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The Cure => General The Cure Discussion => Topic started by: dsanchez on April 21, 2014, 10:25:25

Title: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: dsanchez on April 21, 2014, 10:25:25
Robert is 55 years old today and this question came to my mind: what he means to you?
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: Ulrich on April 21, 2014, 12:00:40
He's the singer/guitarist/songwriter in one of my favourite bands!   ;)
I like most of the tunes and lyrics he (co-)wrote, also I can often understand what he says in interviews.  :)
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: MeltingMan on April 21, 2014, 13:33:06
He is a remarkable artist,doing a very fine job and he is not "absorbed" by the establishment.
Thank you,Robert and Happy Birthday!
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: BiscuityBoyle on April 04, 2016, 01:14:26
He's been a massive formative influence on my sense of humour, of all things. Some of his bon mots in interviews are as good as it gets, see the game he plays in this interview:
http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/press/I38.html (http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/press/I38.html)

I keep returning to it cause it's just so good!


Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: erpomata on April 05, 2016, 14:15:45
ciao i'm 52 now and i know it's not good to say that RS had and has a huge part in my life. because he told something i couldn't, because he is the cure to my life, because i can find every day some words he sang that fit in my day.

see you somewhere  in europe cure fans !
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: MeltingMan on April 06, 2016, 10:57:11
QuoteGermany=George Michael
They're both very calculated and they're never ever going to
surprise you.You always know exactly what they're going to do.
(...) I really don't like Germany at all.(...)
Blah Blah Who?  :roll:
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: Ulrich on April 06, 2016, 13:45:34
Quote from: RS... I really don't like Germany at all

Yeah, that's why the band keeps returning to play places like Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Oberhausen, Berlin etc.!  :lol:

(I guess he was mainly referring to the footie...)

Quote from: erpomata on April 05, 2016, 14:15:45
ciao i'm 52 now and i know it's not good to say that RS had and has a huge part in my life.

Hey that's okay. Even at 52 you can have people you "look up to", who "inspire" you and so on.

To me, Robert is still an inspiring singer/guitarist/songwriter. And I still often enjoy what he says in interviews (well, not that we had many of those recently...)!
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: BiscuityBoyle on April 07, 2016, 19:33:47
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England%E2%80%93Germany_football_rivalry

And even if you can't separate football from history and there might be a clin d'oeil in Robert's remarks to the residual post WW2 acrimony that 20 years ago certainly was still part of British culture, it's very much tongue in cheek stuff.

The bits on U2 and Gabriel are the best, for me.   
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: MeltingMan on April 09, 2016, 09:50:14
Quote from: BiscuityBoyle on April 07, 2016, 19:33:47
And even if you can't separate football from history ...
You're going off topic now.I found it always 'suspicious' when
an artist has made presumptuous remarks about other artists,
not to mention whole nations.I've realized that he has great
pleasure in surprising people or audience, however.That's why
his words are quite disturbing to me, though I believe his connection
to Germany or the Germans is just as ambivalent as...to his hometown
or did he ever certain comments about that? I don't think so.
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: BiscuityBoyle on April 09, 2016, 15:30:43
I'm only going off topic if you choose to look at Robert's comments as uttered in a cultural and historical vacuum, which they weren't, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0) and the topic becomes so narrowly defined as to lose any meaning. 

What's "presumptuous" about disliking an artist and making a lighthearted analogy to a national football team based on stereotypes he clearly doesn't take too seriously? Also, what "connection" to Germany is there to speak of? He tours it quite a bit, as he does other countries.

He's made plenty of disparaging comments about Crawley and has no illusions about Blackpool either - not sure how this relates to the topic at hand. Are you trying to make a point re his general alienation or maybe suggest that he's no Little Englander and is an equal opportunity offender? Cause both are clearly true. 
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: Ulrich on April 09, 2016, 16:49:57
It is obvious from the original interview that they were just playing a "fun game" then and there (it was 20 years ago), as this sentence clearly indicates:
QuoteSmith agrees to join BlahBlahBlah in playing an age-old parlour game that we made up just now, loosely titled 'If Rock Stars Were Football Teams...'- in which the constant must run through the 16 Euro '96 finalists, nominating which bands he feels most closely correspond to each national team's style. The contestant must attempt to complete his exercise without being rude about anybody whatsoever. Naturally, Robert Smith fails miserably...

In my view, this was done pretty spontaneously. For us now to interpret this is difficult, to say the least, as they were just "having a laugh".

Thus, it would be good to get back to topic now, by telling what Robert means to you...  :)
Title: Re: What Robert Smith means to you?
Post by: MeltingMan on April 10, 2016, 18:20:39
Quote from: BiscuityBoyle on April 09, 2016, 15:30:43Are you trying to make a point re his general alienation or maybe suggest that he's no Little Englander and is an equal opportunity offender?
Yes, absolutely.This is something I can agree with.He
did a lot of interviews, much to his displeasure, and I'm
not ignoring the fact that The Cure will be playing a
considerable number of shows in Germany, but that doesn't
answer my question.You may have noticed that I'm not
interested in football and I'm aware that I'm in a minority.
Robert means much to me, although we do not share the
same sense of humor in some respects, but what he did for
the fans in general is simply astonishing.