I remember reading an interview at the time saying that he wrote it because of all the Robert Smith lookalikes at Cure gigs and how he saw heaps of people who wanted to be him - the interviewer asked 'is that not a bit arrogant' and he replies 'it's better than writing why can't you be me'. But then I also just found this quote from songfacts: 'In a 1987 interview with Les Inrockuptibles, songwriter Robert Smith said that the title "is not to be taken generally, on the contrary it comes from a particular situation; I was in the middle of a tense discussion and these people around the table were looking at me as if I was going to make some ground breaking revelations, and I thought to myself "good God, why can't I be elsewhere? Why isn't someone else in my place?" I would've traded with anyone; I would've preferred to be that guy leaning at the bar than myself."' and also that 'Smith has also said that the song was written as a keepsake for a 1985 visit to his Peruvian sponsored child, Aurora' He makes it up as he goes along it's obviously a love song to someone pretty neat.
Am I the only one who does not like this song? It sounds very outdated to my ears now with all this brass. The live version is maybe a bit better. Overall, a friend told me this song sounded like a Patrick Sebastien song (a french variety singuer and tv presenter) and I agree more or less with him. And believe me, it is not a compliment. It is still beyond me why they chose this song as a single and that it became a hit with so many better songs in the KM album. People who were cure fans at this time, how did you receive this single?
Last Edit: Jul 16, 2015 23:13:41 GMT 1 by jumeteor
Am I the only one who does not like this song? It sounds very outdated to my ears now with all this brass. The live version is maybe a bit better. Overall, a friend told me this song sounded like a Patrick Sebastien song (a french variety singuer and tv presenter) and I agree more or less with him. And believe me, it is not a compliment. It is still beyond me why they chose this song as a single and that it became a hit with so many better songs in the KM album. People who were cure fans at this time, how did you receive this single?
I thought it was insanely good. I took solace in the fact that the brass was clearly not real brass though. It is truly a masterpiece of a pop record & one of those moments where Robert poked his tongue out at the pop scene to say "Anything you can do, I can do better". It had to be a single really. It has all the obvious hooks to make it radio friendly (can't see Like Cockatoos getting a lot of airplay in 1987).
HBYA is a perfect example of a song that could have been a single in my opinion. Beautiful pop song with great keyboard parts. I do agree with you, Steve, that not every song in this album could have been a great single( Like Cockatoos is one of them, I do agree). Anyway, overall, I'm not a fan of this album which is a bit too long, I think. I think there are some great songs in it but I could have enjoyed it without some of them.
I just loved the song - it's exactly as Steve said. And yes How beautiful would have been a fine single but I think this one was great - I used to busk 'em both...I only ever did the nightshift - 10 till 4 - one night I ended up in hopsital in Nantes; I had no idea how I got there. I remember waking in the morning and looking around the room thinking 'oh dear' and 'where's my guitar' a nurse came in and said that the cops had brought me in the night before; that i'd been real aggressive with the cops and that if I'd been like that to them they wouldn't have let me stay but that i was dead nice to them - I'm grown up now and I know how to deal with folk but back then if a cop was piggish with me I wouldn't have taken it - and then if a nurse was neutral with me I'd have been dead nice...so she says I'm ok and I can leave the hospital with my guitar - I've got a bruising hangover and I have no idea where my friends are - they're in a band called Silverfish and had a gig in town that night but live in a farmhouse thirty miles away and that's where all my stuff is. I leave the hospital and for no reason at all an old guy walking the grounds stops to talk with me - I can't talk - I've got a hospital sized hangover and for no reason at all he gives me a cigar...I have to light it in front of him for kinship sake but the last thing I want is a cigar...we chat brokenly (I don't speak French) and then I make my way into town. I feel broken and just sit on my guitar case in a shop doorway, just aching with hangover and impossibly not knowing what i do next. And one woman after another woman - I noticed it was only women - came and gave me - was it ten francs? was that a quid - I think 1 franc was 10p and ten francs was a quid - one after another folk would come with a quid for me...If I were busking I would not have raised that kind of money but I wasn't begging - I was a very proud busker - very crap on guitar and can't sing at all but I could out heckle anyone - I was a good entertainer - the Rod Stewart of Buskers - anyway - point of my story was this young couple come to me and ask can I play The Cure? And specifically can I play How Beautiful You Are? and I say 'Oh I'm ill. I'm not good' and she say's 'pleeeeeeeaaaassse' and what man is not a sucker for that - so I got the guitar out and 'Do you want to know why I hate you well I'll try and explain...' On a sunny morning in France all those years ago... I got taken to the square where the drinkers drink by a drinker just so you know, and my friend who played the drums in Silverfish (I think that was their name) found me there and took me back to my temporary home and my belongings so all was well...Yeah, I love both songs - Why Can't I be You was a great song to busk...
Am I the only one who does not like this song? It sounds very outdated to my ears now with all this brass. The live version is maybe a bit better. Overall, a friend told me this song sounded like a Patrick Sebastien song (a french variety singuer and tv presenter) and I agree more or less with him. And believe me, it is not a compliment. It is still beyond me why they chose this song as a single and that it became a hit with so many better songs in the KM album. People who were cure fans at this time, how did you receive this single?
I thought it was insanely good. I took solace in the fact that the brass was clearly not real brass though. It is truly a masterpiece of a pop record & one of those moments where Robert poked his tongue out at the pop scene to say "Anything you can do, I can do better". It had to be a single really. It has all the obvious hooks to make it radio friendly (can't see Like Cockatoos getting a lot of airplay in 1987).
I completely agree with Steve. I also think it was (and still is) an amazing pop song. And I love the studio version but dislike the live one. I think it's one of those songs that can't be perfomed live as good as they deserve.