The 500 - #438 - The Cure - Boys Don't Cry

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 438

Album Title: Boys Don't Cry
Artist: The Cure
Genre: Gothic Rock, New Wave, Post-Punk
Recorded: 1978-1979
Released: February, 1980
My age at release: 14
How familiar was I with it before this week: A little
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: 10:15 Saturday Night

My thoughts on 80s Gothic-Rock has been well documented. To avoid repetition, I suggest these posts: this one about The Smith's debut record (1984) and this one discussing Heaven Up Here (1981) from Echo and the Bunnymen.

Formed in Crawley, West Sussex, England in 1978 The Cure was originally a trio featuring Lol Tolhurst on drums, Michael Dempsey on bass and vocals and Robert Smith on guitar and lead vocals. This record, Boys Don't Cry, was the first North American release for the band and is a compilation of studio material and their debut European release, Three Imaginary Boys. Their dark, tormented sound - coupled with Smith's sexually ambiguous stage persona - helped to launch the post-punk, goth-rock subculture of the 80s. 

Robert Smith (1980)

The Cure, like many bands, have grown on me over the years. My opinion of them has transitioned from disdain and antagonism in my late teens to indifferent acceptance in my early twenties. By my mid-twenties, a single song, Burn, on The Crow soundtrack made me a fan. Today, after giving this record multiple listens - - I'm happy to admit that I really like their sound.

I did a lot of thinking about why I disliked this band so much in my youth. It was a time when I viewed music appreciation as a competition. Like most high schoolers I fell into a clique-mentality and, real or imagined, felt judged by those who seemed different from me. 

My group - let's call us nerdy-rockers - wore our hair long and dressed in denim and, if we could afford it, leather. We listened to hard-rock, read fantasy literature and played Dungeons & Dragons. We were proud of the fact that we didn't fit into any box. (Spoiler Alert: We totally fit into a box - - London, Ontario was not the epicentre of the rocker-nerd).

Diametrically opposed to us (it seemed) were The Preppies, those soulless Ken and Barbie dolls with their neat, well-coiffed hair, designer threads and posh attitudes.

We felt judged!

Well of course we were!

They were judging us and...we were judging them.

Meanwhile, we were just a complicated bunch of kids, full of turbulent hormones and duplicitous emotions jammed together in a concrete building five days a week. We spent much of our day purposelessly eschewing support from those that had loved us for years while desperately seeking approval from compatriots ill-equipped to provide it.  

The soundtrack to this chaos was the music of our sect and some bands, such The Cure, fell on the other side of that awkward divide. 

It was all so complex back then and yet so easy to put in order now. There was no divide. My soundtrack remains special to me, but The Cure are a darn good band. They transitioned into a pop-friendly act in the late 80s and early 90s and continue to perform today, with Robert Smith as the only constant member. In 2019, they were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the record certainly deserves its place on this list.