The Cure: Three Imaginary Boys (UK Edition) CD Track Listing

A list by checkmate

The Cure Three Imaginary Boys (UK Edition) (1979)
Three Imaginary Boys \n\nOriginally Released June 1979\nCD Edition (US) ''Boys Don't Cry'' Released February 1988\nDeluxe 2CD Edition Released December 7, 2004\nRemastered 1CD Edition Released April 4, 2006\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: How to handle the B-sides, rarities, and sock-drawer discoveries? It's the dilemma of any band with an exhaustive series of reissues ahead of it. The results, no matter what they might be, are bound to cause a mix of jubilation, confusion, and frustration throughout the fan base -- especially when the band in question is the Cure. There's no clean, obvious way to do it. Rhino's elaborate overhauling of the Cure's back catalog assumes that you have been a rabid follower throughout the years and will want every piece of the puzzle. Cure fans being Cure fans, it's not a foolish judgment to make, and it's the one that should cause the least amount of consternation. Following the four-disc Join the Dots box, Rhino continued with a two-disc expanded form of Three Imaginary Boys, originally released in 1979 as the band's first album. Since the B-sides from this era appear on the box, they aren't included on the rarities disc that accompanies the album proper. This allows plenty of room for demos, live versions, and orphaned songs. "Jumping Someone Else's Train" and "Boys Don't Cry" -- two non-album A-sides -- are included, as is "World War," a song that appeared on initial copies and was presumably extracted for being, as Robert Smith accurately claims, "a terrible piece of rubbish." ("Killing an Arab" is conspicuously absent, possibly left out in order to reel in fans when the deluxe singles anthology surfaces.) The four live tracks, due to poor sound quality, aren't worth a second listen, though the breakneck-tempo take on "10:15 Saturday Night" and the frantic "Heroin Face" are both jolting. Unsurprisingly, the demos and outtakes are key attractions for the insatiable fans. Four studio demos from 1978 are a major draw, with Smith's boyish and alluringly ho-hum vocals in stark contrast to what is heard on the album, and the relatively strenuous instrumentation isn't nearly as spindly. Not to be outdone, disc one contains a remastered Three Imaginary Boys that sounds far more crisp and bold than the initial, thin-sounding CD version. Plenty of photos and biographical liner notes are included. This all bodes well for the reissues that will follow. -- Andy Kellman\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nThough this 1979 debut album by The Cure would scarcely dent the Top 50 in the UK and entirely forego an official American release (though a handful of tracks would appear on the US-only compilation Boys Don't Cry), it remains equal parts touchstone and curiosity for Cure faithful. It's easy to see why mainstay Robert Smith has long had mixed feelings about it: The spare, angular performances and New Wave-y production cliches often seem more akin to Devo or the B-52's. Smith himself hadn't quite perfected the moody wail that would make him a pioneering goth icon, though there are hints of dark things to come on the title track and "10:15 Saturday Night." The real attraction here is the set's 20-song bonus disc, a treasure trove of primal Cure that includes key A-sides ("Boys Don't Cry," "Jumping Someone Else's Train"), early outtakes and demos (including the Ziggy-esque "I Want to Be Old" from '77, more emblematic tracks from the following year and a haunting Smith home-recording of "10:15" that shows how focused the singer's instincts were when left to his own devices) and some energetic, if sonically flawed live tracks. It's a must for Cure fans, an intriguing, warts-'n'-all portrait of a seminal rock band finding its true voice. --Jerry McCulley \n\nAmazon.com Product Description\nOriginally a postpunk outfit with gothic leanings, The Cure evolved into one of the most visionary, creatively satisfying and influential groups to come of age in the 1980's. From dreamy pop to moody expressionism, their signature sound is adventurous, hypnotic, and rich with texture. Formed in 1976 by Robert Smith and schoolmates Michael Dempsey (bass) and Laurence Tolhurst (drums), The Cure's stunning debut album on U.K.-based Fiction Records launched an extraordinary career and enduring worldwide popularity. \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nDisappointing Reissue, December 14, 2004\nReviewer: Silverbear\nLet me begin with my heretical statement of the day: The U.S. album "Boys Don't Cry" has always been tighter and more coherent to my ears than the U.K. release "Three Imaginary Boys." Nevertheless, this could have been an opportunity to reconcile the two albums by offering not only the overlapping songs, but also the tracks exclusive to each album. Unfortunately, the omission of "Killing an Arab" and "Plastic Passion" negates that possibility. \n\nTo make matters worse, Rhino seems to have compromised its commitment to creating good value for the customer with this release. Rhino's reissues of the Elvis Costello catalog have included secondary discs containing demos and other rarities, but Rhino has wisely and fairly sold these two-CD sets for about $15. This practice has reflected the lesser value of demos and rehearsal tracks, which are interesting to hear once or twice but