Hate Fuck Trio - Join the Dots

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 12 / 3 / 2004

intro

The Cure recently released 'Join the Dots', a four CD collection of B-sides and rarities. Anthony Strutt details each of its 70 tracks

Disc One (1978 – 1987). 22 tracks. 74 mins, 31 seconds. The 'Join the Dots' collection kicks off with the Cure's first 7" B side, the classic '10.15 Saturday Night’ which, despite its original status as a mere B side, is an important piece of the band's history. In addition to appearing here and on the other side of ‘Killing An Arab’, it was included on the first two Cure albums ‘Three Imaginary Boys' (1979) and the compilation album ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (1979). '10.15 Saturday Night' is pure kitchen sink drama. Next up is ‘Plastic Passion’, a song about a blow up sex doll. It is fast and punky. ‘Pillbox Tales’ and ‘Do the Hansa’, which follow it, both hail from February 1979 but weren’t issued until their release on the ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ re-issue in 86, when both tracks were remixed. ‘Pillbox Tales’ is thrashy and dirty and intense, while ‘Do The Hansa’ is about their first record label who signed the band and then dropped them quickly. The strange and weird ‘I’m Cold’ is influenced by Siouxsie and the Banshees’ whom Robert Smith was also a member of during the late 70’s and early 80’s. ‘Another Journey By Train’ is one of my favourite all time Cure tracks. It has a dance groove to it and is the instrumental of my all time favourite Cure A side ‘A Forest’. ‘Descent’ is again an instrumental, but is darker and mainly based around Simon Gallup's bass line. It is very gothic in tone. ‘Splintered In Her Head’ is the longest track on the first CD and is strange, very dark, mostly instrumental and again gothic in its feel. When Robert Smith's vocal appears it is more like another instrument than a vocal as such. ‘Lament (Flexipop Version)' was originally released on various coloured 7” flexi discs. It is a classic much sorted-after piece of Cure history and once more again gothy and strange with a very basic approach being taken to its playing. A fine example of the early Cure, it is very much for the alienated lost souls out there. ‘One Kiss’, ‘The Dream’ and ‘The Upstairs Room’ are all pure and perfect pop songs, well delivered, fully formed and timeless in an early student bedsit sort of way. This is followed by a more polished version of ‘Lament’ from the B side of the 12” of 1983's 'The Walk'. ‘Speak My Language’ is as jazzy as jazz can get by a non jazz band and is great fun because of that fact. ‘Mr. Pink Eyes’ is fast but not thrashy with a poppy feel. ‘Happy The Man’ features a slow bass line and has a slowly delivered clear vocal from Robert. ‘Throw Your Foot’ is the Cure at their quirky best and is fun, fun, fun, while ‘New Day’ has a dark drum machine sound and sounds like a gothic version of the Fun Boy 3’s ‘The Lunatic Have Taken Over The Asylum.' 'The Exploding Boy’ has a Joy Division-style bass feel and features brass but has a commercial vocal similar to 'In Between Days', which in 1985 this was the B side of. ‘A Few Hours After All’ is orchestral in tone and, because of that, sounds different to any other Cure track. ‘A Man Inside My Mouth’ is as odd as its title suggests, but also has an element of commercial pop fun. The first CD ends with ‘Stop Dead’, which again is poppy and fun. Disc Two.(1987 – 1992.) 18 tracks. 73 minutes, 38 seconds. The second disc covers the eras of ‘Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’ (1987), ‘Disintegration’ (1989) and 'Mixed Up' (1992). It kicks off with ‘A Japanese Dream’ which sounds oriental. 