Curepedia: The A-Z of The Cure
Whether or not their late career success is inspired by ‘80s nostalgia, The Cure headlined Madison Square Garden this year and earned a headline in Rolling Stone: “The Cure Are This Summer’s Hottest Rock Tour. Yes, Really.” Associated with British goth, the band were always more than adherents to a single genre. Their presiding genius, Robert Smith, was also a great pop song writer (“Friday I’m in Love,” “Love Cats”) and able to summon optimism and energy from the gloom.
Fans of Smith’s oeuvre will want to read Curepedia, an encyclopedia that, true to its title, encapsulates their career A-Z. Even if your interest in the band is marginal, students of good music writing may want to check out the book for its thoughtful, literate and musically informed analysis. Author Simon Price, a veteran of Britain’s Melody Maker, imbues some entries with personal memories. The Cure meant a lot to him as he was coming up, yet he is able to look at them critically. There is even an entry called Lowest Point, identified by Price as the band’s boozy 1997-98 tour. Smith was often so drunk he forgot his words.
Curepedia’s opening entry is exemplary. “A Forest” examines the lyrics to the 1980 Cure song—“Smith, in haunted dread-infused tones, recounts a tale of beings lured ‘into the trees’ by a spectral apparition of a girl”—and details the song’s evolution and iterations in concerts and remixes. He cites reviews, negative as well as positive. Price is right to quip, “The Cure are a band whose oeuvre invites overthinking.”
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Curepedia includes entries on artists who influenced The Cure (Bowie receives a long essay), the literature that inspired Smith (Camus, Kafka, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast) and even obscure bands that played with The Cure in pubs (Lockjaw, anyone?). The Producers entry notes The Cure’s “residual DIY punk ethic: once you’ve figured out how to work the faders, why would you get someone else to do it?”
Some of Curepedia is deeply fan based. Nocturnalism isn’t the name of a Cure song (though it could be) but a look at Smith’s sleep habits. In a 1982 journal, the frontman mentioned rising at 10:30 a.m., describing it as a “very early” start to his day.
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