’39’: The Cure song about Robert Smith’s mid-life dread
The concept of exercising gratitude while growing older has never really been lost on Robert Smith. Fronting one of the most iconic rock bands of all time usually leads many down a dark path with all of the common aspects that define the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. While Smith is no stranger to such relationships, he understands now more than ever the power of living for the moment.
“Every year is a bit of a bonus for me,” the singer recently said, sharing a similar cadence of wistful melancholy that defines his latest record, Songs of a Lost World. Even at 65, his voice comes across with the same power and vitality as it did in 1979, despite the years spent smoking and not paying an ounce of attention to the “longevity” of his own career.
This, in many ways, serves as the crux of The Cure’s main appeal. Smith always writes from the authenticity of his own heart, refraining from bothering himself with checking any boxes and embellishing the beauty of vagueness in music. However, a lot of this capability comes from a very real understanding of how to turn the lens inward despite the probability of stumbling upon something that might feel a little difficult to swallow.
As dread and darkness define most of The Cure’s back catalogue, these facets stem from Smith’s internalisations, navigating the perils of life—from love and loss to mortality and growing older—without offering much respite from the sobering reality of life itself. This charm comes from the singer’s deathly grip on the value of wallowing and venturing through the purgatory-like state of just being, especially when it means humouring a hollowed heart that feels everything and nothing.
There are countless songs to choose from, spanning the debut to the recent record, but one that captures Smith’s lamentation of his own ageing process is ’39’, a song he incidentally wrote on his 39th birthday. As always, Smith toys with the idea of burning out and not being young anymore, recognising the finality of his own existence while appreciating the fact that his own end is, in fact, a fallacy.
As he explained during an interview with Pulse, ’39’ wasn’t a “statement” that he was “giving up” but rather an acknowledgement that he has changed, and so has his writing. “You have to work harder as you get older because cynicism is like a creeping insidious enemy that can poison everything,” he said, admitting that he no longer has “the same fire” as when he was younger.
“But I think that saying ‘The fire’s almost out’ in ’39’ is not a statement that I’m giving up,” he added. “I’m just being open and honest about the fact that what’s driven me to express myself in the past is just not there like it used to be.”
While many experience despair at such a realisation, chronicling personal change and detailing the eternal difficulty with recovering the lost past has always been a significant aspect of Smith’s lyrical beauty. Even the most vapid or ambiguous experiences or feelings become a spectacle at Smith’s hands, proving his endless ability to confront all of life’s swirling abyss, no matter how soulless it may seem.
