What will be The Cure's legacy, what will they be remembered for?
With the never ending postponement of any new material and this year concentrating on 30th anniversary disintegration shows, are The Cure in danger of being known for the band with one good album disintegration and a few wacky singles about cats, spiderman and Friday?
There's no 40th three imaginary boys shows this year, there was no head on the door 30th shows in 2015 or kiss me 30th shows in 2017. There's been no wish anniversary shows or even a wish remaster. These albums are all as important as disintegration.
I love the disintegration album but I feel the band's legacy is being reduced to just this one album when in reality they have one of the greatest back catalogues in music with an incredible run of 10 wonderful albums from three imaginary boys to wish. As well as later quality albums like bloodflowers.
At one point The Beatles were becoming known as the sergeant pepper band but thankfully these days other albums like revolver/abbey road/white album/rubber soul are regarded as much as Sgt pepper.
Will The Cure be remembered as the disintegration band?
Last Edit: Apr 1, 2019 16:06:31 GMT 1 by mralphabet
It's not like you could enter a room full of cure fans and ask them what their favourite cure album and they all shout in unison "it's DISINTEGRATION of course!!".
I've seen so many different albums get listed by fans as their personal favourite.....17 seconds...disintegration...the head on the door...faith...wish...pornography..bloodflowers...kiss me kiss me kiss me...boys don't cry...the top.
But at the moment it just seems to be all about one album.
Last Edit: Apr 1, 2019 16:46:49 GMT 1 by mralphabet
Their legacy was pretty much on show on Friday night i think. The impact, influence & emotional connection that all of their music made (& still makes) on all of us & their peers is pretty undeniable. Yes, there is a spot light on Disintegration at the moment & why shouldn't they celebrate something that obviously means a lot to them (& many fans)? & certainly, in their recent sets, they have celebrated pretty much all of the highlights of their back catalogue & while you or I may not particularly like some of those, there's no denying that the band manages to connect to a much wider range of people than if they had released the same album every year like Radiohead do. There's also no denying that in their journey, Disintegration was a hugely important chapter for them & a lot of fans too.
Personally Seventeen Seconds was their most important step as it was the beginning of their own sound &, to me, remains their finest album.
But when Disintegration landed, it was met with a much much bigger audience than Seventeen Seconds was & you can bet a lot of that audience had never heard a lot of the earlier work. Trout Razor more or less said as much on Friday. His first encounter was The Head On The Door. After that hooked him, only then did he visit their back catalogue. But, it's a bit like your first love isn't it? As with Trout remembering THOTD, a heck of a lot more people will remember Disintegration being their "gateway" to The Cure.
20, 30 & even 40 years & they still attract new listeners who appreciate that The Cure simply doesn't sound like anyone/ anything else or even tries to sound like anyone/ anything else (unless it's ironically). They'll certainly be remembered for that. I think that speaks volumes on their legacy.
I've seen so many different albums get listed by fans as their personal favourite.....17 seconds...disintegration...the head on the door...faith...wish...pornography..bloodflowers...kiss me kiss me kiss me...boys don't cry...the top.
Or Japanese Whispers in more recent times
Seriously though I'll be really interested reading people's replies to this topic. To anyone who just knows them as another popular band and likes their music, it'll probably be Disintegration... but for any "big fan" of the band I think The Cure's legacy is very much personalised to the individual. They just cover so much ground.
Their legacy was pretty much on show on Friday night i think. The impact, influence & emotional connection that all of their music made (& still makes) on all of us & their peers is pretty undeniable. Yes, there is a spot light on Disintegration at the moment & why shouldn't they celebrate something that obviously means a lot to them (& many fans)? & certainly, in their recent sets, they have celebrated pretty much all of the highlights of their back catalogue & while you or I may not particularly like some of those, there's no denying that the band manages to connect to a much wider range of people than if they had released the same album every year like Radiohead do. There's also no denying that in their journey, Disintegration was a hugely important chapter for them & a lot of fans too.
Personally Seventeen Seconds was their most important step as it was the beginning of their own sound &, to me, remains their finest album.
But when Disintegration landed, it was met with a much much bigger audience than Seventeen Seconds was & you can bet a lot of that audience had never heard a lot of the earlier work. Trout Razor more or less said as much on Friday. His first encounter was The Head On The Door. After that hooked him, only then did he visit their back catalogue. But, it's a bit like your first love isn't it? As with Trout remembering THOTD, a heck of a lot more people will remember Disintegration being their "gateway" to The Cure.
20, 30 & even 40 years & they still attract new listeners who appreciate that The Cure simply doesn't sound like anyone/ anything else or even tries to sound like anyone/ anything else (unless it's ironically). They'll certainly be remembered for that. I think that speaks volumes on their legacy.
I'd agree with you about seventeen seconds being their most important step. Robert agrees calling it the first real cure album of their new sound.
As well as seventeen seconds, there's also the Japanese whispers/The top period which are very important in terms of the cure beginning to experiment with different sounds, genres, vocal styles, instruments to produce a more diverse Cure resulting in the wild varied songs of head on the door/kiss me.
In terms of colour, they were very monochrome upto pornography.
They became a multicoloured butterfly of sounds with Japanese Whispers/The Top.
Last Edit: Apr 1, 2019 18:03:04 GMT 1 by mralphabet
In terms of colour, they were very monochrome upto pornography.
They became a multicoloured butterfly of sounds with Japanese Whispers/The Top.
That's a really good way of putting it. That period was a bit of a proving ground to escape the confines of what they were becoming I guess. & it was successful & added a richness to their overall sound going forward. From that point they could flit back & forth between light & dark & still be unmistakably The Cure
What will be The Cure's legacy, what will they be remembered for?
With the never ending postponement of any new material and this year concentrating on 30th anniversary disintegration shows, are The Cure in danger of being known for the band with one good album disintegration and a few wacky singles about cats, spiderma
<snip>
I love the disintegration album but I feel the band's legacy is being reduced to just this one album when in reality they have one of the greatest back catalogues in music with an incredible run of 10 wonderful albums from three imaginary boys to wish. As well as later quality albums like bloodflowers. <snip>
Will The Cure be remembered as the disintegration band?
It really just hinges on who you ask, right? Are you asking a bunch of people eating jalapeno poppers and drinking Miller Lite at TGI Fridays? A deejay on an oldies station? Someone who has followed their every move?
There are many, I think, who in 20 years if you asked would say, "Oh, yeah! That's the band with the guy with the big hair who did Friday I'm in Love!" or something similar. But can't really say I give much weight to their opinion on it...
Ask here, and obviously you'll get many different answers in terms of what their best work is, etc. etc. I don't feel Disintegration eclipses all other material for them, but I don't feel that way about any of their albums (except maybe in terms of one being "that one I really can't stand."
There are many, I think, who in 20 years if you asked would say, "Oh, yeah! That's the band with the guy with the big hair who did Friday I'm in Love!" or something similar. But can't really say I give much weight to their opinion on it...
That's interesting that you wouldn't give much weight to it. To remember just that after 20 years is still fairly remarkable.