Perhaps one of the most distinctive theme in the old Cure's lyrics was
the struggle to not completely lose a kind of innocence with growing old.
This kind of sensibility children have that gets inevitably lost when
becoming a teenager. The world seemed bigger and brighter as a child...
The lyrics of Primary may be a reference to this, Charlotte Sometimes was inspired by a children book about time shifting... Catch and A Forest find their origins in dreams/events Robert Smith had as a child. Lullaby also comes from a childhood fear. High refers to the ability of "flying", a common wish/belief amongst children. To The Sky clearly gives the desire to be a child again...
This hope to retain those magic feelings and the disappointment to fail to do so, was certainly a real obsession around the time of Disintegration. Turning 30 was confessed being a terrible day for Robert, who "got gloriously drunk and ran round Crawley with no shoes all night, remembering...".
The tour that followed (The Prayer Tour, in Europe) sometimes gave an insight on those aching and personal moments while adding lyrics at the end of Faith (singing about Christmas trees, walking on air, holding someone so much smaller, dressed in hat and a coat, summer times...).
The most intense feeling certainly being about death. Like in Barcelona 1989 where Robert Smith introduced Faith telling a story of a child asking his grandfather "when you die, is it like being on a ship that pulls away everything you love and it's called Farewell Summer ?". To which the grandfather couldn't reply a word.
This image of the summer (the happiest children's time) going away was also mentioned in Stuttgart in 1989, including the line "last day of summer" years before this would be used as a title on Bloodflowers. This last song probably being about realizing as a child that everything will disappear one way or another, including oneself ("never felt so cold").
Worth mentioning as well is the artwork on "The Cure", entirely made from children drawings (R.Smith's nephews and nieces). The song Lost is the most dramatic one on the subject (seeing an early photograph of yourself and feeling like a stranger
to it).
The lyrics of Primary may be a reference to this, Charlotte Sometimes was inspired by a children book about time shifting... Catch and A Forest find their origins in dreams/events Robert Smith had as a child. Lullaby also comes from a childhood fear. High refers to the ability of "flying", a common wish/belief amongst children. To The Sky clearly gives the desire to be a child again...
This hope to retain those magic feelings and the disappointment to fail to do so, was certainly a real obsession around the time of Disintegration. Turning 30 was confessed being a terrible day for Robert, who "got gloriously drunk and ran round Crawley with no shoes all night, remembering...".
The tour that followed (The Prayer Tour, in Europe) sometimes gave an insight on those aching and personal moments while adding lyrics at the end of Faith (singing about Christmas trees, walking on air, holding someone so much smaller, dressed in hat and a coat, summer times...).
The most intense feeling certainly being about death. Like in Barcelona 1989 where Robert Smith introduced Faith telling a story of a child asking his grandfather "when you die, is it like being on a ship that pulls away everything you love and it's called Farewell Summer ?". To which the grandfather couldn't reply a word.
This image of the summer (the happiest children's time) going away was also mentioned in Stuttgart in 1989, including the line "last day of summer" years before this would be used as a title on Bloodflowers. This last song probably being about realizing as a child that everything will disappear one way or another, including oneself ("never felt so cold").
Worth mentioning as well is the artwork on "The Cure", entirely made from children drawings (R.Smith's nephews and nieces). The song Lost is the most dramatic one on the subject (seeing an early photograph of yourself and feeling like a stranger
to it).
