The Cure

"A Forest"

156

"A Forest"

"A Forest"
Single by The Cure
from the album Seventeen Seconds
Released	28 March 1980 (UK)
Format	7", 12"
Genre	Gothic rock, Dark Wave
Length	7" - 3:54
	12" - 5:55
Label	Fiction
Producer	Mike Hedges
	Robert Smith
The Cure singles chronology
"Jumping Someone Else's		"A	"Primary"
Train"	Forest"		(1981)
(1979)	(1980)

"A Forest" is a single by the English rock band The Cure, released on 28 March 1980 as the only single from their second album Seventeen Seconds. It was their first chart single in the UK, reaching #31; the song was also a hit in the Netherlands, reaching #26. It was also their first single to be released on the 12" single format, which was able to feature the un-edited album version. The 7" single version omits the initial guitar and keyboard introduction, removes a few bars between verses and fades out part way through the guitar solo ending, making it approximately two minutes shorter. Versions subsequently released on various compilations such as Standing on a Beach as the "single" version vary slightly from the 7" single edit in that they restore the guitar solo ending to its full length.

History

The lyrics tell a vague story about a man looking for a girl in a forest. He hears her calling for him, and as he chases her, he suddenly stops and realizes that he is lost and that the girl is not there. The song is fairly upbeat compared to the other material on the album, and Lol Tolhurst's machine-like steady beat together with Simon Gallup's minimalistic bassline gives this nervous chase more depth and keeps the song on the edge of a frantic groove until the end. Former drummer for The Cure, Andy Anderson said A Forest was the first song by the band he ever heard. He "fell in love with it" and the song's vocals, Robert Smith's guitar work, and the keyboards, which he describes as "haunting." The drums, he believed were straightforward and "all that is needed on it."[1]

Though not their biggest hit, it is regarded by many fans and critics as one of the best examples of The Cure's sound, particularly their use of chorusing effects. The song is also notable for securing the band its first slot on BBC's Top of the Pops.

"A Forest"

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Re-recordings and cover versions

The track has been re-recorded a number of times by The Cure. In 1990, the track was re-recorded and remixed as the "Tree mix" on the band's Mixed Up album. It was redone for the second time on the Join the Dots box set this time remixed by Mark Plati and featuring Earl Slick on guitar. An acoustic version was recorded and released on the bonus disc that came with some copies of the 2001 Greatest Hits CD. Robert Smith supplied vocals for a Blank & Jones cover version in 2003.

The song has also been covered by:

•Creaming Jesus on their 1990 EP Bark and it has been included on a number of compilations, including

Zwischenfall - From The 80's To The 90's Vol. 2, Gothic Rock 3 - Black On Black - Best Of 80's Collection and Gothic Party Time

•Waltari on their 1994 album So Fine

•Mark Hoppus' first band, The Attic Children in 1989

•Carpathian Forest on their debut album Black Shining Leather (1998)

•Minimalistix in 2001, released by Sphear Records

•Nouvelle Vague on their first album Nouvelle Vague (2004)

•Ror-Shak, released in 2005, on their only album Deep

•Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree covered the song on the third release of his Cover Version series in 2006

•A Dream of Poe on their 2006 demo release Delirium Tremens

•Toadies on their 2008 album No Deliverance

•Bat for Lashes on the B-side of the 7" pressing of her 2009 single "Daniel"

•British Sea Power on the Pictures of You: Tribute to The Cure NME compilation CD

•Sophie Barker in 2011 as a double A-side single A Forest / Say Goodbye

•The Logical Operators in 2012 as an electronic single A Forest

1981 "Robert Palmer" version

The most notorious performance of this song is the so-called "Robert Palmer" version, performed at the Werchter Festival in Belgium, July 5, 1981. Everything was late at the festival, and the crowd was mostly there to see artists that were at the time bigger than The Cure, such as Dire Straits and Robert Palmer, of whom the latter happened to be the next on stage after The Cure. After twelve songs, Palmer's roadies said that if The Cure didn't stop playing soon, they would pull the plug. They reached a compromise that they would play one song before they left, opting for "A Forest", which they decided to play a lot longer than what was normal at the time (almost ten minutes), with Robert Smith adding some lyrics improvised on the spot (including the words: "Such a long end" repeated several times). When the band finally finished, bass player Simon Gallup yelled into the microphone: "Fuck Robert Palmer, and fuck rock 'n' roll!" Palmer's roadies responded by throwing The Cure's gear off the back of the stage [2].

"A Forest"

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References in popular culture

This track is featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, released for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2 consoles. The song can be heard on The Wave 103 while driving. It also appeared on Trigger Happy TV.

