The Cure song that was banned by the BBC
In 1942, Albert Camus published The Stranger, a book that follows its protagonist before and after he kills an Arab man. Over three decades later, The Cure penned ‘Killing an Arab’, a song that came early into The Cure’s career – in fact, it formed their first single.
The track was a direct reference to Camus’ novel, with lyrics that tell a similar story. Over minimalistic instrumentals, Robert Smith sings, “Staring down the barrel at the Arab on the ground to see his open mouth but I hear no sound, I’m alive, I’m dead, I’m the stranger killing an Arab.” Expectedly, the violence depicted in the lyrics led to public outcry. In its title and lyrics, it certainly seemed that Smith and his bandmates were carelessly encouraging racism and violence.
Despite the controversy and upset that the song caused, it was not immediately banned by the BBC. Instead, it was banned over a decade from its release at the beginning of the first Gulf War. Other songs that were banned during this time included John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Bang Band (My Baby Shot Me Down)’, and Billy Ocean’s ‘When The Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going’.
Since the song’s release and its resulting controversy, The Cure have defended the track while also making amendments to it in live performance. The band’s co-founder, drummer and keyboardist Lol Tolhurst spoke with Songfacts about the song’s themes, stating, “It was about alienation and existentialism – things more relevant to us then.”
He continued: “Obviously events of the last two decades have changed the perception of the song’s meaning. Totally erroneously I might add, as it has nothing to do with racism or killing at all.”
Frontman Robert Smith also jumped to defend the track, arguing, “It’s not really racist, if you know what the song is about. It’s not a call to kill Arabs”, as quoted by Jeff Apter in Never Enough: The Story of The Cure.
Though the band, at first, seemed willing to staunchly defend the track, Smith later conceded that he wished he had named it differently. In 2001, he told Chart Attack, “If there’s one thing I would change, it’s the title”. Still, he supported Tolhurt’s defence of the track, stating: “One of the themes of the song is that everyone’s existence is pretty much the same. Everyone lives, everyone dies, our existences are the same.”
He concluded: “It’s as far from a racist song as you can write. It seems though that no one can get past the title and it’s incredibly frustrating. The fact is it’s based on a book that’s set in France and deals with the problems of the Algerians, so it was only geographical reasons why it was an Arab and not anyone else.”
The band even made their TV debut with the song. During live performances since they have been known to alter the lyrics to “killing another” and “kissing an Arab”. Still, Smith and his bandmates maintain that the song was misunderstood and was never intended to promote racism, arguing instead that it aimed to speak out about inequality.
