“To me, that’s it”: The two albums that define psychedelia, according to Robert Smith
It was punk rock which opened the floodgates for a bold new generation of grassroots artists to make their mark on the musical mainstream. Goth godfather and hairspray enthusiast Robert Smith came in the wake of that cultural revolution, using the inspiration of punk to establish The Cure, a band that has reinvented itself on countless occasions over the years. Although they are most noted for their contributions to goth rock, post-punk, and indie, Smith’s group have explored a plethora of styles, from 1990s nu-metal to the mind-bending sounds of psychedelia.
Emerging from the acid experimentation of the 1960s, psychedelia came to define the sounds of hippie counterculture, with outfits like The Byrds, Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane blazing a trail for far-out performances and intergalactic soundscapes. Incorporating everything from wah-wah guitar pedals to the influences of Eastern folk stylings, the musical landscape of psychedelia is as expansive as the drug itself.
Psychedelia arguably reached the peak of its cultural relevancy during the ‘Summer of Love’ back in 1967, but the influence of the style endured for far longer than that. Elements of psychedelia could be clearly heard through subsequent styles like progressive rock, art rock, and even certain elements of punk, too. When The Cure first established themselves, they were quickly branded with genres like post-punk, goth rock, or even new wave, but their sound regularly drew from the inspiration of psychedelic rock too.
While this inspiration is perhaps most prevalent on records like 1984’s The Top, which emerged from Smith’s experience recording Blue Sunshine with the Glove, the songwriter immersed himself in the world of psychedelia more than once. Even their gothic masterpiece album Pornography has certain parallels with the expansive sounds of psychedelic rock at points, probably owing to Smith’s childhood obsession with the first age of psychedelia.
Although being born in 1959, Smith was a little too young to drop acid and go see The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, he became aware of this infectious new music during his childhood, thanks to his older siblings. A notable favourite of Smith’s during these formative years was the psychedelic guitar hero, Jimi Hendrix. Speaking about the iconic track, ‘Purple Haze’, during a 1993 interview with Triple J, Smith recalled, “It was the first Hendrix song that I heard.”
“I remember my brother bringing it home as a single when I was eight, in 1967, and I was just awestruck by it,” The Cure songwriter shared. “I must have played it 20 times a day, day in, day out. I drove everyone in the house mad. I think my brother only played it twice, and I must have played it about 2000 times.” This Hendrix obsession seemed to give the young Smith a valuable musical education.
Reflecting on the song’s impact and Smith’s adoration of psychedelia, the songwriter continued, “I learnt everything about it, not to play on guitar but to actually sing. I learnt to sing all the drum parts, the bass parts, the guitar solo, you know, I was just obsessed by it.”
Adding, “It’s remained with me since, really, particularly the first two Hendrix albums, Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold As Love. For me, that’s it. That sums up psychedelia.”
Robert Smith, even during childhood, seemed to have excellent music taste. After all, both of those Hendrix albums were utterly essential in the development and spread of psychedelic rock during the late 1960s, and Smith found solace not just in his awe-insprining guitar playing, but also in his quality as a songwriter and vocalist – an aspect of Hendrix’s work which often goes underappreciated by the masses.
