The Cure found a smile to hide the fear away in the deep illusion of a gorgeously stupid in between dream. The group had gone through several lineup changes over four albums (Three Imaginary Boys in1979, Seventeen Seconds in 1980, Faith in 1981, and Pornography in 1982), developing an uncompromisingly dark sound. The remaining members of the band, Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst adopted a pop aesthetic and recorded three increasingly successful UK singles ("Let's Go to Bed" hit number forty-four, "The Walk" went to number 12, and "The Love Cats" scratched its way to number seven to become their first top ten) while Smith toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees appearing on the live Nocturne as well as Hyaena. He also released an album (Blue Sunshine) with Steve Severin as The Glove.
The Top in 1984 was a departure from the new pop direction and the tour that followed (documented in part on their first live album Concert) saw the departure of Phil Thornalley and then a troubled Andy Anderson, who was replaced by Vince Ely from The Psychedelic Furs. When it was over, Smith did not feel up for touring with Siouxsie and the Banshees again: “I realised if I went on the road with them, something serious was going to happen to me, so I went to the doctor’s. It was my family doctor, I’d know him si nce I was young. When I walked through the door, his face just fell. He said ‘Whatever it is your doing, you have to stop.’ I had another little break and during that period, I thought, No, what I really want to do is The Cure.”
The Cure had a new lineup by this point with Porl Thompson officially a member, Boris Williams taking over on drums, and the return of Simon Gallup. Smith would explain: ["Simon and I] fell out because I thought he'd changed too much. He started pretending to be someone else who I didn't really like. Also. he didn't like me anymore; he thought I was being very selfish and ignoring everyone which I probably was, hut that's up to me. I didn't feel comfortable with him anymore. He was my best friend for so long and then I realised that I didn't enjoy his company and, given the choice, I wouldn't spend any time with him but he was in the group so I had to. So we fell out and we had this fight, one fight too many, in a bar in Brussels, because I thought he was being too stroppy to a young barman and he thought I was defending someone just for the sake of it and it escalated from there. I left the club at about five in the morning and got a cab to the airport and waited for the next flight home. I left all my clothes there. It was very dramatic. After about 18 months of not seeing him. I thought 'this is silly, I can't not like him anymore', so one night I went to this pub where we all used to drink and I knew he'd be there. It was quite funny 'cos when I walked in, it all went quiet, just like a Wild West film, but I just walked up to him and started talking to him. Now he's in the group again."
'The Head on the Door' was recorded at Angel Studios in London, England with Smith co-producing with David M. Allen. The album credits Robert Smith on vocals, guitars, keyboards, and six-string bass; Lol Tolhurst on keyboards; Porl Thompson on guitars and keyboards; Simon Gallup on bass guitar; and Boris Williams on drums and percussion; with Ren Party providing horns on "Close To Me"; and Ron Howe adding saxophone on "A Night Like This". "Kyoto Song" was produced by Robert Smith, David M. Allen, and Howard Gray.
Smith says: “When we made The Head On The Door, I just knew instinctively that we were making what was going to be popular music. The sound was really vibrant, the band was really good. It was so easy, the recording sessions, everything happened first take, it was a joy to make the record, and I thought, This is going to start something...I wanted us to take a step up in visibility, I was looking for a bigger audience. It wasn’t to do with being well known, I wanted more people to hear us. I thought we were in danger of disappearing a bit – I had been involved in lots of interesting things like the preceding 12 or 18 months, things like [Siouxsie and the Banshees’ single] Dear Prudence, which was a really big hit. I’d tasted that glamour, I suppose. I wanted to make an album that was vibrant, like an old Beatles record, that would just have be listened to, would have to be played on the radio because they were so vibrant and so lively.”
Tolhurst was physically present for the sessions; but his level of intoxication was such that his contributions were minimized: “I remember thinking, I know there’s something going wrong here, but I wasn’t aware enough to decide what the problem was. I just thought, Well, I’ll carry on drinking. I’d sit in the studio getting very upset at myself for not being able to play something or think of a good idea, which I’d always been able to do before. My mind was in such disarray because I couldn’t do that. Unfortunately, as I now know, the most likely thing that’s going to happen is you’re going to use that as an excuse to drink some more. By the time we got to The Head On The Door, it was not funny any more.”
Smith remembers: “We bought an Emulator sampler, £8,000. I said to Lol, This will be your instrument, I’ll come back to you in three months and you will be able to show me things I’ve never heard before. Three months later I came back to discover that he had spent the entire time taking coke and looking at the Emulator. He didn’t even know how to turn it on...He became an alcoholic, basically, a real alcoholic. I was just dilly-dallying compared to Lol. He was drinking half a bottle of spirits a day. When we were recording The Head On The Door, we used to carry Lol out, put him in a taxi at about eight o’clock – we’d barely even started recording. It was sad, I got really angry at him. He never caught up with the technology. When we did The Head On The Door, we had to get someone in to work the Emulator. So Lol would be sitting there getting pissed while someone else did his job.”
'The Head On The Door' reached number fifty-nine in the US, twenty-four in Sweden, fourteen in Switzerland, eleven in New Zealand, seven in the UK, six in Australia and France, and number three in the Netherlands.
http://www.thecure.com/
"In Between Days" peaked at number fifteen in New Zealand and the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZKh0q904is
Yesterday I got so old
I felt like I could die
Yesterday I got so old
It made me want to cry
Go on go on
Just walk away
Go on go on
Your choice is made
Go on go on
And disappear
Go on go on
Away from here
And I know I was wrong
When I said it was true
That it couldn´t be me and be her
Inbetween
Without you
Without you
Yesterday I got so scared
I shivered like a child
Yesterday away from you
It froze me deep inside
Come back come back
Don´t walk away
Come back come back
Come back today
Come back come back
Why can´t you see?
Come back come back
Come back to me
And I know I was wrong
When I said it was true
That it couldn´t be me and be her
Inbetween
Without you
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1yftp_cure-in-between-days_music
Cure - In Between Days by jpdc11
Top of the Pops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu3TiqmQ9Ec
"Close to Me" broke into the top ten in Australia and Ireland.
THE CURE - Close To Me from Misha Bejanishvili on Vimeo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuhCTRBF-uQ
'The Head On The Door'
full album:
All songs written by Robert Smith.
side A
00:00 In Between Days
02:57 Kyoto Song
07:15 The Blood
10:56 Six Different Ways
14:12 Push
side B
18:45 The Baby Screams
22:29 Close To Me
26:03 A Night Like This
30:10 Screw
32:51 Sinking
live 1985
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clbscmcoNgI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp29M2-hxFo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl4B6f8kcfs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPFRqG_GiOw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSEHr2m6FBQ
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