The song is mentioned in the novel As Simple as Snow by Gregory Galloway.

Track listing

7" single

1."A Forest" - single version

2."Another Journey by Train"

12" single

1."A Forest" - album version

2."Another Journey by Train"

Personnel

•Robert Smith - voice, guitar

•Simon Gallup - bass

•Matthieu Hartley - keyboards

•Lol Tolhurst - drums

References

[1]"BInterview Andy Anderson" (http://www.apinkdream.org/viewtopic.php?t=15338). Speak My Language. A Pink Dream. . Retrieved 4 October 2011.

[2]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GquE0zt47m4

External links

•Lyrics for A Forest (http://www.musicfanclubs.org/cure/lyrics/forest.html)

•Video performance of A Forest from the Werchter Festival (http://youtube.com/watch?v=GquE0zt47m4)

•Video performance of A Forest Rare Acoustic Version (http://bonnect.com/index.php?page=videos& section=view&vid_id=100251)

"Primary"

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"Primary"

	"Primary"
	Single by The Cure
	from the album Faith
Released		March 20, 1981
Format		7", 12"
Genre		Post-punk, gothic rock
Length		7" - 3:39
		12" - 5:56
Label		Fiction Records
Producer		Mike Hedges
		Robert Smith
The Cure singles chronology
"A	"Primary"	"Charlotte
Forest"	(1981)	Sometimes"
(1980)		(1981)

"Primary" is the only single from The Cure's third studio album Faith, released in 1981 on Fiction Records. It was the first song by The Cure to be remixed as a separate extended mix for release on 12" single (and not co-released on other formats, in the way the 12" version of A Forest was also the album version appearing on Seventeen Seconds, for example). In fact, the original 12" extended mix is, to this day, still only available on the original 12" single, which has never been reproduced on any other album, making it quite a rare item. The main difference between the 7" mix (also the album mix), and 12" mix is that the extended mix lengthens the instrumental introductions to the song's verses.

History

"Primary" was first played during the Seventeen Seconds tour under the name "Cold Colours" with completely different lyrics (aside from the chorus) and a slightly different bassline. The song would often be introduced as dedicated to Ian Curtis. Towards the end of the year, the song was renamed "Primary". A studio demo of this early version, dating from September 1980, is featured on the Deluxe Edition of Faith (but is titled Primary). The 12" single version contains a song which was the first 12" extended mix released by The Cure.

The song appears to be about the disadvantages of growing older. At the end of the song, Robert Smith imagines children being put to sleep ceremoniously, "still dream[ing]". The song is still played live to this day, although is more infrequently played than others.

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Track listing

7" single

1."Primary"

2."Descent"

12" single

1."Primary [Extended]"

2."Descent"

Personnel

•Simon Gallup - bass

•Robert Smith - vocals, bass

•Lol Tolhurst - drums

"Charlotte Sometimes"

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"Charlotte Sometimes"

"Charlotte Sometimes"

	Single by The Cure
Released		5 October 1981
Format		7", 12"
Genre		New Wave, Darkwave
Length		4:13
Label		Fiction Records
Producer		Mike Hedges, The Cure
The Cure singles chronology
"Primary"	"Charlotte		"A
(1981)	Sometimes"		Single"
	(1981)		(1982)

"Charlotte Sometimes" is a 1981 single by The Cure. The lyrics to both sides were based on the 1969 children's novel of the same name[1] by British writer Penelope Farmer. The single peaked at number forty-four in the UK Singles Chart.

History

The song "Charlotte Sometimes" is based on Charlotte Sometimes,[1] a children's novel by British writer Penelope Farmer, published in 1969.

Lyrics include "she was crying and crying for a girl who died so many years before" and "sometimes I'm dreaming where all the other people dance". It has dream-like rhythmic and melodic structures; recurring modal transitions, numerous harmonic suspensions and lamenting vocals create a feeling of inevitable drift into darkness. Originally a non-album single released in between Faith and Pornography, the song later appears on the 2005 reissue of Faith. A powerful live take was included on the Concert album.

The B-Side of "Charlotte Sometimes" is "Splintered in Her Head", which is also based on the novel.[1] The mood of "Splintered in Her Head" is overall more disquieting, with metallic, distorted vocals and heavy percussion, foreshadowing the next year's Pornography. The Cure released a third song based on the novel, called The Empty World on the album The Top.

The ten minute live version of Faith on the B-side of the 12" version was recorded at the Sydney Capitol Theatre in August 1981 by the then Australian Broadcasting Commission's youth radio station 2JJJ. This version is reproduced on Disc 2 of the deluxe reissue of album Faith.

