#823: A Cure for The Cult

GETTING MORE TALE #823: A Cure for The Cult

The Cult were big in highschool. “Fire Woman” debuted in the spring of ’89. It was an instant hit. Their momentum continued through the fall with “Edie (Ciao Baby)” and into the following year with “Sweet Soul Sister”. There was no stopping The Cult! With a new unknown drummer named Matt Sorum, The Cult toured the world and cleared up any remaining confusion that this was indeed a rock band.

The only Cult confusion that remained might have been with my friend Danesh.

Ian Astbury

I discovered that we both liked The Cult. I recall his amusement at the lyrics for “New York City” off Sonic Temple.  In particular he thought the aggrandizement “Hell’s Kitchen is a DMZ” was pretty funny.  It might have had something to do with the annual school trip to New York, that we didn’t attend but a friend of ours did.  Their bus was broken into and they had their stuff stolen.  Not particularly funny in and of itself, but I think we were amused because of who it happened to:  The legendary Brett Bowerman of Brett-Lore fame.  Indeed, in our highschool comic strip, the Geography teacher Mr. Robinson went to New York City to find a missing Brett!  This was inspired by us assuming Brett would get lost in New York and left behind.  In our sketches, Ian Astbury himself made a cameo.  This happened in a chapter titled “Brett Lore III:  Brett Takes Manhattan”.  In one panel, we find the Ayatollah Khomeini, a dead cat, and Skid Row (presumably because I didn’t know the difference between New York and New Jersey).  The Cult’s logo was scrawled on a wall, but scratched out.  Hell’s Kitchen is a DMZ after all!

Note that Elvis visited New York in 1989, apparently.  I also like that you can actually identify each Skid Row member by appearance alone.

Adding to the comedy, I recall that Brett purchased a samurai sword in New York.  I don’t remember if it was among the stolen possessions.  I think it probably was.

Back to the Cult.  Danesh was getting into rock music and wasn’t as well educated in the fine art of electric guitar as I was.  I think it’s very possible that he accidentally bought Disintegration by The Cure, confusing them with The Cult.  I do know that Danesh was terribly embarrassed about owning that Cure CD.  Compact discs were a new thing, and he owned up to having The Cure when we were listing some of the CDs that were in our collections.  I asked if he owned any discs that had “bonus tracks”.  The Cure did — two in fact.  That’s when he told me about it.  But he refused to tell me how he got it.  I had the Cure/Cult mixup theory, but he never confirmed nor denied.  To this day, 30 years later, I still don’t know!

Danesh really hated that Cure album.  When my family had a garage sale in 1991, he handed me the Cure CD to get rid of.  The garage sale was his only hope.  I put a sticker on there that said “BONUS TRACKS” and priced it at $12.  That was about half as much as you’d pay new.  But too much for garage salers.  I dropped it to $10 but no go.

Danesh was heartbroken when I returned the disc to him the following Monday.

“I would have been fine with a lower price if you called to tell me it wasn’t selling.”

Well, shit.  Sorry man.

I did feel bad.  I would have preferred selling it for him too.  But he still wouldn’t tell me why he owned it!  Was it a gift?  Did he like one song and then hate the rest?  Did he freak out when he saw what they looked like?  I remember his reaction the first time he saw a photo of Night Songs-era Cinderella.  It wasn’t positive!  The only album he owned was Heartbreak Station.  He didn’t know about Cinderella’s glam past and he wouldn’t let it go!

But these are just guesses.  For whatever reasons, Danesh would never tell me why he owned Disintegration by The Cure, nor would he tell me why he was ashamed of it.

As a final explanation, I’m going to go with the Cure/Cult mixup and consider this case closed.  An understandable mistake like that can be easily forgiven.

 

38 comments

    2. There was this kid I went to college with that loved The Cure. On some days he’s dress up in goth attire, fishnet stockings, high heels, the works. On other days he would dress up like a Japanese geisha worker. Then other days he would be full on transvestite. He once told our class that the look he was going for was a cross between “1930s gangster and 1980s prostitute”. Definitely one of the most pretentious assholes I’ve ever met in my life. Loved the smell of his own farts and looked down on all us “ordinary” folk. What a douche.

      We used to refer to him as Count Chocula because of the goth thing. A surprisingly tasty cereal I might add. Norm MacDonald is a huge fan.

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        1. Oh, Boo Berry is my second favorite! It’s good. Frankenberry isn’t anything to write home about.

          I only ever tried them after Norm mentioned Count Chocula on Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I bought all three that autumn. They sell ’em all year round at Target here, except Boo Berry I think. That’s Halloween only.

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  2. I only have one album I wouldn’t go advertising of owning.. There has never been any point trying to sell it cos can’t see anybody else wanting it. I only bought it since I got it signed. Anyone else?

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      1. In Australia record stores they lived in separate areas of the record shop. The Cult was in the rock and Metal section, then we had the Pop section and the alternative section. The Cure was either in the Pop or Alternative section.
        I don’t mind the Cure. A few of their songs like Love Song translate well into rock songs.

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    2. Why be in the closet about it? Everyone jerks off over Disintegration. It’s a great album.

      How can you dislike a band when their leader is Edward Scissorhands?

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  5. Just got most of the 2 cd editions of Cure cds. Remember seeing them play a festival back in the 80’s. Waited this long to dig into their catalogue. Love the Cult. Seem them open for Metallica.

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        1. Dude, I’ve had “Head Down” popping in and out of my head the last few weeks. Maybe I should give that album a spin. Always liked that song.

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  7. I love The Cure, no shame. lol Never really listened to The Cult though, probably know some of their songs if I heard them. Pretty sure they headlined a music festival we went to, but we left before they went on.

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  10. To date the only album I own from either of these bands is Disintegration, so I guess Danesh wouldn’t like me. I’ve heard Electric, Love, and Sonic Temple several times though from friends. And the one with the native boy on the cover I don’t remember the name of right now.

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