Archive for the high school tag

The Cure: Disintegration (Live from Entreat)

I was eleven when I accidentally found The Cure’s Disintegration in a pile of my brother's cassettes along with New Order, Depeche Mode, and Nine Inch Nails. This may come as a shock, but I thought it sucked. I liked "Pictures of You”, “Lovesong”, and “Lullaby”, but the second side of that cassette... man was it long and boring. I tried numerous times to get through “The Same Deep Water as You”, but every attempt failed.

So how did Disintegration become my favorite album? That was an accident as well. I got really into The Cure around 1992 (Wish) and backtracked to the older albums. I also started to collect Cure stuff: magazines, posters, and singles. I bought the “Pictures of You”  single, and one of the B-sides was the live version of "Disintegration". It blew my away like nothing before or since. I went back and listened to Disintegration. Maybe my taste matured, or maybe I was discovering that life sucked, but I connected with the second half and the whole album like I had found my one and only true love . I knew it would stand the test of time, and in high school I introduced it to as many people as possible. If they didn’t like it, I would insist they listen to the live version of “Disintegration”.

It worked on my friends Jill and Tony. Jill and I would stay up all night trying to decipher the lyrics. There were a bunch of lines added  and a few missing from the album version, and it drove us crazy. Jill suggested I buy Entreat at Reckless Records since the live version of “Disintegration” and almost every album song was on the live disc.  I couldn't afford it, until the lucky day I found a used copy for $34. I ran to Jill's car and as I ripped open the case, found tucked into the sleeve inlay card a sheet of handwritten lyrics to the live version. I screamed louder than I have ever before in my life. The coincidence, the luck, the idea that someone out there loved the song so much they figured out all the lyrics and hand wrote them onto notebook paper...and the sadness and shock that this person had parted with it, made me realize how much I loved The Cure, loved that song, and how it made me give that album a second chance and falling in love with that too.

Crazy to think that after all that I went through to save $34 to buy Entreat, it’s now being given away as a bonus disc as part of the 3CD re-release of Disintegration for $32.99. For me and millions of people around the world, this album means re-living great memories, but I hope that some kid out there stumbles upon this release, listens to it for the first time, and is blown away with the greatness of it all.

official website
Pre-order the 3CD deluxe edition of Disintegration