The Cure is a band that ruled my life when I was young. As not to date myself, as someone who could be your grandfather, I did not find my obsession with The Cure on albums like “Three Imaginary Boys,” “Boy’s Don’t Cry,” Seventeen Seconds,” or Pornography,” but during “The Head on The Door” period. My bedroom walls were lined with posters of silhouettes of Robert Smith wielding a guitar and of the whole group brightly painted with glowing faces. After my U2 obsession I moved on to the gloom filled songs of Robert Smith. I recruited my father’s weekends for road trips to Los Angles to indie record stores and collected a plethora of Cure singles. Last summer at the Coachella festival 2004 I saw the Cure play before I moved out east to NYC. I thought there performance was very bland, which made me feel dated as well as my old heroes. Deep down in my heart I still believe it would have been best for them to dissolve on a good note probably after they released “Disintegration.” But recently my Cure fascination has been rekindled with Rhino Records decision to release the entire Cure catalog from the start, beginning with the early Cure sounds of “Three Imaginary Boys.” This release is unlike a typical re-pressing, because it comes with a bonus CD with 20 tracks and a 16-page booklet filled with photos and tour memorabilia from the personal archives of vocalist Robert Smith, as well as a track-by-track commentary and notes by U.K. music scribe Johnny Black.
Originally the band was named Easy Cure hailing from Crawley, England. The Re-mastered “Three Imaginary Boys,” captures The Cure as a trio with 17-year-old Robert Smith on Guitar and Vocals, Michael Dempsey on bass guitar and Lol Tolhurst on the Drums.
“Three Imaginary Boys,” plays like it did nearly 20 years ago and features the 80’s hit "10:15 Saturday Night," as well as other early Cure classics such as "Grinding Halt," "Fire In Cairo," “Subway Song,” “Accuracy,” “Object,” “Meathook” “So What,” “It's Not You,” “Three Imaginary Boys,” and the not so foxy rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady." Closing the CD is the blues based instrumental "The Weedy Burton," a tribute to Bert Weedon's Play Guitar In A Day' books.
Johnny Black's liner notes, which make use of extensive and exclusive interviews with Robert Smith, provide fascinating insight into the making of this classic album. One interesting story tells how The Cure managed to get the album recorded with virtually no budget: they simply snuck into Morgan Studios at night once the Jam had finished their sessions, and, using the Jam's gear, recorded through the night till dawn.
20-track bonus disc that includes additional tracks from Boys Don't Cry, previously unreleased studio and home demo versions, live renditions, and other curiosities. In total the package includes six previously unreleased songs, eight previously unreleased versions of songs, and 17 tracks never before available on CD. One of my favorite Cure tracks was original released on “Boy’s Don’t Cry entitled “World War,” which ironically was Smith’s least favorite track, but it is included on the bonus disc along with the Smith’s-esque (Not Robert but Morrissey) sounding guitar of “Play With Me,” the Faith-era sounding beautiful track “Winter,” the dirty punk tune “Faded Smiles AKA I Don't Know,” and the original demo of “10:15 Saturday Night,” which Robert recorded in his kitchen and is brilliant demo left barren of all Smith’s vocal clichés. The bonus disc is a Cure lovers treasure chest.
Rhino’s re-issue of “Three Imaginary Boys,” is nicely packaged and feels well beyond complete with all the wonderful bonus material. I think it is perfect for the original pale-faced fans and for the Cure fan that only knows them as dark moody band. The boxed set gives them a chance to learn they were a lot more than that. With influences ranging from Johnny Rotten, and Jimi Hendrix the Cure were lot more punk than gloom lovers back in their incubation stages. Well you won’t find me standing in line for concert tickets instead I’ll be at home remembering what it feels like to love my old heroes. |