Watch The Cure play ‘The Caterpillar’ in rare footage from 1984
1984 was a major transitional year for music, one that allowed hard rock party acts like Van Halen and new wave titans like The Police to rub elbows with pop stalwarts like Michael Jackson and Madonna. If you were a rock band, especially one that fits into the English new wave scene, then you had a real chance at superstardom. Unless, of course, you were The Cure.
The Cure were in a state of transition in 1984. The previous two years had seen the band abandon their goth roots (and most of their members) in favour of embracing the emerging synth-pop sound. Tracks like ‘Let’s Go to Bed’ and ‘The Lovecats’ were major hits in their home country, but Robert Smith was still a cult figure in America. He was also a full-time member of Siouxsie and the Banshees, taking away some of his commitment to The Cure.
That year saw the release of The Top, a more explicitly psychedelic record than The Cure has ever produced before or since. Smith was largely on his own, assisted only by drummer Andy Anderson and very occasionally by bandmate Lol Tolhurst. Without any major hits and a noticeable change in style, The Top remains a bit of an enigma within The Cure’s discography. The same year that numerous rock bands went mainstream also saw The Cure completely uninterested in doing so.
Just take one look at the band’s live appearances at the time, and you’ll understand why The Cure weren’t quite ready for middle-of-the-road MTV success. With a setlist that included psychedelic trips like ‘The Catepillar’, doom-laden goth rock like ‘The Hanging Garden’, and pop hits like ‘Let’s Go to Bed’, the version of The Cure from 1984 was eclectic but certainly not cohesive.
‘The Caterpillar’ remains the best illustration of this era of the band. Played frequently in 1984 and then rarely until the 2010s, the song is a goofy lark that finds Smith chattering away and improvising on a violin, an instrument he clearly didn’t know how to play. It’s not an unpleasant track by any means, but it’s a bit too light and airy for The Cure, who didn’t quite know how to make similar sunshine pop songs like ‘In Between Days’ and ‘Friday I’m In Love’ just yet.
The tides would once again after 1984. Bassist Simon Gallup would return, Anderson would be fired, and The Cure’s most commercially successful incarnation would take shape for 1985’s The Head on the Door. Hit singles like ‘Just Like Heaven’ and hit albums like Disintegration would be produced with this lineup, and thanks to those successes, The Cure would become an unlikely arena rock band towards the end of the 1980s.
Check out a performance of ‘The Catepillar’ down below.
