Always the Same

The Cure : Jumping Someone Else's Train

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In November of 1979 The Cure released "Jumping Someone Else's Train" b/w "I'm Cold". The single failed to chart but it's impressive nonetheless. Writing for Smash Hits, David Hepworth raves:

The Cure at last live up to and surpass all that promise with a crisp, biting attack on fads, fashions and oneupmanship. Robert Smith takes the vocal in front of a sparkling zigzagging lead line and a wicked leaping bass. It's the first of their records to actually sound finished and the first of many classics I would venture.

Smith wrote the lyrics about the mod revival or maybe it was the ska revival. He tells the Belgian Magazine Humo:

I loath the snobbism and elitism of it all: ‘I was already acid[-house music] when you were still new wave’ – that stuff. In fact it’s all as small as the ska revival where I wrote an angry song about: Jumping Someone Else’s Train. Now I read articles everywhere about the new ska revival. Despicable. At this rate, we’re having 5 revivals every year. I’m probably old fashioned, but I like music that’s not limited to a certain time.

The B side features Siouxsie Sioux on backing vocals and anticipates the bleak sound of 1980's 17 Seconds.

Hiding the Tears in My Eyes

The Cure : Boys Don't Cry

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In June of 1979 The Cure released "Boys Don't Cry" b/w "Plastic Passion". The catchy non-album single did not chart in the U.K. though it peaked at #22 in New Zealand.  Re-released with a new voice and new mix in 1986, "Boys Don't Cry" finally got the attention it deserved, peaking at U.K.#22.

"The pop songs like “Boys Don’t Cry” are naive to the point of insanity," Robert Smith would tell Rolling Stone in 2017. "But considering the age I was and the fact that I had done nothing apart from go to school – no real life experience, everything was taken from books – some of them are pretty good."

 Apparently a favorite of Wham's Andrew Ridgeley, the song may seem upbeat until you realize the singer is despondent over his role in a break up: "I tried to laugh about it/ Cover it all up with lies/ I tried to laugh about it /Hiding the tears in my eyes".

The B side "Plastic Passion" is as good as anything on The Cure's debut album, Three Imaginary Boys.