The Cure: Why the Cure Censored their first single
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When a rock band lands itself in hot water with one of their songs lyrical content, it usually results in the artist sticking up for their music. In fact if you guys like those types of stories, I’ve most similarly done a video on the Guns N’ Roses song ONe in a Million, the link is down below. But in today’s video we’re going to talk about the time The Cure pleaded with radio stations not to play one of their songs and even changed the lyrics during live performances. Let’s explore what happened in today’s video.
Considered part of the English pop-music revolution of the late 70’s and led by frontman Robert Smith, The Cure’s long career has seen them withstand changing trends and be one of the most influential bands in rock combining elements of Goth,, post-punk ,alternative rock and new wave.
Released as the Cure’s first single of their career in 1978, Killing An Arab would be recorded during the sessions for the group’s first record, 1979’s Three Imaginary Boys (1979) While it wouldn’t make it onto the record, it would instead be released on the group’s first American and compilation release “boys don’t cry.’ It would also be released on a compilation record 1986’s Standing On a Beach. The Cure even appeared on French TV in 1979 to perform the song live, long before Smith developed his signature goth look.
While the song seemed to mostly go under the radar for a number of years, the controversy surrounding the song started around 1986-1987. That may have coincided with The Cure’s rise in popularity in America who had their first gold record with their 6th release, 1985’s The Head On the Door. However it should be noted that NME would write about the tune in 1978 following it’s release and i quote at first glance irresponsibly racist," with Robert Smith responding, "It’s not really racist, if you know what the song is about." Instead Smith claimed the song was misunderstood.
Couple the Cure’s rise in popularity with a lot of geo-political events involving the middle east and it’s no surprise there was a controversy over the tune. But politics wasn’t on the mind of Robert Smith when he wrote the song. In fact, his inspiration would be literary. . The song would be inspired by the 1942 Albert Camous (ca-mooo) novel The Stranger, which sees the main protagonist kill an unnamed Arab character for no reason after attending his mother’s funeral. The protagonist meanwhile feels no remorse for their action and is executed. Smith wanted to condense some of the key moments from the novel into the song with him telling an interviewer “If there’s one thing I would change, it’s the title,” “I wrote it when I was still in school and I had no idea that anyone would ever listen to it other than my immediate school friends. One of the themes of the song is that everyone’s existence is pretty much the same. Everyone lives, everyone dies, our existences are the same. It’s as far from a racist song as you can write. It seems though that no one can get past the title and that’s incredibly frustrating. The fact is it’s based on a book that’s set in France and deals with the problems of the Algerians, so it was only geographical reasons why it was an Arab and not anyone else. He would speak out and be disgusted by the misappropriation of the song by bad faith actors
It was in August of 1986 The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee became aware of the song when the organization’s director read a review of the compilation album Standing on a beach. The Committee filed a complaint with the Cure’s American Label Elektra. Meanwhile, in October of 1986 a different Committee member complained to the press after hearing the song played on WPRB, Princeton’s University Radio Station with the DJ making a derogatory statement about Arabs.
The Committee would issue a statement to the LA Times that read '' 'The song' has been and could continue to be misunderstood and/or misused by many people. There are those who may not have read Camus's 'Stranger' or not understood its connection to it. Unfortunately there are also those who would use the very title to fan ethnic or racial division in America.''
Initially the Committee asked for the Cure and their la