Legendary gothic rock artist and The Cure frontman Robert Smith says “dumb pop lyrics” are harder to write than “outpourings of the heart”.
The Disintegration songwriter suggested it was much trickier to write pieces of light entertainment than it was to create the harsher-sounding songs which can be found in The Cure’s earlier works. Though regarded as one of their most popular songs, Friday I’m in Love proved tricky to write, according to The Cure frontman, whose work on Songs of a Lost World last year featured the band’s signature, cold rock style. Smith has gone as far as to suggest that those who like Friday I’m in Love are not fans of the band. Whether Smith has softened on comments made to Musikexpress in 2000 is unknown, though the band still features their Wish hit in many of their setlists.
He said: “The people who like Friday I’m in Love aren’t actually fans of The Cure. They’re not the ones who buy my records.” Smith would later suggest he had struggled to write the song, mentioning as much in an interview given to SPIN magazine. The “out of character” song seemed difficult for Smith to create, especially when it came to avoiding the feeling of being “desperate”.
Smith explained: “Friday I’m in Love is a dumb pop song, but it’s quite excellent actually because it’s so absurd. It’s so out of character – very optimistic and really out there in happy land. It’s nice to get that counterbalance.
“People think we’re supposed to be leaders of some sort of ‘gloom movement.’ I could sit and write gloomy songs all day long, but I just don’t see the point. Genuinely dumb pop lyrics are much more difficult to write than my usual outpourings through the heart.
“I went through hundreds of sheets of paper trying to get words for this record. You have to hit something that’s not cringing – a simplicity and naiveté that communicates. There’s a dumbness that sort of cracks. We’ve always done pop songs. It’s just sometimes they’re way too down—sort of desperate.”
The song itself was recorded on, ironically, a Friday night. Smith recalled: “I remember driving home one Friday afternoon to have the weekend off. And I started to think of this really great chord sequence. I was about 20 minutes away from the studio.
“So I turned around, went back to the studio and everyone was still there. We actually recorded it that Friday night. So from then on it was always just called “Friday.” Then, when I came to do the words for it, I thought, why don’t I do a song about that Friday feeling? It’s a thing you have at school, and lots of people work at jobs they don’t really enjoy. So that Friday afternoon feeling is something you look forward to.”
Though Smith may have struggled to put the song together, it has become one of the band’s most-played live songs. The group first performed it in 1992, with further live outings meaning The Cure has played it a total of four hundred and ninety-seven times, according to Setlist.FM.
Other mainstays of their setlist include Boys Don’t Cry, which the group has played over a thousand times, as well as From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, which The Cure has performed a total of six hundred and seventy-seven times.
