For those of you who may be fans of The Cure and/or new to my blog, I have written previously about The Cure songs “Boys Don’t Cry”, “Just Like Heaven” and “A Forest”. A lot of the biographical information that I tend to include about the artists that I am profiling has already been included in those posts so for more detail about lead singer Robert Smith, the origins of the band, their influences and the bands that they, in turn, have influenced and much, much more, please give those previous posts a quick gander.
Today I am featuring the song “Friday, I’m In Love”. This song is arguably the one that receives the most airplay on Pop Music-formatted radio stations and is the most well known by casual fans of the band. It is a light-hearted Pop song whose lyrics are built around a structure that features the days of the week. The song is so light and simple in its construction that, at first, songwriter Robert Smith was certain that the melody he was using was copied from another song. He was so convinced of this fact that he gave the unrecorded version of the song an airing for dozens of his music industry friends to get their take on whether the song’s structure was original or not. In the end, he was repeatedly told that his work was solid and that he should record the song immediately because he had a hit on his hands. Thus, “Friday I’m In Love” found a home on the band’s ninth album Wish. Many listeners were drawn to this song precisely due to the light and airy nature that so worried Smith originally. Since many listeners work Monday-Friday jobs and look forward to that weekend feeling than begins on a Friday, they were pre-conditioned to enjoy a bouncy tune about the heartfelt happiness that comes every Friday, all year round. “Friday I’m In Love” became a Top Ten hit for The Cure, selling several million copies worldwide. It is the band’s biggest commercial success when it comes to singles.
On a different but related note, it is Election Day in the United States as I write these words. At this point I do not know what the outcome will be. Pundits all seem to feel as though the race is too close to call. Many fear that there may be violence at polling stations and that the results may be contested through armed conflict by the Republican side of the contest if the official results don’t go their way. Many say that the very idea of democratic governance hangs in the balance. We may not know the final election results until well into the night or maybe not even for several days more, if the numbers are too close to call or else the results are contested and taken to court for judges to decide the outcome. Needless to say, there is a level of stress associated with today’s vote that is unprecedented. It is my hope that democracy functions as intended and the voting process, from start to finish, remains peaceful. While it is too early for me to know the official outcome and what that will mean for the future of the world, I am hedging my bet and placing my money on cooler, calmer, saner heads prevailing. Should that be the case then, a song such as “Friday I’m In Love”, with its catchy beat and words of comfort in the very idea of love as a life anchoring concept, seems like sometime America and the rest of the democratic countries of the world may need to hear on this day.
Regardless of how the election returns come in today, one of the things that has become clear throughout the course of the lengthy years-long campaign is that there is a void in our public civic world for people with noble bearing. What has happened to election campaigns being run on competing grand visions for a better future for us all? In recent years, a toxic air of bitterness, anger and danger has seeped into the world of civic politics and is threatening to drive good, pragmatic leaders away. Striving to help positive social change to happen used to be an attractive goal for creative, charismatic people. Now, more often than not, threats to their person and to those they love has caused many to shy away from seeking to serve others even before they have an opportunity to start. So in these times when someone does come along who seems unafraid to stand up to others, it is noteworthy. Thus, I have a second reason for featuring The Cure on this day.
Lead singer and lifelong band member Robert Smith is not as overtly political as musical compatriots such as Bruce Springsteen or Neil Young but he has been quietly wearing his politics on his sleeve for his entire career. As much as any singer on the planet, Robert Smith has gone out of his way to advocate for the people who make up his fanbase. This could be seen right from the beginning of The Cure’s career when they were considered to be a Goth band. The song “Boys Don’t Cry” is a song that essentially discusses the nature of how boys are viewed by society. It takes on gender stereotypes and the toxic forms of masculinity that seem to curry such favour in our world. Smith stood up for legions of young boys who did not feel tough enough or strong enough. He sang on the stages of the world with haystack hairdos and a face full of makeup and defied anyone to say that he wasn’t a man worthy of respect. When Robert Smith sang of his experiences growing up, he allowed other young boys to breathe easier knowing that they were not alone in their fears and self-doubts. He gave hope to others without requiring any material reward. That’s what leaders do.
