I’m not an ardent follower of The Cure, which accounts for the fact that I am years behind on learning of the alterations Robert Smith has been making to the band’s first single, “Killing An Arab,” since 2005. The song is now performed as, “Killing Another,” due to superficial interpretations of the song that overlook its basis on Camus’ novel, The Stranger, oversimplifying it as an anti-Arab message. Given the politics of the last decade or so, it is easy to see how Robert Smith took the stance of asking radio stations to not play the song and then choosing to alter the lyrics.
Before changing the lyric to “Killing Another,” apparently Smith went with “Kissing An Arab” in his attempts to continue playing the song while playing down these racist interpretations.
Being the band’s first single and one of their best-known songs, it seems that it might be difficult to set this song aside. On the other hand, it seems to me that they have many other well-known songs and need-not feel compelled to play the song anymore.
My questions to the Hall are these: What would you do if you were Robert Smith? Abandon the song? Play it as it is? Or change the lyrics as he has done?
Can you think of any other artists who have abandoned one of their big hit singles? Can you think of any other songs that have suffered from gross misinterpretation? As a fan, are you open to changing the lyrics to a song (or the title) after 30 years of hearing it as it was originally written?
What say ye, Townsfolk?
The last thing I would do if I were Smith would be to change the lyrics at a show. I would rather not play the song at all, or better yet play it anyways. And if someone has a problem with that, well screw them. The song is not inflammatory. It’s the title that has some people in tizzy. And it’s not like concertgoers are waiting the entire set just to hear that one.
Did I not read somewhere about the Clash dropping White Riot from their set because it attracted a skinhead element to their shows?
I’d drop it. At this point, they have a pretty substantial amount of songs that were bigger hits and are more well-known.
I thought Sham 69 broke up because their shows had been co-opted by the skinheads. Perhaps Happiness Stan could confirm.
I don’t know if that’s true about the Clash, but if so in both cases it’s a shame. I’m a big Camus fan. That song – and it’s title – bought the Cure a lot of rope for the first 10 years of me basically disliking them. (The song and some of those other earlier songs also weren’t bad, despite my distaste for Smith’s voice and hair.) Anyhow, completely changing the title like that is horrible. Now I have to reconsider going back to disliking them.
I just saw The Cure at the Beacon a few weeks ago and it was performed as Killing An Arab. So, it might be pressure from certain local situations.
Interesting… Their new live album has the “Killing Another” version, so they have gone so far as to release it this way.
perhaps the cure saw changing the lyric as a marketing opportunity, akin to ballclubs selling alternate jerseys.
I must be confusing that story with Sham 69 and the whole Oi! thing.
By the time I got to liking The Cure (around ’85) the initial backlash had cooled off. I knew of the The Stranger reference, so the only crime for me was that they showing off their literary knowledge. I’m sure if The Cure had their druthers they would go back and change the lyrics because the song is rather catchy.
It wasn’t so much the skinheads, but the racist thug contingent they attracted from the start which made their gigs a less-than-tempting proposition: even though I couldn’t stand their music Jimmy Pursey should have the respect of all right-thinking Hall members for standing up and confronting them very forcefully at their gigs from day one.
Some of those guys were very big and very scary as well as being very wrong and generally evil. Pursey is not a big bloke, and security at gigs hadn’t been invented at the places they played in those days. I would have been very scared if called upon to do what he did every night.
I don’t think they split up until about the mid-eighties, having pretty well single-handedly given birth to “Oi” – which did spawn openly fascist/racist bands.
I think Smith should respond by dressing in black and moping a lot as a protest against the misreading of the song.
And in related news, after more than a quarter century of anguishing, Bruce Springsteen has changed the lyrics to “Born in the USA.” It now goes: “Born in the USA / I was born in the USA / But I don’t mean it how Republicans say / I’m a cool-rockin’ Democrat in the USA.”
It must be something of a niggling worry that something you wrote when you were a teenager and had a minor hit with later becomes known forever as “the record which launched their enormously huge world-beating career” and is equally something which could potentially lead to a religious nutter unfamiliar with the works of Camus declaring the author to be a target for Holy War. I’m not surprised that he has gone out of his way to try to defuse it, but surely whatever he does to it will merely bring attention to what it was originally?
If I were him I think I would probably just not play it any more, if I was losing any sleep over it.
In this live version of Money For Nothing, Mark Knopfler omits the word “faggot” for maggot and mother. At around 1:40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol1R788unDw
I’m not going into any further debate on the merits of the song, Sting or Phil Collins.
Well, Elton John abandoned the lyrics to his big hit Candle in the Wind. If by “abandoned”, you mean “shamelessly rewrote the lyrics to capitalize on a recent tragedy in his desperate need to stay in the limelight”.
Maybe they put that in print, but they reserve the right to take the temperature of the crowd and perform accordingly.
It is a little if such idiotic reaction browbeats an artist into changing the art. You may as well ban “The Stranger”.
But it’s hard to criticize Robert Smith for doing what he feels is right in this situation. My take is that he is probably not sure what to do, and is trying on the options. He might be worried about some nut job showing up at a show. He might feel uncomfortable singing those words — however innocuous they are in context — in front of a diverse audience, and no longer being an unknown young guy singing to an audience of 4 in a recording studio. He might even just feel that if some fans take offense he’d rather not offend.
typo — “It is a little sad if…”
“Let’s spend some time together” v. ESullivan “YOU’LL NEVER PLAY THIS SHOW AGAIN!”/JMorrison “Hey Ed, we just did.”
I vote stare decisis and perform it as is
aloha
LD