Which Cure song are you listening to right now?

Started by Inshiver, February 03, 2006, 16:30:11

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SueC

Quote from: Ulrich on March 23, 2020, 16:48:12Not really the Cure, or is it? ;)


Thank you for posting this - I'd never have known this little bit of history otherwise.  :cool 

Well, the Simon Gallup road test sounded promising!   :smth023

It really is adding to the enjoyment of the experience as a new-ish Cure fan to hang out with people who've been there from the beginning.  :)

I've not been a great fan of early Cure stuff (70s / early 80s) but I actually like this - it's very competent, and totally hilarious - like a musical spoof, which the postman's delivery style is just right for, and those hammed-up bits of guitar, and that naughty short keyboard note... hahahaha.  :lol:

The lyrics are like a precis of a million pop songs... :rofl

Brett wishes to see this one live, and thinks Roger O'Donnell should do the postman impression, or otherwise just rope in an audience member and give them a lyric sheet bwahahahaha!  :lol:
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

Quote from: SueC on April 05, 2020, 01:25:17It really is adding to the enjoyment of the experience as a new-ish Cure fan to hang out with people who've been there from the beginning.  :)

Yeah well, thanks, but I have only been there from 1985 onwards...

Here's the a-side of the Cult Hero single:
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

BiscuityBoyle

Many of Robert's very greatest songs come from that early incarnation, 1979-82 (they've had a couple of lineup changes but overall it's the "Lol on drums" era). Definitely The Cure at their most culturally authentic as a postpunk outfit.

To me the following era - Japanese Whispers, Blue Sunshine and The Top - might be even more fascinating, for its sheer creative chaos and shrooms-driven psychedelia, but I'm very sympathetic to those who claim that the very early Cure is the best one. In the latter half of the 80s they became a more conventional alternative band (though a brilliant one: KMKMKM and Disintegration have plenty of great music).

This remains one of the most astonishingly original rock songs



This hidden gem is another one. Incredible guitar work and somehow it all comes together gloriously



This is a great, era-defining single



Another one of their greatest singles. Great drum sound (courtesy of a duet between Lol and a drum machine) and everything else


SueC

Quote from: BiscuityBoyle on April 06, 2020, 22:09:12Many of Robert's very greatest songs come from that early incarnation, 1979-82 (they've had a couple of lineup changes but overall it's the "Lol on drums" era).

This is subjective and completely debatable (and what annoys me about music critics btw).  Music is a very personal thing, and we oughtn't go around making such definitive statements about what is the "greatest" and "best" in a whole progression of high-quality stuff through many years - it's really mostly personal preference.  And a lot of people's personal preference is related to their adolescence and music becoming entwined with their identity formation etc.

To make such statements is also dismissive of other people's different (and equally valid) experience of the universe.

It's much less contentious to say, "I think..." and "I personally prefer, because..." - and it's much more objectively accurate.  :P

So, here's a song Brett and I love far more than any of the early stuff we've heard - because all of us are our own people with our own journeys, and not a bunch of clones.

SueC is time travelling

piggymirror

Biscuity Boyle asked me about Everybody Wants To Be A Cat, a song from The Aristocats (the Walt Disney movie), being played live by The Cure.

Here it is, on a medley with Why Can't I Be You?, That Old Black Magic, Young At Heart (two Frank Sinatra songs in a row!!), and The Lovecats.
July 1989, Wembley Arena (London). Aaaaaah, to have Entreat expanded to full show size...  :kissing_closed_eyes:

.

piggymirror

However, there are other versions from the Prayer Tour, as Everybody Wants To Be A Cat was played not just on that show, far from that.
I own a bootleg of a 1989 show in Torino (Italy), where the medley is Why Can't I Be You and Everybody Wants To Be A Cat, with just a little bit of The Lovecats.

And I've watched that on another tour later on as well, can't remember which one, it was I think the Wish Tour or the Swing Tour.

BiscuityBoyle

Quote from: SueC on April 07, 2020, 01:45:12
Quote from: BiscuityBoyle on April 06, 2020, 22:09:12Many of Robert's very greatest songs come from that early incarnation, 1979-82 (they've had a couple of lineup changes but overall it's the "Lol on drums" era).

This is subjective and completely debatable (and what annoys me about music critics btw).  Music is a very personal thing, and we oughtn't go around making such definitive statements about what is the "greatest" and "best" in a whole progression of high-quality stuff through many years - it's really mostly personal preference.  And a lot of people's personal preference is related to their adolescence and music becoming entwined with their identity formation etc.

To make such statements is also dismissive of other people's different (and equally valid) experience of the universe.

It's much less contentious to say, "I think..." and "I personally prefer, because..." - and it's much more objectively accurate.  :P



Absolutely, without a doubt. That all our opinions and preferences represent a personal interpretation is the human condition - which is why I find that inserting qualifications at every turn to affirm that is pretty much redundant   :D

QuoteAnd a lot of people's personal preference is related to their adolescence and music becoming entwined with their identity formation etc.

