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Bernard Sumner on The Cure

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This is an archived legacy thread. Replies are closed, but the discussion is preserved.

Being a fan rather than a muso I can't really comment, but I do seem to remember a Republic-era Hooky sayng he nicked the From Safety To Where bassline from the Cure, and the Cure's Inbetween Days was very Hookster-esque but he didn't really care. You give a bit, you take a bit! PS I saw The Cure in Rome a couple of years ago, great stuff. PPS Dreams Never End, Age of Consent, Sunrise - a tad Curey, don'cha think?

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I love them both. I've seen the Cure three times. They are hands down one of the best bands I have never seen live. When it comes to guitar playing, Robert Smith is the Neil Young of Post Punk. His guitar playing is incredible.

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I seem to remember reading Hooky being less than complimentary about Simon Gallup on a couple of occasions.

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i love them both - ever since r smith got me in on the guest list nearly 30 years ago

think some of their early stuff is v similar

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Isn't "The Walk" more EGG than BM, anyway?

And what about State of the Nation/Fascination Street (even the titles are similar)?

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Have always heard Dreams Never End in In Between Days

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I remember reading that Hooky made a bassline very similar to Just Like Heaven's in All The Way because he was pissed at Simon Gallup for ripping him off so much.

There's this interview too:

Participant: »Can I ask you a second question in relation to that, because it happens to me a lot. If I play something like that, people go: “It sounds like The Cure basslines”.«

Peter Hook: »Ironically the people ripping you off never really bothered me. What bothered me about The Cure was when I saw the guy and he was actually playing like me. That annoyed me more than him sounding like me. You bastard. I don’t mind people ripping you off because when we start writing, we start by ripping someone off. “Let’s do a Kraftwerk one.” The skill is when it finishes it doesn’t sound like Kraftwerk, but you’ve used it as a step. We got sued by John Denver for a track called ‘Run’, because he said it sounded like ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’. Anyone can play me that track and then play ‘Run’. I’ve done it, it does not sound to me like ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’. Yet, they’ve got these people called musicologists who analyse it and then decide whether it is, and then that’s a legal decision. So he had an American musicologist. It seems John Denver employs somebody to listen to all music to see if anyone’s ripping him off, as if he doesn’t have, or didn’t have, enough money already. They found us and the musicologist says it sounds like John Denver, eight notes out of twelve, which is the scale they use. So we thought, “Ha ha, we’ll get an English musicologist and he’ll prove that it doesn’t sound like it.” So he did it and he agreed as well. We had to give John Denver 20%. It does happen, but we don’t do it. That’s our stand as a band, New Order, if people rip us off – and there have been bands, like The Cure, where even my mother says: “That sounds like you, our Peter.” You know, ‘The Walk’, ‘In Between Days’, stuff like that. But I take it as a compliment. Maybe it’s something you save for your retirement.«

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/TUTORS.9.0.html?act_session=321

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indiearchivist wrote: Isn't "The Walk" more EGG than BM, anyway?

And what about State of the Nation/Fascination Street (even the titles are similar)?

Fascination Street is a far superior song to State of the Nation. One of The Cure's best, I think.

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Eh, even The Cure rip off The Cure. The album "Wish" is almost entirely a collection of rewritten songs from previous albums.

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Boring Being wrote: Peter Hook: »Ironically the people ripping you off never really bothered me. What bothered me about The Cure was when I saw the guy and he was actually playing like me. That annoyed me more than him sounding like me. You bastard.

That was it, that was what I read all those years ago. Although reading it now it seems a bit more tongue-in-cheek than I remember it and less aggressive about Gallup.

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Oh no, not this old chestnut yet again.... Cure rip New Order rip Cure rip Joy Div rip Cure rip New Order rip Depeche Fricken Mode.......

Let's end all this nonsense once and for all and list the very songs that The Cure ripped off New Order and vice versa....

  1. The Walk rips off Blue Monday (just the sort of general electronic feel more than anything)

  2. Inbetween Days rips off Dreams Never End

  3. Sunrise AND This Time Of Night both rip off A Forest

  4. Pornography (the drum beat) rips off Atrocity Exhibition

  5. The same Dr Rhythm drum machine used on Truth/Doubts Even Here/Everything's Gone Green is also adopted by the Cure on One Hundred Years

and best one of all:

  1. All The Way is a complete rip off bass line wise to Just Like Heaven

Yes, Gallup plays his (6-string)bass like Hooky does by wearing it low.... and yes, some of the bass patterns ARE similar because they're played in a higher register.