'Breathe' is keyboard based and is lovely with a soft Robert howl for a vocal. ‘A Chain Of Flowers’ is a gorgeous track with a gentle guitar that jangles and has a sofly delivered vocal that finds Robert in a paranoid frame of mind. This track is also the name of one of the best Cure fan sites on the web. www.achainofflowers.com ‘Snow In Summer’ is pleasant and poppy and sounds of summer, but ‘Sugar Girl’, which is very simple and similarly summery, works much better and is by far the stronger of these two tracks. ‘Icing Sugar’ is dominated by Simon Gallup's bass and this combines well with the guitar lines and drums. ‘Hey You’, the B-side of 'Hot ! Hot ! Hot !, one of the singles from "Kiss me, Kiss me, Kiss Me', appears here in a wonderfully extended remix form and is just perfect to have you dancing around your room. ‘How Beautiful You Are’ meanwhile comes from a radio sampler but to me is sounds the same as the album version on 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me'. ‘To The Sky’ is something I actually own in it’s original release! This come from a promo only CD of Fiction label artists. It has a legendary status and is left off ‘Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’ which is a sin, as it is one of the strongest tracks the Cure ever recorded. After this there are a couple of 'Disintegration' era B sides. ‘Babble’ is weird and experimental, but I prefer ‘Out Of Mind' which is more full on and better conceived and thought out. ‘2 Late’ is a more commercial and happy number, while ‘Fear Of Ghosts’ is very slow and moody. I have always liked this as they played this the first time I saw the band live and it started my love affair with the band! Next up there are three different cover versions of the Doors. 'Hello, I Love You'. These came from an album called ‘Rubaiyat’ which was a covers album by current Elektra bands in which they played tracks by past Elektra bands. The Doors were saved for the Cure. The first version is slow and is called the ‘Unreleased Psychedelic Mix’. Despite sounding completely different for the Cure, you wouldn’t know it was the Doors classic if it wasn't for the words. The second version is one of my favourite tracks that the Cure has ever done. It is exactly how you would want the Cure to cover the Doors. It is fast, has Robert wailing and is very sexy. The third version of 'Hello, I Love You' lasts seven minutes and is extreme noise terror. This is followed by 'Harold and Joe'. Robert’s vocal is slow and the whole thing sounds something like a seaman’s tale The second CD ends with the Dizzy Mix of 'Close to Me' fom 'Mixed Up'. The B side of ‘Just Like Heaven’, one of the "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me' singles,it is one of the Cure’s all time highlights, but this version is slowed down to a slow crawl of a pace. Disc Three (1992 – 1996). 15 tracks. 72 minutes 41 seconds. Onto the third disc and we join the dots to reach the B sides of the singles from 1992’s 'Wish', which was a wonderful and intense record. This opens up with the rather reflective ‘This Twilight Garden’ and ‘Play’. ‘Play’ finds the Cure playing strictly by numbers , but both these songs are better then their A side, ‘High’ which was one of the Cure's weaker moments. ‘Halo’ again finds the Cure playing by numbers but. like its A side, ‘Friday I’m In Love’ is very chirpy and joyful of life. ‘Scared As You’ is more thought out and compelling . By this stage in the band's career they were getting to the point where Cure B sides could easily be album tracks. ‘The Big Hand’ is again played well and is very much in the vein of the moody 'Plain Song' from the 'Disintegration' album.. ‘A Foolish Arrangement’ is Class A Cure, and is perfect in its natural form. and far too good to be a B side. ‘Doing The Unstuck’. one of the 'Wish' tracks, appears here in an unreleased 12” version and could have been easily a possible A side which it never was. Next up are two versions of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze’. Robert’s older brother got him into Jimi and on ‘3 Imaginary Boys’ there is a cover of ‘Foxy Lady’. The first version is an unreleased anywhere Virgin radio session version which I believe was the first thing ever broadcast on Virgin Radio when it took to the airwaves in 1993. The second version comes from a very mainstream Jimi Hendrix covers album called ‘Stone Free’. Upon this the Cure’s track sounds like an ambient chill out track but with wild wig out guitar. it is something like what they did with the psychedelic mix of the Doors cover. After this there are 3 compilation album tracks. Two of these come from film soundtracks, the first being the brilliant gothic ‘Burn’ from the movie ‘The Crow’ There is then another cover version from the Cure’s second appearance on an 104. 