8 The Cure Songs Inspired By Literature

1. A Letter to Elise – Written as a stream of consciousness confession the lyrics speak about resignation when the relationship faces inevitable change. Robert Smith, the singer of The Cure, was inspired by the David Bowie song A Letter to Hermione about Bowie`s his first love, dancer Hermione Farthingale.  The other source of inspiration is Jean Cocteau novel The Holy Terrors (Les Enfants Terribles) (1929), about two siblings who isolate themselves from the world as they grow up.

David Bowie and Hermione Farthingale

2. Pictures of You – Is this the song about the girl? Well… Robert Smith, the singer of The Cure, told in the interview from the eighties: “No. It`s the song about me.” Ah ha ha, I mean – what?! The love song about himself? Robert explained that the song was inspired by the essay The Dark Power of Ritual Pictures by Myra Poleo. After reading the essay, he destroyed his old personal photos with the intention to stop his own past of controlling himself. After that, he regretted it. Luckily, he is famous so there are his pictures in the old magazines. :D

Robert`s photo that
probably had the alibi for destruction night

Albert Camus smoking Ronhill

3. Killing an Arab – This is the racist song because of which Robert spent eight years in prison, where he founded religious cult Strawberry Killers. Just joking, this song is inspired by Albert Camus' book The Stranger, about a man who killed another man (because of non-ethnical reasons), and it`s wandering about the meaning of life after it. Regardless that, the band had many problems because of this song, including canceled gigs and fan stalking by racistic organization National Front.

The footages are from the movie "The Stranger" based on the Camu`s book

4. How Beautiful You Are – Robert Smith`s lyrics are based on Charles Baudelaire prose poem The Eyes Of The Poor (1869). Actually, he almost copied the poem, but, Robert`s version is so new and so inspired, that is is a completely new piece of art. I personally prefer Robert`s version. Both poems are about how you really love someone and then, some small event happens and you realize in the second that “no-one can ever knows or loves another“.

Charles Baudelaire

5. Bloodflowers - The two pieces of art inspired this song. First is the thought of the painter Edvard Munch who described the experience of making good art as a feeling  "a bloodflower popped out from his heart." As a synchronicity, Robert Smith also was reading a poetry book about World War I, and one of the poems was about how a bullet wound in one of the soldiers opened a blood flower in his body. Robert liked the analogy between pain and art.

Aaaaaa! (The SCREAM) by E. Munch

6.Birdmad Girl - "It was inspired by a Dylan Thomas book* (*Love In The Asylum). It was written by Robert. It talks about a mad woman. It's funky.", bassist Lol Tolhurst said of the song for Libération, 1984.

Dylan Thomas

7. Charlotte Sometimes – One of most beautiful The Cure songs is based on a 1969 children`s novel Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer. The book concerns the title character finds herself traveled mysteriously 40 years back in time, finding herself in shoes of girl Claire. Charlotte struggles to maintain her inner identity, and the Smith`s lyrics reflect the struggle with dissociation and displacement.

8. So What – It`s about… Robert… hic!...who was… hic!... drunk… so he sang the offer printed on the sugar bag for a cake icing and decorating set. Enjoy. :D