In the video for “Friday, I’m In Love”, Robert Smith again quietly makes a stand for the rights of others. The video for “Friday I’m In Love” was directed by a man named Tim Pope and is intended as an homage to a French silent film director named Georges Melies. Melies became famous in the late 1800s and early 1900s in France as a producer of what became known as trick films. In modern times, we would call what Melies did as using special effects but a full century ago, his ability to make props fly or characters fall from great heights only to rise up and walk away unscathed made him quite unique in the burgeoning cinematic world. For this song video, Robert Smith and Tim Pope are referencing a specific short film of Georges Melies entitled The Eclipse or the Courtship of the Sun and the Moon. What makes this short film notable is that it featured one of the very first homoerotic scenes ever filmed for public consumption. The sun and the moon are mere pieces of cardboard with male faces superimposed over them. But, the facial expressions that each makes as they draw ever closer to each other, culminating on the moment when one is atop the other, is what lends this film its edge. The album Wish was released in 1992. That is significant because it was in 1991 that the lead singer of the band Queen, Freddy Mercury died from complications of the disease A.I.D.S. One year later, in 1992 there was a large tribute concert whose aim was to raise funds and awareness of this disease. From a political point of view, Freddy Mercury was a very famous man who lived a secret life for much of his career. It was only toward the end of his life that he was able to live openly as the person he always was inside. The song “Somebody to Love” was expressly about the painfulness of being denied the right to be who you really were in your heart and made to feel bad or dirty for having made the life choices you had. Now, I am not saying that Robert Smith wrote the song “Friday I’m In Love” precisely for Freddy Mercury. What I am saying is that the times in which it all came together were ones in which the acceptance of non-heteronormative lifestyles was becoming more greatly felt across the world. Thus, when Robert Smith and video director Tim Pope opted to create the video for “Friday I’m In Love” based on one of the world’s first homoerotic movie scenes, that decision was not a fluke. By creating a song that celebrates the simple joy of being loved and in love and then pairing it with a film clip that was quite daring and provocative during the time it was made, Robert Smith was speaking directly to a segment of his fanbase and to the larger general population of society, at the same time. He was saying that he saw them, that he had always seen them and that a Cure concert was a safe and welcoming environment for them to be in. One of the hallmarks of Robert Smith’s leadership style is that he doesn’t stand on stage making speeches and waiting for the plaudits to roll in. He simply does what is needed to do for others and lets his action speak for itself. That’s what good leaders do.
“Friday I’m In Love” was released over thirty years ago. But The Cure and Robert Smith remain as musically productive and politically relevant as ever. If you are anything at all like me, you enjoy a live concert every once and awhile. It is still an affordable act if you want to see a local singer or band at a pub or legion hall near you. However, if you wanted to see an act whose music appears at the top of the national music charts, you had better be prepared to take out a second mortgage on your home, provided you can even afford a home in the first place…I know! It is outrageous that organizations such as Ticketmaster (in Canada) are selling tickets for top flight concerts for hundreds and increasingly, thousands of dollars per ticket to see a popular show. Whole segments of a performer’s fanbase are being systematically excluded from ever seeing their hero live and in person at a concert. Unfortunately, the average music listener is finding it harder and harder to be able to afford to follow their passion. Because of how closely linked all aspects of the music industry appear to be functioning, it isn’t easy for an individual artist to take a stand against such price gouging. But, lo and behold, Robert Smith’s latest cause that he has taken on revolves around the cost of tickets to see concerts put on by The Cure. While Smith hasn’t forced behemoths such as Ticketmaster to their knees, he has gone to bat against them on behalf of the fans who pay to see The Cure perform live. Robert Smith contested the nature of some of the built in fees that are routinely charged and caused Ticketmaster to acknowledge that they had, possibly, perhaps, charged concert goers too much. Smith’s actions forced Ticketmaster to issue refunds for a portion of the concert ticket cost. Once again, Robert Smith took a principled stand on behalf of regular fans without gaining anything from it that served to enrich his bank account. That’s what leadership looks like.
I will conclude this post by reiterating my hope that all will be ok during today’s U.S. election and that common sense will end up triumphing over hatred, greed and authoritarianism. I think that the lessons of these past years are becoming clear. It is becoming increasingly dangerous and difficult for good people to stand up and do their civic duty on our behalf. We need to vigorously support those civic institutions that function to serve the interests of society at large such as school boards, library boards, municipal workers and on up the political food chain to members of our parliament (in Canada) or the Senate/Congress in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, one of the work groups most under pressure today are those volunteers who are working at polling stations across America. Has one group of workers ever been under greater threat and/or greater scrutiny than poll workers right now? Making the world function on behalf of the very people it is intended to serve and support has never been more important than it is on this very day. To all those who believe in democracy and in the value and importance of our civic institutions, I send you today’s song. It may not be Friday when you read this post but every day of the week is a good time for love to be celebrated and felt within our hearts. There is no magic wand for any of us to wave that makes Love stronger than Hate. What matters is that we all put in the time and energy toward ensuring that it is always so. Today, in America, that effort is taking the form of one ballot and one vote per person. Here’s hoping that the vote is to let love rule. Good luck, all.
The link to the video for the song “Friday I’m In Love” by The Cure can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.
The link to the official website for The Cure can be found here.
The link to a new article about Robert Smith’s fight to keep the cost of concert tickets in check can be found here.
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