Strange as Angels
30 Days of Writing Challenge Day 11: “a song you never tired of”
I spent a lot of time thinking about what song I’m going to tell you all today. I have a unique cycle in listening to music. I listen to something that suits my mood and perfect tune for my ears, then when I found something new, poof! The old ones are buried until I dig them back again 4–5 years later, like “ooh, I remember I used to love this song”. It’s the same thing that happened to the song I’m going to talk about today. When I was in 9th grade, I discovered this song and listened to it until I went to high school and swim into the hardcore music world. The song was gone from my playlist until it made its comeback in my first year of college. I choose to write about this song because right now, this song is still chilling in my playlist (I’m about to enter the 3rd year of college). I guess it still counts. I mean, I wasn’t tired of that song; I found something new to replace it. It’s The Cure’s Just Like Heaven.
The first reason this song sticks in my playlist is how simple this song is. It’s a song from 1987, consists of vocals, guitars, bass, drum, piano & synthesizers. This song’s intro guitar riff is too simple that it’s stuck in my head, with the same beat for the rest of the song. Even the solo part is only a piano solo with a delay effect. I don’t know what kind of sorcery this song has and made it sounds magical, just like heaven.
This song’s story is also interesting. It’s a casual love story packed beautifully with Robert Smith’s words.
“Show me, show me, show me how to do that trick
The one that makes me scream”, she said
“The one that makes me laugh”, she said
And threw her arms around my neck
“Show me how you do it, and I promise you
I promise that I’ll run away with you
I’ll run away with you”Spinning on that dizzy edge
Kissed her face and kissed her head
Dreamed of all the different ways I had to make her glow
“Why are you so far away?”, she said
“Why won’t you ever know that I’m in love with you?
That I’m in love with you?”
According to The Guardian, Robert Smith, the songwriter, has claimed that the first verse is rooted in his boyhood memories of practicing magic. A story of a boy that fell in love with a girl, and having their moment on the cliff. Their kiss made him dizzy as his feelings for her are strong. And the girl asked why is he out of reach, while the boy felt insecure about being with her although he is in love.
Smith also said that this song was written about a night he spent near the cliffs above the sea of Beachy Head at East Sussex, where he was left by his friends in foggy cliffs after some drinks, and his friends didn’t even look for him. But he chose to just enjoy the moment and sit until the fogs are gone, but end up slept until dawn. The story is clearly poured in to these parts:
You, soft and only
You, lost and lonely
You, strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water, you’re just like a dream
As he stands on the cliff above the sea, the waves are crumbling and twisting like angels dancing. No other sound except the sound of waves crashing to the shore. It feels like a dream, she is just like a dream for him.
Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone, alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me
Then the girl left him, but the ending is just pure cuteness for me. It’s when you’re madly in love and even though she left you after a kiss, you’re too in love and still think:
You, soft and only
You, lost and lonely
You, just like heaven
That part above comes after the solo, and become the end of the song. The song ends as she left him and he was still so in love with her.
I don’t know maybe you all should hear this song by yourselves. But all I know is there is something in this song’s story that sticks in my mind, and this song became a song that I never tired of.
