The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not my cup of tea. It's a corporate shin dig I usually enjoy belittling but this year I have to hold my tongue. Congratulations to Joan Jett and The Cure for being admitted to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Jann Wenner managed populalrity contest gets two right at least!.
The Cure were an intricate part of my teenage years. Robert Smith's hair was an obsession… along with the dark and sort of sad sound of his voice. I recall people calling it Gothic or Halloweenish. So insane, if you think about it just being pale and wearing black made you an instant necrophiliac, vampire or serial killer.
I can remember lying in bed holding the cardboard sleeve of "Pornography" up while singing (soundlessly) "One Hundred Years". I tried to hip and daunting and depressed but I failed miserably at it, I' was just too damn happy and sarcastic. To this day I adore the cracking and vulnerability in Smiths voice. You want to shoo people away from him- I swear to God, Tim Burton must have been a huge fan, cuz Edward Scissorhands is the personality of of The Cures music. It hurts but in such a beautiful way.
You wear your heart on your sleeve, The Cure stapled it there for you so you wouldn't have to worry about it. Instrumental interludes that left such imagery that a dark room and a soundless home movie could evolve into a horror show. No gore, no pyrotechnics, just hollow lonely words and an industrial beat that pounded in your soul, if you chose to have one.
But let's not get all emo, emo wasn't even a genre back in the day, nor was Goth. . It was punk, it was new wave, it was 'alternative' but in those days it was actually alternate to the norm unlike today.
The Cure weren't all razor blades and Kleenex, ah hell no. The brilliance of so many songs rounded out a band that in a pinch could please your grandmother and two seconds later scare the fuck out of her- a gift.
"Love Cats","Friday I'm In Love", "Love Song" proof that this was no doomsday done wrong band of sobsters but a band of brilliant men ushered but not lead by the masterful Robert Smith.
My colleague Alyson announced the three day residencies on the East and West Coasts. What a glorious opportunity for just a few days sit back and time travel to a time when new sounds floated in the air. Before the cookie cutter alt world became a copy machine of boy bands with one eye. A time when music was a story and it wasn't always pretty, but you sang and you thought and when you got up and flipped the album over you'd dash right back in to bed, close your eyes and float along on the journey.
The Cure let me know it was OK to feel anything I was feeling. Don't hide who you are, don't act how you should. Be angry, be sad, be in love, be yourself. Thank you to The Cure for stretching the boundaries of my mind and helping me to brave the world.