which don't invite the repeat listening associated with album tracks. It's sort of like going to an art museum and seeing the artist's preliminary sketches alongside the finished work. The sketches are interesting to see once or twice as a window into the creative process, but they are not something I want to see again and again, especially if I have to pay more to see them. \n\nWith the reissue of "Three Imaginary Boys," one has to pay approximately $25 for two CDs, but there is only one CD worth of album-quality material. I was planning to replace my cure CDs (everything from "Boys Don't Cry" to "Bloodflowers") with remastered versions, but if this pricing trend continues, I'll stick with my existing copies. They sound pretty good already, and the demos on the secondary disc just aren't as interesting as the impressive b-sides on the "Join the Dots" box set, which was an excellent product from Rhino. \n\nI hope that for "Seventeen Seconds" and everything afterward, Rhino returns to its customary attention to value pricing in reissues. Universal and Sony may be repackaging classic albums as bloated and overpriced two-CD "deluxe" or "legacy" editions, but Rhino can do better.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\n1 Great Disc + 1 Imaginary Disc, September 11, 2005\nReviewer: F. Moses "insultant1" (Gahanna, Ohio United States)\nI was more than geeked to see the first American release of "Three Imaginary Boys" after merely 25 years in the waiting. Yep, I heard the album before this Rhino reissue 2-disc edition on a import cassette I borrowed from a friend more than a decade ago. It always shocked me how the U.S. Electra label narrowed the U.S. listeners down to the "Boys Don't Cry" album, especially after the disc version came out and eliminated the songs "World War" & "Object"--two of my favorite tunes from the band's 1st U.S. vinyl release. Yep, I realize the Robert Smith didn't quite care for "World War"--but it's among the top ten of my favorite Cure melodies to date--probably because the lyrics sort of ring a true bell to today's recent castrophies in U.S. history. \n\nMy question to Rhino Records--why the 2nd disc?!? It's great to hear some of the Cure "uncut/rarities" for the first time, but some of the tunes contained on the 2nd disc are barely listenable, such as the home demos of "10:15 on a Saturday Night", "the Coctail Party", "Boys Don't Cry" and "Grinding Halt." These outtakes are entertaining during the first listen and like dynamite for us Cure fanatics, but are a little too sloppy to pay an extra chunk for a two-disc set! On that note--I was very greatful to hear "Faded Smiles...," "Play With Me," and "Winter" for the first time. It's hard to believe that these tunes were buried and forgotten. \n\nI would have given the original release reissue version of "Three Imaginary Boys" a whole five big stars, but the 2nd disc of the Rhino reissue ruined it for me. The band becomes too over-exposed, and the outtakes are too sloppy. \n\nThis reissue could have been narrowed down to one disc with the addition of "World War," "I Want to be Old," "Winter," "Faded Smiles" and "Play With Me." The rest of the 2nd disc becomes a distraction of live versions, home versions, and "too many versions heard" of the same songs all over again. After hearing this 1st bunch of the Rhino reissues of the Cure, I'm a little skeptical of whether or not I will buy any more of the reissues of the Cure on Rhino. Perhaps this opinion will change once the label buys up the rights to the Cure classics "the Top," & "Japanese Whispers." But, until then--I'm only sleeping. \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA Nice reissue but lacking , May 4, 2005\nReviewer: S. Wetzel "music /movie fan"\nThis is the first in a series of double-disk reissues of the Cure's Fiction/Elektra catalog by Rhino. As is becoming a common practice with Rhino reissues, the second disk of bonus cuts includes non-LP B-sides, demos, live versions, or alternate takes of the original album. I own the previous US edition known as Boys Don't Cry and was glad to finally see the Cure's debut album released here as it was intended to be. The songs are not the mopy doom and gloom that the Cure's cultish fan base has embraced, but rather a collection of punk pop songs, none of which totally jumps out and screams "I'm a classic!" In fact, the overall impression is a bit derivative of Siouxsie and other punk and post-punk bands of the same era. I would think many of the Goths who worship at the shrine of Robert Smith would be shocked that this is the same band. Of course, the twist here is that it is not. Smith has been the only constant in an ever-shifting roster of side players. Only since the 1990's has there been a more-or-less regular membership. It is interesting to note how the sound of the Cure has evolved from these early recordings. My only quibble with this reissue is the omission of the controversial single, "Killing An Arab." \n\nFor a record company who prides itself on reissuing past catalog albums with more-or-less complete bonus tracks, the absence of this track (recorded and released during the same period) stands out like a big flashing light. Smith himself has gone on record defending the song that it was not meant as an anti-Arab sentiment, but rather an interpretation of an Albert Camus novel. The track was on the US Boys Don't Cry version of the album, and is still available on the