Play For Today

The first Cure song I ever heard was 'Play For Today' on a radio station out of Seattle called KJET. I was in the 8th grade at Central Kitsap Junior High and I felt that I had just discovered something so wonderful that I didn't even want to talk about it. I wanted The Cure to be mine and only mine (as well as everyone else's that listened to KJET, of course!)

When I lived in Washington I was one of many who listened to goth and punk music. Our schools lip-sync consisted of performances of Devo, The Plasmatics, Black Flag, and The B-52's among others. I thought all high schools were like this. I was sadly mistaken!

When I moved to Goose Creek, South Carolina in 1985 reality hit hard and I realized that not all schools were as progressive as CKHS. The people at Goose Creek High School had never even heard of Depeche Mode and were listening to Sly Fox! I quickly became friends with Carol, the one girl who had spiked hair and said she loved Morrissey! Unfortunately she graduated that year but I found another friend, Chantel, who had moved to South Carolina from San Diego so she was in the secret club of "real" alternative music and things were good.

My junior year some of my friends and I we were downtown Charleston at Colonial Lake hanging out. On the local radio station I heard the first couple notes of "Just Like Heaven" and I could not believe my ears! I had a sense of disgust that The Cure was on the radio... and not even an alternative station! My friends were excited, but I was mad because my secret little alternative world was forever gone. Soon everyone at GCHS knew that the words written on the beloved Pee-Chee folders that I had kept since my school days in Washington State didn't really have to do with some disease... the mainstream now knew that The Cure was one of the greatest bands ever!

Tonight I was reminded of that night at Colonial Lake while watching American Idol. Blake preformed "Love Song" (beautifully, I might add!) and I just sat there thinking about that night in 1987 that pretty much ended my love affair with all-things-Cure. After a little air-play several people at GCHS would be known to say "have you heard that NEW band called "The Cure?" Things were just never the same.

I am still trying to get over hearing This Mortal Coil's "Song to the Siren" on a perfume commercial, and now The Cure on American Idol of all things!

I wish I had all the vinyl that is stored at my mother's house in Charleston. (sigh!)