“We got really desperate”: The song The Cure wrote into the early hours of the morning
“I usually work at night and sleep during the day,” Robert Smith said in 1984. In a way, it makes complete sense, especially as almost every The Cure song seems riddled with all of those late-night thoughts when emotion and longing get in the way of rationality. While most of us sleep off these worrisome inhibitions, Smith channels them into his music, capturing the melancholic ambiguities of minds unburdened by daylight.
Although it doesn’t always seem like it, the time of day when inspiration strikes differs from musician to musician. Alex Turner, for instance, usually enjoys writing in the morning because, according to him, “At other points in the day, you’re a bit more defensive.” In his world, this achieves the same feat as Smith’s nighttime sessions, when thoughts are less misconstrued, and you can reach greater depths of creative expression.
Regardless of these differences, however, Smith’s music seems to more accurately reflect his overall disposition, resulting in a sound that feels intensely visceral—almost like a constant journey down the cobbled streets of a darkened alleyway, with the only sense of time coming from how you feel in the moment. For Smith, accessing these facets of expression is often sparked by memory, theoretical concepts, or the space where the two intertwine.
This was something he leaned into from day one. Even their second record, Seventeen Seconds, presented Smith’s inner workings entirely unfiltered, with him often working long into the night to get things exactly right. Once, however, it hindered the process somewhat, but it didn’t stop the band from working at it until it felt the best it could be. This was, of course, the process behind the appropriately titled ‘At Night’.
A broader reference to Franz Kafka’s At Night, the song tackles the idea of people sleeping soundly at night, oblivious to the insidious dangers that lurk in the darkness. Discussing the track with Rockstar in 1984, Smith said it took the idea that “there is a guardian, a God’s concept, that sees us.” Writing the track, he realised his affinity for darkness, mainly because he just “prefers it to daylight by far”.
On this particular occasion, the song took longer than usual to perfect, which, according to Simon Gallup, caused them to work into the early hours of the morning. “When we play new songs live Robert ad libs a lot until he gets the feel of it,” he told Sound. “Then when we record it if it’s still not right it means everyone sitting around Chris Parry’s kitchen all night scrawling sheets and sheets of paper – for ‘At Night’ we got really desperate and finished up at six in the morning with Lol [Tolhurst] standing on the table pressing his head against the ceiling because he thought that might help.”
In many ways, it proves the ambition that The Cure always had from the start. Knowing Smith’s capabilities, the others stuck around to watch and support the magic that unfolded, knowing that it would all be worth it if they kept at it. While other musicians would have likely shrugged under a whisper of, “Let’s get some sleep and try again tomorrow”, they knew all would be lost if they stopped to pour cold water over it.