Staring at the Sea Singles Collection. I wonder if the current state of political correctness and issues over Arabic discrimination has resulted in this omission. It's never been one of my favorite Cure songs, but again, from a historical standpoint, the omission now seems like censorship. \n\nAll of that aside, if you're a fan of the Cure, you will probably like this reissue (even with that missing track). If you haven't yet discovered the Cure and are feeling a bit adventurous, this is the place to start and then purchase the series in order as the reissues are released (I've purchased those also as they came out at the end of April 2005). This would show the evolution of the Cure as recording artists. If you've already got the original CD release, this would be a completist's dream. Don't forget, the old CD releases were rush jobs to get the product in the store and the sound on them is horrible. The sound quality here is much better than those Elektra CD's. \n\nOne other note: the next 3 reissues contain lyric sheets (at least for the original album tracks, but not the bonus tracks). Three Imaginary Boys has a booklet with liner notes but no lyrics to these songs. Perhaps they're available at the Cure's website. Again a minor blemish to a nice reissue. \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nStop Remastering! (Unless you do it right)., January 28, 2005\nReviewer: Damian J. Spooner "DJ" (Valley Glen, USA)\nJust pointing out that the beginning of The Weedy Burton is missing (studio chatter). The end of Three Imaginary Boys has too much silence (guess the pro remixing idiot didn't hear the studio talk) , don't these people at least listen to the original mix, before they RUIN it. There may be more wrong, but I'm too piffed off to listen again.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nClose, but not quite, January 6, 2005\nReviewer: Terestai (Littleton, Colorado USA)\nI'll start this out by saying that this would be a five-star review if it had included "Killing An Arab," but since that topic has been thoroughly exhausted, I'll move on. \n\nThe sound quality of this set is a marked improvement over the original releases, and it's nice to have remastered versions of the non-album singles "Boys Don't Cry" and "Jumping Someone Else's Train." True, they were on the 2000 greatest hits album, but why not take advantage of another four years of remastering technology? As long as they didn't take up valuable real estate on the CD that could have been used for other tracks, then I see no harm done in presenting all of these songs in one place. \n\nAnd yes, it's true that they included a few of the Easy Cure demos but not all of them, but it's not so odd given the nature of these expanded albums (to the reviewer below me, "See The Children" is a great one!). We have to face up to the fact that these deluxe editions walk a fine line between having to cater to the hardcore crowd that own the bootlegs as well as to the casual listener. I know it's unfathomable to those of us in the former crowd as to why the latter always slags albums for having "too many songs they don't know," but such is the case. Some bands go ahead and release everything warts and all, some hold back. Robert is known to be notoriously picky so is it any wonder The Cure fall into the second category? \n\nBesides, once you start putting on one or two tracks from known bootlegs, the die-hards always come out of the woodwork to complain about what's missing. The Kinks just put out a three-disc edition of their Village Green Preservation Society album that contained the mono and stereo versions of the released album, the alternate mixes from the scrapped album, the mono and stereo versions of all the singles, b-sides and rare tracks of the era. Do you know what most reviews revolve around? The fact that they left off two tracks from a bootleg that's been available for years. Almost 60 songs and everyone complained about two missing ones that they already own. We live in an imperfect world and must sometimes roll with the punches. This set is well-balanced, though I'm sure we could have done with only two different versions of "10.15 Saturday Night." \n\nAnd to the same reviewer bemoaning the omission of "I'm A Cult Hero" and "I Dig You," remember that those tracks were recorded after Matthieu Hartley was fired and with Simon Gallup on bass. They may have featured Porl Thompson on guitar (back for that one single from the Easy Cure days), but they were not Easy Cure songs. They were released after the Seventeen Seconds album, so don't give up hope on their future release either on the expanded editions of Seventeen Seconds or Faith. I'd put money on the former given the somber mood of the latter. \n\nStill, in an atmosphere where even Disney is releasing their racier cartoons with disclaimers about the nature of their inception, The Cure should have included "Killing An Arab" on this set with the story behind it (based as it was on "The Stranger" by Albert Camus).