Ah yes, Killing An Arab... (Cure, The in general)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Cure, The in general
Date:	25/01/02 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unique

Disadvantages: Too muted

I remember 1979 and three bright young things playing at the Top of the World in Stafford. This was The Cure in the days of Michael Dempsey on bass and Lol Tolhurst on drums - still their best line-up in my humble opinion. I was infatuated with their amazing sounds almost from the first and not long afterwards I acquired Three Imaginary Boys, their first long player. I say acquired because I'm still not sure how I got hold of it - I know I didn't buy it. I think I may have exchanged it for a pair of green cloth boots that I'd got for a song at Oxfam! (Those were interesting days, n'est-ce pas?)

I know for a fact that my punky, neo-John Rotten flatmate, Dave Bromage coveted it like anything and was pretty pissed off when I wouldn't let him keep it when I moved out.

I know, I know, it doesn't have Killing an Arab on the LP, with its three kitchen implements on the cover, but who cares? It got your attention, anyway, didn't it?

I love this album with its masterpiece 10.15 Saturday Night, FIREINCAIRO and the rest. It's the sounds of kids making music which is untouched by human hand - which is different from everything else around at the time and was the precursor to 17 Seconds, A Forest and all the other stuff.

I don't know or care what happened to Michael Dempsey, but I care that this bunch of bright stars was around to leave us with a chunk of assured, late night music to thrill the heart.

Meathook, meathook, meathook, I lost my heart to a Meathook - Oh yeah!!


The album itself is oddly muted and yet instantly memorable - a faceless, refined, almost apologetic sound, with Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady given a pretty individualistic treatment by the three piece. Even in those days Fat Bob Smith was the main man, even though he was still to discover big hair and trashy make up from his days as stand in with The Banshees.

The clipped, sparse sounds they sent scur
rying across the air was somehow different from all the other punk thrash ramalamasingalong of the day and clearly pointed the way for their later development into the mastery of much more uptempo and instant songs and was a million miles away from the trash pop Love Cats.

1979, but it could be a million years ago, Fade To Grey...

Now going on from the marvellous debut they brought out two other excellent albums in 17 Seconds and Faith, but I have to admit that I started to lose track of them after that as Smith started to believe his publicity and worry more about lipstick than smart songs - they went the way of all flesh, but for a couple of years at least The Cure were No 1 in my heart.

Winter water colours...

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