The music video for the song was filmed at Holloway Sanitorium, the location of several other high profile music video shoots in the 1980s. It features the character of Charlotte recreating scenes from the story in the presence of the band, while Smith mimes the words of the song.

The cover of the single is a distorted picture of Mary Poole, Robert's then-girlfriend and now-wife. The same picture was used again as the cover of The Cure's 1990 single Pictures of You, but in that case the picture was clear and undistorted.

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Track listing

7" Single - Polydor - 885 356-7 (FR)

1."Charlotte Sometimes" - 4:15

2."Splintered in Her Head" - 5:15

12" single

1."Charlotte Sometimes"

2."Splintered in Her Head"

3."Faith" (live)

Personnel

•Robert Smith - guitar, keyboard, vocals, harmonica on "Splintered in Her Head"

•Simon Gallup - bass

•Lol Tolhurst - drums

References

[1] Charlotte Sometimes author Penelope Farmer in 2007 about "Charlotte Sometimes", part one (http://web.archive.org/web/ 20080512233831/http://grannyp.blogspot.com/2007/06/cured.html) and two (http://web.archive.org/web/20080218140007/http:// grannyp.blogspot.com/2007/06/cured-climaxed.html) (via Archive.org)

"A Single"

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"A Single"

	"A Single"
Single by The Cure
from the album Pornography
Released		July 12, 1982
Format		Double 7" / 7" / 10"
Recorded		April 27, 1982 (part 2)
Genre		Gothic rock
Length		4:22
Label		Fiction Records
Producer		Chris Parry
		Phil Thornalley
		The Cure
The Cure singles chronology
"Charlotte		"A	"Let's Go to
Sometimes"	Single"		Bed"
(1981)	(1982)		(1982)

A Single was the first limited edition release by The Cure. It was released as a gatefold double pack of 7" singles with a total of four tracks. It has also been released as a 10" record which contains all four songs from the double 7" pack, as well as a single 7" featuring only "The Hanging Garden" and "Killing an Arab" (FICS 15).

Whilst the official name is "A Single", this release is often referred to as "The Hanging Garden" as a way of avoiding confusion.

The single made it to number 34 in the UK Singles Chart.

Cover versions

In 1998, the California-based alternative rock band, AFI, covered "The Hanging Garden", which was released on their A Fire Inside EP.

Track listing

Part one3453

1."The Hanging Garden"

2."One Hundred Years"

Part two - recorded April 27, 1982 at the Manchester Apollo

1."A Forest" (Live)

2."Killing an Arab" (Live)

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Personnel

•Simon Gallup - bass, keyboard

•Robert Smith - guitar, keyboard, vocals

•Lol Tolhurst - drums, keyboard

"Let's Go to Bed"

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"Let's Go to Bed"

"Let's Go to Bed"

Single by The Cure

Released		15 November 1982
Format		7", 12"
Genre		New Wave
Length		3:33
Label		Fiction Records
Producer		Chris Parry
The Cure singles chronology
"A	"Let's Go to		"The
Single"	Bed"		Walk"
(1982)	(1982)		(1983)

"Let's Go to Bed" is a 1982 single by The Cure. It later appeared on the album Japanese Whispers.

In the aftermath of the bleak Pornography, Robert Smith returned from a month-long detox in the Lake District to write the antithesis to what The Cure currently represented. Written as a sarcastic reflection on sexual imagery in pop music, the single was a surprise hit.[1] It was most successful in Australia, reaching #15.

History

The origins of "Let's Go to Bed" lie in "Temptation", one of the demos for Pornography. The song is a relatively upbeat, guitar-driven instrumental. In August 1982, soon after Simon Gallup's departure from the band, Smith demoed a vocal version of the track, entitled "Temptation Two", a psychedelic piece not far removed from the Pornography album but somewhat lighter in tone. At the end of the song, Smith sings a string of wordless syllables, nearly identical to the "doo doo doo"s of the later song. The song version was debuted on Kid Jensen's radio show on 27 November 1982, as a take which was very close to the final version that appeared as a single in the same month.

Robert Smith has often stated that he wished its b-side, the darker "Just One Kiss" (also first performed during the session) was released as a single.

The song was covered by New York pop band Ivy for their 2002 album "Guestroom". The video for the cover features a brief appearance by The Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha, also known for his love for, and his own covers of, The Cure. Los Angeles rock band The Dreaming have also covered this song.The hook was also sampled by Rihanna in her song S&M

On 20 July 2012, "Let's Go to Bed" was the final song ever played on Boston alternative rock station WFNX. The song was also their first broadcast, in 1983.