But.....Robert Smith's guitar playing is nothing like that of Bernard's.

And neither is his hair.

Oh - and Gillian Gilbert and Steve Morris are superior keyboardists and drummers, respectively, to useless old Lolloping Tolhurst.

Now......

  1. Depeche Fricken Mode's People are People is a blatant rip off of New Order's Confusion.

Okay, let that be an end to it.

My tea is going cold.

:nono: :p :read: :nod: ;)

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RE/Member wrote: Eh, even The Cure rip off The Cure. The album "Wish" is almost entirely a collection of rewritten songs from previous albums.

Correct - and from that point onwards they ceased to be relevant and went crap / self parodic..... they should have split up then.

:nod:

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Also, The Cure are goffs.

What bloody use are goffs?

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Gene wrote: Also, The Cure are goffs.

What bloody use are goffs?

They're not goths.

The Mission are goths, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Fields Of The Syphilis..... those bands are goths.

They're kinda irrelevant now, aren't they, nevertheless......

all that lemon sucking and Edward Scissorhands panstick must cost a bomb now that the recession is starting to [snake]bite.

:laugh: :evil4: :evil4:

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By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote:

Gene wrote: Also, The Cure are goffs.

What bloody use are goffs?

They're not goths.

They're goths.

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Gene wrote:

By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote:

Gene wrote: Also, The Cure are goffs.

What bloody use are goffs?

They're not goths.

They're goths.

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By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote: 3) Sunrise AND This Time Of Night both rip off A Forest

You can add Crystal to the list.

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Michael Monkhouse wrote: Age of Consent - a tad Curey, don'cha think?

:scratch: You'll have to help me out with that one.Give us a clue...

:scratch:

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johnny wrote:

Michael Monkhouse wrote: Age of Consent - a tad Curey, don'cha think?

:scratch: You'll have to help me out with that one.Give us a clue...

:scratch:

Age Of Consent sounds like something the Cure would have done...after hearing Age Of Consent.

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I liked "Just like Heaven" when it came out - I wonder why? :scratch:

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Some of these comparisons r valid. Otherwise make no sense to me.

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RE/Member wrote:

Never noticed the similarity before

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cranelane wrote:

johnny wrote:

Michael Monkhouse wrote: Age of Consent - a tad Curey, don'cha think?

:scratch: You'll have to help me out with that one.Give us a clue...

:scratch:

Age Of Consent sounds like something the Cure would have done...after hearing Age Of Consent.

I've always thought Age of Consent sounded a lot like a rewrite of Modern English's I Melt With You. The album After the Snow came out an entire year before PC&L and you can definitely hear some similarities.

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Wish has what I consider to be three of The Cure's all time best songs.

  1. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea.

  2. End.

  3. Open.

Also, The Cure's 2000 album Bloodflowers was one of their best, I think it is one of the most mature, intelligent, and insightful albums about approaching middle age and mid life crisis ever made.

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Lets Go To Bed

Lets Go To Bed And Film It

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On to page 2 of a Cure thread and no post from Digi Mike yet... :scratch:

Snorri xxx

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Gene wrote:

Lets Go To Bed And Film It

My god, is that Robert Smith's real hair or is he just bald and simply swathed in loads of cobwebs??????

:eek: :eek3: :scratch:

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johnny wrote:

Michael Monkhouse wrote: Age of Consent - a tad Curey, don'cha think?

:scratch: You'll have to help me out with that one.Give us a clue...

:scratch:

The heartfelt but strained vocal, the underpinning bassline, the crisp beats, even the synth swirls... As I said I know sweet FA about the technicalities of music, it's just a vibe I get off the track. I may be completely wrong, but that's what forums are for.

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By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote:

My god, is that Robert Smith's real hair or is he just bald and simply swathed in loads of cobwebs??????

:eek: :eek3: :scratch:

A friend of mine saw the Cure in concert not too long ago and he said that Smith has a giant bald spot on the top/back of his head. :\ohwell:

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