The Cure music video Robert Smith thought was “awful”
There has never been another band more indebted to the visual arts than The Cure. While the band’s music consists of the prettiest gothic rock ever committed to tape, their knack for creating stunning visuals in every music video set them apart from any of their contemporaries at the time. Then again, it’s not like Robert Smith has been in love with every video the band ever made.
When The Cure was first starting out, though, MTV was still in its infancy. Though the channel didn’t have a name yet, massive artists like Tom Petty and John Lennon had already assembled various “promotional clips” of them performing songs in front of an audience or an abandoned room. While a good song was enough to win over fans, Smith’s approach to music had a much more visual slant.
Though the band had fit fairly snuggly in the post-punk genre, something changed with the release of the song ‘A Forest’. Spanning nearly six minutes, the desolate tone of the track, along with the nervy energy in Smith’s voice, made it a staple of what would become the goth clubs of the time. Compared to the other photogenic artists on MTV, The Cure would adopt a much different approach when sculpting their videos.
Clad in black eyeliner and all black through most of their masterpieces, Smith was known for his sullen demeanour whenever the cameras were in play. Despite not having the most action-packed material on film, Smith is practically shaking with emotion in the videos for ‘Just Like Heaven’ and ‘In Between Days’, overwhelmed when singing each of his odes to devotion.
When working on Disintegration, though, the band had taken their video standards up a notch. Depicting graphic landscapes for songs like ‘Lovesong’ and ‘Lullaby’, Smith gives an Oscar-worthy performance in these clips, being somewhat reserved while ensuring that the camera never shies away from him for a second.
While the band wanted to release a few more singles from the record, ‘Fascination Street’ became a frontrunner for the American market. Building from a rough instrumental intro, Smith is at his most gloriously dramatic, playing off his bandmates and creating a picture of Bourbon Street in the listener’s mind. Shooting a quick music video for the song, Smith had more than a few complaints when he saw the finished product.
Originally intended to have a homage to Doctor Who, Smith thought nothing came together in the final cut, saying, “[It was] awful. The original idea was a Doctor Who video, that’s why there’s a phone box and a clock, with rooms within rooms, done very tackily. But it was done on a low budget. Normally, Elektra and Polydor both give us money, but this was only for America, so only Elektra did. The fantasy got lost.”
Despite the botched video, ‘Fascination Street’ would remain a fan favourite from Disintegration, as Smith talks about letting go of one’s inhibitions and letting loose in a crowd. Given the sublime instrumentation and the aching in Smith’s voice, the single probably would have sold even if the video was a blank screen.
