Robert Smith guides us on The Cure’s sound and vision.
Part 1 of 2. Insights and inspiration, the singles, and videos 1987-1997. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration, Mixed Up, Wish, Wild Mood Swings wrapped up in Galore.
This interview with The Cure’s Robert Smith originally featured in a music mag I ran called Planet of Sound, following the release of Galore, the singles 1987 to 1997 - the follow up to 1986’s hugely successful and inspiring collection Standing On A Beach.
This is the previously unpublished full transcript of Robert Smith’s responses, published here in its extended form for the first time. The original transcript was arranged by Outside Organisation PR, and transcribed by Sal Chamcha, with pictures taken by Paul Cox.
Robert Smith provides unique never-before told stories and insights for each single The Cure released between 1987 and 1997. From Why Can’t I Be You? to Wrong Number, taking in Just Like Heaven, Lullaby, and Friday I’m In Love along the way. Large pinches of salt can be provided for certain playful responses. Nevertheless, its an entertaining narrated journey through a golden era of The Cure’s story, from the band’s figurehead himself.
1987
Why Can’t I Be You
“In the summer of 1985 I took a short trip to Lima, Peru, for the first time (and so far only) visit with Aurora, my adopted/sponsored child. Why Can’t I Be You? Was written on the last evening of my visit as a sort of keepsake. The Tim Pope directed video was an attempt to catalogue the menagerie of imaginary characters I had invented during my stay; it also set the benchmark standard against which anyone else making a formation dance video was to be judged. The routines were amazingly, worked out in one night in the Westbury Hotel Bar, Dublin.”
Catch
“In 1970, aged 10, I fell off my bike and suffered quite severe concussion; sporadically, over the following two years, I suffered fleeting but intense day-time hallucinations of a girl I called Bunny. In 1972 I flew for the first time; I few minutes after take-off the plane hit really bad turbulence and I suffered a very violent attack of nausea and vomiting, along with an incredibly severe headache; after this event my Bunny visits stopped. In 1984 in New York JFK Airport whilst waiting to pass through immigration I met a girl who was the spitting image of Bunny, her real name was Anna; we talked very briefly. Catch is about this chance encounter”.
“The Tim Pope directed video was shot on location at the home of Lady Kildare in Cap Camarat, Provence, France. Strangely enough Lady Kildare’s name was neither Bunny or Anna”.
Just Like Heaven
“A song about a life-altering night of magic and trickery spent in 1980 with a girl called Mary on a cliff top at the notoriously beautiful ‘suicide spot’ Beachy Head, Sussex, England. The words are pretty self-evident; I woke up in the morning to find her gone… six years later, within days of the release of the Kiss Me album, I received a phone call out of the blue – Mary and I were reunited on the cliff top Beachy Head just in time to appear in the video”.
1988
Hot Hot Hot!!!
“A song recorded at night in a vineyard* in Provence, France, espousing the general delights of ‘alternated states if consciousness’. If you listen carefully to the choruses, you can actually hear the locals joining in! The Tim Pope directed video captures the evening’s delirium admirably, although the symbolism remains a touch obscure…”
*Chateau Miraval, Provence, France.
1989
Lullaby
“When I was really young I had a very strange uncle (also called Robert) who delighted in finding as many ways to scare me witless as he could. One of his favourites was to whisper grim bedtime stories into my ear, stories that often related the twisted deeds of a horrible boy-eating creature called simply The Spiderman. One night he actually went as far as to climb in through the bedroom window after the lights had been put out. I screamed for what seemed days. The Spiderman stories ended that night, but my fear of the dark and spiders persisted for some time. The video won the BPI Video Of The Year award. So I suppose thank you uncle Robert, wherever you are now…”
Fascination Street
“A generic song about the often-cynical delights of exploring a new city’s nightlife, based loosely on one particular ‘band adventure’ in New Orleans in 1985 – Bourbon Street the cliché perhaps; but a lot of life is dead there. The Tim Pope directed video though is somehow not quite there – nor, as I remember, were we that day of the shoot”.
Lovesong
“There are no stories, no muddled words of (un)explanation…Lovesong is simply a love song. The video was filmed in the Cave of Souls at Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England”.
We leave it there for now.
Join us again for Pictures Of You and all that follows.
Subscribe for more. Read Part 2 here.