Again, can't argue with that. But let me offer a different model of taste: many of us across the western world grow up drinking instant coffee. It's milky, sweetened and perfectly nice. At some point, however, we are bound to encounter people drinking Arabic or Turkish or African blends, which have unusual, pungent flavors. Some of us will never try them; others will, only to reject them; and some will persist (for whatever reason - maybe they want to emulate the cool older friend, maybe they like the sensation of novelty etc) and develop a taste for the pungent black stuff, after which you can't really go back to the instant or to whatever creamy caffeinated cocktails they serve at Starbucks.   

I feel like today we're being encouraged to follow our unexamined preferences because that's how you get people to buy whatever caffeinated milk slop you're selling. I'm no fan of the idea of The Canon; but rather that the acquisition of taste is hard work, a lifelong journey not so much of self-discovery as the discovery of artifacts of culture that are often challenging and anti-intuitive.

Clearly there's no easy one-to-one equivalence between types of coffee and different periods in the work of an artist. And yet, say one starts with Friday I'm in Love and then takes a deep dive into British punk and postpunk music, doubtless necessary to appreciate something like I'm Cold or The Hanging Garden: then I believe it becomes clear what I mean when I say that the early Cure is also the most culturally authentic.

SueC

Quote from: BiscuityBoyle on April 07, 2020, 12:17:58
Quote from: SueC on April 07, 2020, 01:45:12
Quote from: BiscuityBoyle on April 06, 2020, 22:09:12Many of Robert's very greatest songs come from that early incarnation, 1979-82 (they've had a couple of lineup changes but overall it's the "Lol on drums" era).

This is subjective and completely debatable (and what annoys me about music critics btw).  Music is a very personal thing, and we oughtn't go around making such definitive statements about what is the "greatest" and "best" in a whole progression of high-quality stuff through many years - it's really mostly personal preference.  And a lot of people's personal preference is related to their adolescence and music becoming entwined with their identity formation etc.

To make such statements is also dismissive of other people's different (and equally valid) experience of the universe.

It's much less contentious to say, "I think..." and "I personally prefer, because..." - and it's much more objectively accurate.  :P



Absolutely, without a doubt. That all our opinions and preferences represent a personal interpretation is the human condition - which is why I find that inserting qualifications at every turn to affirm that is pretty much redundant   :D

Well, that's where we clearly have a difference of opinion, because I think expressing clearly exactly what you think, and don't think, is never redundant.  Also, it's not actually that hard to use qualifiers, and it's good practice to distinguish clearly between fact and personal opinion.  It is, however, impossible for someone to distinguish between a person who's assuming they're the best judge of a topic (of which there are unfortunately many) and a person who's just finding it redundant to word themselves differently to such a person. :winking_tongue

On the rest I might take you up another time; meanwhile here's some more music I like and am listening to.  Have a good one, and look after yourself.

SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

Like this one (different lyrics to the studio version):

Quote from: SueC on April 07, 2020, 13:48:48Well, that's where we clearly have a difference of opinion, because I think expressing clearly exactly what you think, and don't think, is never redundant.

I tend to agree. Especially on the internet, where you can easily find some people who are out to "find something" to criticise in posts... (not so much here in this forum, thankfully!).

The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

Here's one that gets lots of spins at our place, studio or live, we love it.



Wishing everyone a happy incipient Easter - despite the big mess we're in.



This is an Easter Bilby, from Australia.
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich


Early version ("it's all been said before"):
The holy city breathed like a dying man...



Ulrich

The holy city breathed like a dying man...

piggymirror

Okay, so... Jumping Someone Else's Train.
Plus a bit of back story to its very strange video.





The Jumping Someone Else's Train video is actually a speeded up ride from the cabin of a London-Victoria station to Brighton train, via Battersea Park (a nod to Pink Floyd?), Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Salfords, Horley, Gatwick Airport, Three Bridges (the main Crawley station, albeit not the more central one), and on to Haywards Heath, then Brighton.

I haven't found such a single video at normal speed.

But here's two videos following more or less the same route.
One's too short, and the other one is following a slightly different route (departs from a different London station).

1) London-Victoria to Gatwick Airport, via Battersea Park, Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Salfords, Horley.





2) London Bridge to Brighton. Starts from a different London station than the Cure video (London Bridge instead of Victoria), and follows a different route through South London, via New Cross Gate, Sydenham, Penge West, Norwood Junction, and ends up on the Brighton main line at East Croydon, and follows on to Gatwick, then on to Three Bridges (Crawley), then on to Haywards Heath, then Brighton.





So, you pick the part from Victoria station to Gatwick from the first video, and the part from Gatwick to Brighton from the second video, edit them together, and then you sing veeeeeeeeeery sloooooooooowwwwwwwwly, and there you are, new remix.

If any viewer is familiar with the area, they might perhaps recognize this or that building, or realise that some have been demolished and replaced.