“The fantasy got lost”: the song Robert Smith regretted giving to MTV
A colossal part of The Cure’s appeal is the band’s unwavering diversity in sound. Over the years, songwriter Robert Smith has proved himself equally adept at writing harrowing, melancholic goth rock as well as upbeat, optimistic pop songs. The 1989 album Disintegration is perhaps the greatest singular example of this incredible sonic range within The Cure’s discography. Despite being lauded as one of their best releases, the beloved album is not without its regrets, at least in the eyes of Robert Smith.
The eighth studio album released by The Cure, Disintegration, saw Smith move away from the pop-centric sounds of his previous work, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, which produced hit singles in the form of ‘Just Like Heaven’ and ‘Why Can’t I Be You?’. Instead, Smith reverted back to the dark, goth-focused sounds that The Cure had helped to pioneer during the post-punk movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, that is not to say that the 1989 album was without its mainstream successes.
In the UK, Disintegration managed to produce three hit singles, in the form of ‘Lovesong’, ‘Pictures of You’, and ‘Lullaby’. These tracks exemplified the incredible songwriting talents of Smith, showing him as both a profound and inventive artist, and somebody who is fairly comfortable with mainstream success, too. There were, however, aspects of this success and mainstream appeal which the songwriter never really got used to.
After all, when discussing the popular music of the late 1980s, particularly in the context of the United States, it is difficult to escape the grasp of music videos and MTV. Love them or loathe them, the music television station had an undeniable influence over musical success during that period. For their part, The Cure always produced pretty fantastic music videos, with ‘Lullaby’ from Disintegration being a prominent example. Seemingly, though, Smith was not best pleased with the music video created for ‘Fascination Street’.
Released as a single only in North America, ‘Fascination Street’ was a huge success for the band in the States, reaching 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Alternative Airplay charts for multiple weeks. Inevitably, the band would have to make a music video to promote the song to US audiences and keep that success going. So, Smith drafted in Tim Pope, who had previously created videos for Cure tracks like ‘Let’s Go To Bed’, ‘Close To Me’, and ‘Just Like Heaven’ among many others.
Despite Pope’s previous successes with the band and the strong relationship between the filmmaker and The Cure, the music video for ‘Fascination Street’ did not go to plan. Smith has since remembered the video as being “awful”, explaining to Select Magazine, “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.”
Reportedly, the issues with the video largely arose from the fact that ‘Fascination Street’ was only released as a single in the US, meaning that the band received no financial support from their UK-based label. ”It was done on a low budget,” the songwriter recalled, “Normally, Elektra and Polydor both give us money, but this was only for America, so only Elektra did. The fantasy got lost.”
Nevertheless, this subpar music video ended up being played quite a lot on MTV in the United States and certainly contributed towards The Cure’s seven-week run in the Alternative Airplay charts. Thankfully, ‘Fascination Street’ did not spell the end of the band’s collaborations with Tim Pope either, as he went on to direct a deluge of other music videos for the band, notably ‘Close To Me’ and ‘Friday I’m In Love’, both of which have since become viewed as some of the band’s greatest videos.