\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\n...and One Imaginary Debut Single, apparently, December 13, 2004\nReviewer: REX (Chicago)\nRegarding "Killing an Arab": Before anyone posts about how the band's classic debut single wasn't supposed to be on this album in the first place, please give us some credit. We know this. \n\nWhat this compilation attempts to be is a definitive document of the Cure's history from 1977-79. It collects the remastered debut album (never officially released in the U.S. in this form prior to this) on Disc 1, and a generous handful of rarities and bonus tracks on Disc 2. As such, every track officially released on prior versions of this album and its contemporaneous singles is present and remastered, minus a pair of B-sides ("Plastic Passion," "I'm Cold") that appropriately appeared on this year's earlier B-sides box, Join the Dots... Every track is present, that is, except for "Killing an Arab." \n\nThe reason why some of us are up in arms over this? Do the math. The band's 2nd and 3rd singles ("Boys Don't Cry" and "Jumping Someone Else's Train") are here, and the bonus disc has 14 minutes of available space left on it. "Killing an Arab" was not on the remastered Greatest Hits collection from 2001, and if the record execs were "saving" this historical cornerstone for some sort of remastered Staring at the Sea, why wouldn't they "save" the other singles as well? \n\nSimply put, the song has been discarded. It looks as if, in the current political climate, the song, which has no racist overtones to its content whatsoever, was deliberately omitted as an act of cowardice and self-censorship. \n\nWhile most Cure fans will undoubtedly appreciate the amazing rarities here - and some of them are truly gems - some of us have even more appreciation for historical accuracy. I would rather have one debut single that has been a part of the rock pantheon for over 25 years than five, ten, twenty, or a million previously unreleased curios that are attempting to compensate for a rewriting of history. \n\nFor the record, the sound quality here is quite good - the album sounds clean but not overbright like some of the tracks on Join the Dots, and the extras all sound as good as their sources allow them to be... However, I do agree that "World War" was obviously taken from an inferior source as it is missing some high end. All in all, this project had great potential, but ends up something akin to botched plastic surgery: on the surface it looks great, but look a little deeper and all you can see are unforgivable flaws.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nCould have been a better reissue, December 13, 2004\nReviewer: L. Gray\nWhy can't record labels get it right? We fans have no problem shelling out cash for reissues, but it sure would be nice for them to be worth the money. What's positive? It's great to have all the bonus material, especially to have World War on CD, finally. I no longer have my TIB vinyl, but I believe all the original cover art is reproduced. Now for the bad news: \n\n1. The sound is good, but other than being louder, it's not much of an improvement over my original Three Imaginary Boys or Boys Don't Cry CDs. I'm no golden-eared audiophile, but I've got plenty of other remasters that are noticeably better than the versions they replaced. \n\n2. No Killing an Arab. This is just ridiculous. \n\n3. The cover art colors look horrible. I know it's not a great cover, but heck, they could have at least reproduced the original colors properly. \n\n4. No plastic slipcase like other "Deluxe Edition" reissues. The slipcase is cardboard and will start wearing. Mine came slightly dented because of this. \n\n5. World War is finally on CD... but it's either a different mix from the Boys Don't Cry LP, or there's just absolutely no high end on the tape they used - it's so muddy you can hardly hear the cymbals compared to the vinyl. \n\n6. The faint talking bit from the beginning of "The Weedy Burton" is missing (my player's time seems to skip about 15 seconds between the last two tracks, so this could be a CD indexing problem). \n\n7. The liner notes are a bit skimpy and some are hard to read over the background. \n\nAre these picky issues? You bet they are, but if record companies are constantly going to pump out reissued product, make it worth it for the fans.\n\nHalf.com Notes\nThe 2004 US release of THREE IMAGINARY BOYS was a momentous event for stateside Cure fans, as it marked the first time the band's 1979 debut album had ever been available on CD in America. Equally enticing is the bonus disc containing '77-'79 demos, live tracks, and other rarities. The Cure's first US release was 1980's BOYS DON'T CRY, which replaced a number of TIB's tracks with previously non-LP singles, presenting a significantly different picture of the band.\nFar from the cloudy, effects-drenched goth-pop sound that later became its trademark, the Cure is in stripped-down mode here, delivering fairly straight-ahead post-punk tunes suggestive of a less angst-ridden Joy Division or a funkless Gang of Four. The stark, rhythm-guitar-dominated sound makes excellent use of space, suggesting a familiarity with dub that's confirmed by the reggae-tinged "Meat Hook" (one of the tracks left off BOYS DON'T CRY). The rarities disc completes the picture, showing the earliest developmental stages of the band and presenting staples such as "Boys Don't Cry" and "10:15 Saturday Night" in embryonic form.\n\nIndustry Reviews\n[A]mazing...\n\n4 stars out of 5 - In 1978, The Cure, suburban teens indebted to punk, sounded fresh and unusual even then, penning unorthodox pop like 'Fire In Cairo'.
This rock cd contains 13 tracks and runs 35min 41sec.
Freedb: a6085b0d
Buy: from Amazon.com

Categories

Latest lists

The Cure: Three Imaginary Boys (UK Edition) CD Track Listing

Category

Tags

cyList

Legal