, a romantic summer night
serenade, 'Just Like Heaven', The Cure at their most assured, widely appealing
and together, and Hot Hot Hot!!! a disco vacation remixed to
irresistibly unnecessary proportions on the 12 ,
If nothing else, this monstrous
catalogue of songs proved The Cure to be more of a united, working, songwriting
team than they had ever been before. (Porl wrote three songs on Kiss Me' and
Simon wrote two, which was the first time The Cure had recorded non-Smith
compositions
APRIL 1989
And so to bed' The Cure have
surfaced again this month with a new LP
Disintegration and
the single Lullaby - a concise swoon-song that heralds their eleventh
year as Pop's Great Antidote Whispering Bob is in fine fettle, vocally
scampering across this delicate, soft-centred backbeat, accompanied, funnily
enough, by a mock-Arabian synth-line!
I think I must
have fallen asleep because I woke up with stars shining on my face. (The
Outsider).
-The Party just
gets better and better. ( Faith )