10. The Cure – A Few Hours After This

Jonel looked more like the Math major that he was than a music geek. So when he told me he was selling his entire The Cure cassette collection, I became a bit suspicious. I thought that the collection was not his but some hot item. He just didn’t look like a druggie who would steal for a quick fix.

It was the beginning of the semester and he was the only person in that French class, a foreign language elective, who would talk to me. He told me he was friends with some friends whom I’d jam with and I believed him. I needed his company also because I was the only freshman in that sophomores-populated class.

Later on, I learned that he was, indeed, a certified music geek. In between French grammar quizes, we would talk about the whole range of music genres from bands like The The to Guns ‘n’ Roses to Megadeth to Aztec Camera.

I didn’t dare ask him if as to the why and ‘where from’ of his offer. I figured he needed the cash for rent. Students from the countryside, like him, who go to the city to study usually fell short on their budget.

For less than P300, I got the entire The Cure discography from Three Imaginary Boys (which IMHO is their best album cover) to Disintegration. That was thirteen albums including two double albums. I already owned some of the albums like Standing on the Beach: The Singles, but since I was not a true-blue The Cure fan, I didn’t dig deep into their catalog. I was, however, intrigued by the things I had read about them. And what better way to get to know the band was to listen.

Because The Cure has a tendency to be achingly saccharine (Robert Smith can’t help it with a voice like his, can he?), I gave more time listening to the dark (Goth, to some) albums which included Faith, Pornography and Seventeen Seconds. For those who fell in love with The Cure just because of In Between Days, they would definitely get a shock listening to these albums. Most of the songs are gloomy and repetitive like being lost in a dull dream. There is seldom a hint of the sun-shiny pop Robert Smith has been known for except maybe for the track Play for Today but that’s not even a happy song.

I also listened extensively to Staring at the Sea : The B-Sides*. It was a mish-mash of genre from Goth to New Wave to Pop and the the classically-arranged A Few Hours After This.

I instantly liked this song because it stood out from all the other The Cure songs I’d heard before. To me, this song is easily on top of the most heartbreaking of all of Robert Smith’s songs. It features a wailing Smith backed by an orchestra replete with a timpani thrown in for extra measure.

Jonel never asked me about ‘the discography.’  Together with aforementioned friends, we would eventually hang out, jam in the football field after ROTC, and talk about music and literature (he was a fan of Franz Kafka). We talked about girls, sure. But, because we were geeks, we only talked about them.

I don’t  recall  last time I saw Jonel or the other guys. Last I heard, Jonel took up law and was practicing in his hometown in Mindoro. Before moving here, I often thought about those times whenever I saw my The Cure cassette discography. Now that I’ve left all my cassette tapes in Manila, it remains to be seen how I will manage remembering.

A Few Hours After This

The look before I go is the look for you.
You only have to look and it will all come true
and we can fall outside into the fizzy night
Or pull me down in here you know it’s all the same
I only want to see if you are happy again
or we can roll around and find out upside down

a few hours after this and we’re apart again
like two white checks, like opposite poles
in a secret game
(like nothing like these i suppose… )
I really should have known by the cut of your smile
that the answer would be simple
it still took you a while to get it out of me
I thought you’d do it easily

just put your hands around my heart
and squeeze me until i’m dry
I never thought you’d ever start to ever ask me why…

I never saw you again

(* When The Cure’s catalog was released on CD, Staring at the Sea was adapted as the title of the ‘Best of’ which included some tracks that weren’t in the original cassette and LP release).