9 XFM radio album. The Cure and their manager Chris Parry have worked hard to help to put full time alternative music on the radio,and for this XFM compilation they chose to cover David Bowie’s soul track ‘Young Americans’ which they update. David Bowie is an influence on the band and friend of Robert’s, and it is said that Bowie playing all of ‘Low’ and ‘Heathen’ at the Royal Festival Hall influenced the Cure to play their infamous 'Trilogy' shows of last year. ‘Dredd Song’ follows from this and it is taken from the Sylvester Stallone film, 'Judge Dredd'. It is a fine song which is more orchestrated then usual . The last three songs come from, 'The 13th'. the first single from one of my favourite Cure albums ‘Wild Mood Swings’ ,which most Cure fans hated, but I didn’t. Firstly there is the angst-ridden ‘It Used To Be Me’ which is angst ridden, then the moody ‘Ocean’ and it ends with ‘Adonais’, which was the last track released from the ‘Wild Mood Swings’ period but already sounds more in the vein of their next album ‘Blood Flowers’, which came out in 2001 after 'Galore', an up-dated singles collection. Disc 4 (1996 – 2001). 15 tracks. 75 minutes 08 seconds. The fourth CD kicks off with the B sides of ‘Mint Car’ , the single which was released to coincide with 'Galore'. ‘Home’ is very commercial, and, apart from Robert’s vocal, it doesn't really sound like the Cure. ‘Waiting’ follows which is pure sugar syrup flavoured pop and it has some strong lead guitar and in contrast could only be the Cure. ‘A Pink Dream’ is a more ballsy affair and is very much in the vein of ‘Wild Mood Swings’. The next UK single was 'Gone', but only one of it’s B sides makes it here,a wonderful classical driven version of ‘This Is A Lie’ one of the standout tracks on ‘Wild Mood Swings’. Next up is a remix of 'Wrong Number', the second single from 'Galore. This p2p mix of ‘Wrong Number’ is weird and strange and more dancey than the original. In the end this appeared in seven versions. ‘More than This’ soundsin its introduction like a keyboard based version of ‘Wrong Number’ but it has its own little groove. Again this comes from a film soundtrack, this time from 'The X Files' movie. 'World In My Eyes’ is a song I have never heard and is a Depeche Mode cover from a cover album of Depeche Mode songs, and it sounds more like the Mode than the Cure. ‘Possession’ is an unreleased song from the ‘Blood Flowers’ era and in an odd sort of way is lovely and bubbly . it becomes increasingly more intense and beautiful as it progresses. ‘The Out Of This World’ Oakenfold mix is another unreleased gem from 2000. It keeps the essence of the Cure but has a slow dance chill groove to it. This is followed by an unreleased commercial-sounding version of ‘Maybe Someday’ from 'Blood Flowers, this time an acoustic mix from a promo only CD single which was rare as hell and changed hands for £ 25 – £ 30 each. This version is somewhat slower. After this is ‘Coming Up’ which comes from the Japanese and Australian versions of ‘Blood Flowers’.It’ is cool and intense. It is followed by a stripped down and previously unreleased acoustic version of "Signal to Noise', the B side of the Cure's last single ‘Cut Here’, which was the only single release from their last Greatest Hits album from 2001.‘Cut Here’ was a song written in tribute to the Associates' Billy MacKenzie, whom was a dear friend of Robert’s and whom had recently committed suicide. After the acoustic version follows the standard relased version. Next up is a Curve mix version of 'Just Say Yes'. It was the only other new track from the Greatest Hits album, and features a duet between Robert and Saffron from Republica. It was pencilled in as a single but only made it as far as promo copy. The whole box set is finished with the one song every Cure fan wants to hear in any Cure sitting, ‘A Forest’. But this is a Mark Plati mix, an unreleased version from 2001 which features Earl Slick. Robert Smith guested on ‘Believe’ on Earl Slick’s new album ‘Zig Zag’’ which came out on Sanctuary in February of this year. ‘A Forest’ is in the same vein as the recent Blank and Jones version but is slower and has a great rock guitar solo on it.

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