The Cure song Robert Smith said misrepresented the band
It takes a certain kind of musical genius to make the kind of music that Robert Smith did with The Cure.
Not every one of their songs needed to be the most complicated in the world, but rarely has any other goth-rock outfit managed to create an atmosphere with their tunes while simultaneously sounding effortlessly catchy in the process. Because at the end of the day, Smith was still a songwriter, and he wanted to give his fans a tune to remember even in the band’s earliest days.
Although ‘A Forest’ should really be considered the first “official” Cure song, the chops that Smith learned when playing a more nervy brand of post-punk gave him everything he needed to know about pop songs. He could put any musical window dressing that he could around it, but even when he was stringing together some of the greatest tunes of his career on tracks like ‘In Between Days’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’, you could still hear the songwriter underneath all those layers of makeup.
But a funny thing started happening once they reached the end of the 1980s. They might not have made a bid to be pop darlings by any stretch, but when Disintegration came out, there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t singing along to every single tune. ‘Fascination Street’ is still one of the moodiest songs that the band ever made, but having something like that in between tunes like ‘Lovesong’ and ‘Pictures of You’ just isn’t fair to the rest of the would-be songwriters trying to make a name for themselves.
Then again, success in the music industry tends to work in the same way that movie franchises do. If the first one was the masterpiece, fans won’t be able to properly acknowledge it until the next instalment comes out, and while Wish is still a fantastic album, ‘Friday I’m in Love’ has taken on a life of its own ever since it came out.
Because, really, this is a perfect pop song in every sense of the word. The melody is one of the poppiest in their catalogue, those lovelorn lyrics sound absolutely beautiful coming from Smith’s mouth, and there’s always a guitar hook right where you want it. For any other band, this kind of tune would be cause to celebrate, but Smith seemed openly resentful of the song after a few too many shows.
There had been a lot of new faces showing up at their shows, but for Smith, those claiming that ‘Friday I’m In Love’ was their favourite Cure song weren’t paying attention enough, saying, “The people who like ‘Friday I’m In Love’ aren’t actually fans of The Cure. They’re not the ones who buy my records. It’s always been paradoxical that it’s pushed down people’s throats that we’re a goth band. Because, to the general public, we’re not. To taxi drivers, I’m the bloke that sings ‘Friday I’m In Love.’”
It’s not like Smith didn’t play into that kind of disconnect between the fans, either. Wish might have been the record that everyone bought because of their new favourite song, but the fact that the album ends with Smith renouncing his status as a rock and roll star and reminding all of his fans that he is none of the things that they say he is is one of the biggest middle fingers that he could have given.
Then again, it’s possible for The Cure to warrant a spot in both musical camps as well. They didn’t have to be known as a goth-rock outfit forever, and there was always going to be a way for people to love every single deep cut that the band ever put out and still be friends with those who listened to them the minute that ‘Just Like Heaven’ came on the radio.
