Music Monday: The Cure (Part 1)

Alright, so if you listened to the radio in the mid-80s to the 90s it was difficult to get away from The Cure. For a while they were one of the bigger bands on the scene, which felt… weird. Don’t get me wrong, I do not begrudge the band their success and even saw them on one of their larger tours, but in many ways The Cure seem like a band that is best seen live in a smaller venue, with a capacity in the single digit thousands. That said, one of the best concerts I have ever been to was in 1992 during the Wish tour when I saw them in an arena.

I didn’t start becoming aware of the band until 1986 when the singles compilation Standing On A Beach came out. While the previous year’s album Head On the Door was still going strong, the singles from that album were also on the compilation – and the radio station I was listening to at the time played what seemed like a different song from the compilation every hour and the more recent videos were on MTV.

“Boys Don’t Cry”

My best friend at the time had Head On The Door and Standing On A Beach and that was how I got into the band. I did, however, get really tired of hearing everything from Standing On A Beach, but would pick up the cassette a few years later because it featured the B-sides as well as the singles.

“Close To Me”

“Why Can’t I Be You” came out as a single in 1987 and that seemed to really propel the band to the next level. The album was Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, but it would be the single “Just Like Heaven” that simply wouldn’t go away.

By the time the next album (Disintegration) came out 2 years later I had begun fully exploring The Cure’s back catalog and considered myself a fan. The more recent (being a relative term) albums have not been as good (in my opinion) as the stuff up to and including 1992’s Wish. Still I picked up every album. And almost every single I could.

“Friday I’m In Love (Strangelove Mix)”

The Cure is a band where there are nearly three times as many songs as there are released on albums. The singles regularly feature additional songs not available on the album. As a sort of B-side junkie it drives me nuts trying to gather up all the additional songs the band has released.

“Breath” (B-side to “Catch”)

I still very much like The Cure. It would be nice if they would stop touring behind old albums (performing three albums in their entirety) and instead put some of that effort to releasing new music. Then again, a tour where they performed nothing but B-sides would be interesting.

“Harold And Joe” (B-side to “Never Enough”)

While The Cure doesn’t rank as one of my all-time favorite bands, I still have a great deal of affection for the group. During my sort of formative years when I was in my late teens and early 20s when I was fully exploring music and finding what I really liked and being comfortable with it the band was getting its biggest chart success.