Pictures of You (1990) – The Cure

By 1989, Cure lead singer and songwriter Robert Smith was a bit weary of his band’s gradual movement toward the pop charts away from their moody early work. He felt he needed to create something lasting, a coherent album-length artistic statement. So he slowed down the tempos, turned up the torment, and wrote the songs that would make up Disintegration, the band’s melancholy masterwork which contained “Pictures Of You.”

– The Cure, “Pictures Of You” – American Songwriter

The instrumental introduction in The Cure’s Pictures of You is immense and my favourite part of the track. I always preferred how this song sounded Live over the studio release because of the reverb effect, so I have relayed the live version below from their gig at The Palace, Auburn Hills, Michigan. This music portal which is Pictures of You instantly takes me back 30 years. These 7 minutes of music have given me so many hours of joy and deep reflection; bringing back memories so thick of places and especially people in my renegade period of early adulthood. Perhaps my attachment to this song is not as fervent as it once was, but I still remain introspective about what it represents.

Pictures of You is the second song by The Cure to feature here after their previous entry Friday I’m in Love. It was released as the fourth and final single from the band’s eighth studio album, Disintegration. The single reached No. 24 on the UK Singles Charts. In 2011, the song was voted number 283 on Rolling Stone‘s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.

[Verse 1]
I’ve been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they’re real
I’ve been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel

[Verse 2]
Remembering you standing quiet in the rain
As I ran to your heart to be near
And we kissed as the sky fell in, holding you close
How I always held close in your fear

[Verse 3]
Remembering you running soft through the night
You were bigger and brighter and wider than snow
And screamed at the make-believe, screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage to let it all go

[Verse 4]
Remembering you fallen into my arms
Crying for the death of your heart
You were stone white, so delicate, lost in the cold
You were always so lost in the dark

Background: According to interviews, the inspiration of the song came when a fire broke loose in Robert Smith’s home. After that day, Smith was going through the remains and came across his wallet which had pictures of his wife, Mary. The cover of the single is one of the pictures. The same picture was used as the cover of the “Charlotte Sometimes” single, but that image was heavily warped and distorted.

Smith explained his motivations for the album in a 1989 interview. “With Disintegration, I wanted to see if The Cure was still able to make a record which had a real substance and if we were able to express and share such deep feelings,” he said. “The kind of things you feel the first time somebody kisses you violently on the mouth. It’s this kind of intensity, when you’re young, that you must never forget with age. Never…”

– The Cure, “Pictures Of You” – American Songwriter

Reference:
1. Pictures of You (The Cure song) – Wikipedia
2. The Cure, “Pictures Of You” – American Songwriter

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“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand