Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
::Today's soundtrack: The Cure "Speak My Language" ::
At the time of this writing, it is April of 2009. What is the significance of April 2009, you ask? Well, as the drooling fanboy zombie that I am, I can tell you that this month marks the 50th birthday of lead singer, song writer, guitarist, and founding member of the band The Cure, Mr. Robert Smith. I would be remiss in my duties as a drooling fanboy if I did not honour this milestone in some public and possibly embarrassing way.
Now I know that not all of you out there are fans of the band The Cure, no matter how excruciatingly awesome they are. So, in an attempt to both broaden your knowledge and blatantly show off my fanboyism, I give you: William the Bloody's Guide to Writing a Cure Song!
We're going to start off by mentioning the most commonly recurring Cure song structure. It goes like this:
Music lead-in
Verse
Short music interlude
Verse
Chorus
Long music interlude
Verse
Chorus
This is the format most regularly used on many of their singles such as "Hot Hot Hot!!!," "Lovesong," "Catch," "High," "Never Enough," and "Wrong Number." There are some acceptable alterations to this structure, such as the inclusion of a bridge, or a single interjected line, often within the long music interlude or at the very end which is sometimes whispered or barely audible (and sometimes not even included on lyric sheets). The Cure also often have what I personally call a "variable chorus" in that their choruses often are not identical like a typical chorus would be. In example, "High" changes the second half of the chorus from I say I'll keep on holding you, My arms so tight, I'll never let you slip away to I know I'll keep on holding you, In arms so tight, They'll never let you go. It's very similar that so the casual listener they may not even notice. Oh, Smitty, you clever bastard.
Onto song subject matter. Of course you know that one of the most characteristic subjects of Cure songs is a sad romantic relationship. Sometimes they're happy, sure, but let's be honest, that when you hear a happy Cure love song your reaction is "well, that was weird." It would be like Morrissey singing about sunny skies and kittens: kind of off. When The Cure has a sad love song, there are two main ways they go about it. Either it is a first hand relationship struggle between two lovers utilizing the "I/you" reference or it is an external, third hand affair in which case the lovers are usually referred to as "he/she." Neither of these is used more frequently than the other. The "I/you" songs and the "he/she" songs are just about an even 50-50 mix so either one would sound authentic.
NOTE: Robert Smith rarely uses specific names in his songs! In fact, as far as I can recall, there were a grand total of FOUR women's names used in song over the course of a 30 year career: Charlotte, Wendy, Elise, and Christabel (from "A Foolish Arrangement") (and of course Harold & Joe, but I think that's different...). So, if you're looking to write your own Cure style song, keep clear of using names! So there.
Now that we've decided on a sad love song, let's get down to some typical Cure wording. Romantic gestures often used in Cure songs include talking about "holding" someone (which is typically paired with some variation of "never letting go" or "wanting to let go," etc), a kiss, waiting for someone, and lots and lots of talk about someone's eyes. Boy howdy, The Cure must have pages and pages of lyrics about a person's eyes, be they crying, closed, looking away, staring, or whatever. A kiss is sometimes just a kiss, but it'll usually be set against some kind of modifier like a "strawberry kiss," "aching kiss," a kiss goodbye, or just one kiss. The Cure practically NEVER speaks about the sex act explicitly, and this sort of thing is usually reserved for their more angry songs rather than the sad, romantic ones.
When it comes to song writing, one of the things The Cure uses recurrently is the poetic comparison or description. Very often do tears get compared to rain and the term "snow white" is used more often than ought to be allowed. There are many references to colours in general over the years, the most characteristic ones being blue, white, black, red, and grey. There are many different "artistic" words The Cure uses when a character in the song is speaking to another in places of something banal like "said" (which they do still use anyway) they'll use "whisper," "breathe," "purr," and even "smile" as terms for talking. Some common metaphors are gardens, the sea, the sky and the things in it like clouds, stars, the moon, and sun.
There are a handful of trademark words that The Cure use which make a song instantly recognizable as theirs. Apart from everything else already mentioned here (such as eyes, whisper and smile), typical words found in various uses in Cure songs include: dizzy, cold, shake, babble, sky, dream, girl, mouth, rain, hand, alone, love, never, gone and variations thereon. Other Cure trademarks include some sort of reference to Japan or something Japanese, talking about cats or comparing them to cats, and something about Christmas or December or both.
And finally, don't forget that Cure songs don't need to rhyme!
Now that we've got the quintessential basics covered, you ought to be able to write your own sad Cure song with no problems! Here's mine:
Do you remember
Remember the time when we walked
Over a bridge and across a lake?
The sky it was so sunny
And it sang out loud
I gripped your hand so tightly
So tightly that you smiled
The wind it tied us
Tied us together in a knot of arms
Your face near mine
And breath that whispered
The promise of a kiss
Holding you so close
So close I could hear your dreams
You raised your eyes up
To the sky and said
It could all be mine
Be mine if I really tried
Do you remember
Remember the time when we walked
Over a bridge and across a lake?
Without you the sun hangs low
And it sings no more
My hand it holds its own
But there is no one to smile
You raised your eyes up
To the sky and said
It could all be mine
Be mine if I really tried
Be mine if I really tried
If I really tried
Does this sound like a proper Cure song to you? Oh, I know, I didn't go off and try to purposefully hit ALL the characteristic marks, but there are enough in there, I think to be passable. I know it's not perfect, but I wrote this whole song in like twenty minutes with only two rewrites on the second verse, so I feel I deserve some credit. Could you do better with the aid of this little tutorial? Have you? Oh, I'd definitely want to read that. That's right, you have a homework assignment. Turn it in by next Saturday or it's detention for you. Real detention, too, not like Breakfast Club detention. Unless you glued somebody's butt cheeks together, then maybe.
William the Bloody (exploding boy)
comments powered by Disqus