Hey You!

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was written by Robert Smith and released by the Cure in 1987. It contains the line 'You, the one that looks like Christmas', which is one reason why I think about it this time of year.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think I may have underestimated the number of exclamation marks. There are probably at least three.

I don't think this song has ever been mentioned on ILM before.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think of "Let's Go to Bed": "Laughing at the Christmas lights/we remember from December."

― John Darnielle, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Both work! Hurrah! We need Dan on this to make it a real Cure discussion, though. :-) There's at least one other Xmas/holiday- referring song of theirs, isn't there...

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Last Dance" from Disintegration (1989)
"but christmas falls late now flatter and colder and never as bright as when we used to fall"
― Vic Funk, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

D'oh.

― Vic Funk, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Raggett is correct in pointing out the Cure's general Xmas affinity. Which is surprising on the face of it (is it? ) but to which I've grown used. Ever since a drummer, ten long years ago, as we were forming a band, nervously joked that the way to write a Cure song was xyz and 'something about Christmas'. I didn't know what he meant but I soon became convinced. There's probably more than these 3 songs too.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

About the song itself: I see it among other things as a second title song after 'The Kiss' (opening lines of KMKMKM), ie. 'Come over here and kiss me, kiss me'. Right?

The drums at the start are good and announce a change of mood and tempo. There's a strong sort of unhinged bass line. A lot of horns, about which I'm not sure. And, at the end, the echoing extra vocals going

Hey you!!! H-h-h-h-Hey You!!!

H-h-h-h-Hey You!!!

H-h-h-h-Hey You!!! Which I have always considered one of the Cure's more SCARY moments.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Christmas fits ideally with this era of the Cure. It is bright and gaudy like their outward signifiers -- imagine Smith with print shirt and rouged cheeks standing beside an overdecorated tree -- but it is at heart an ostensibly solemn, emotional thing, and in some contexts a thing bordering upon sad. The beauty of KMKMKM, as I saw it, was finding an odd connection between signifiers of bitter torture and bright giddiness, and managing to combine them to signify a third emotional state -- a sort of end-of-rope, depression giving way to a maniacal fuck-it-all glee thing -- which is important in terms of "Hey You."

Running order again -- note that it comes bursting out of "The Snakepit" (which also mentions Christmas, incidentally). And despite the forceful instrumental buildup and giddy passion in the vocals, it doesn't have a lot to say: basically just hey you get over here and kiss me, in repeated forms, giving a sense that the request is a awfully sincere and meaningful one, even a crazed one. There's very nearly an implied curse of frustration: come over here and do this, goddamnit.

Most of the record strikes me like this: celebratory music, but music for celebrating one's own frustrations and disappointments.

― Nitsuh, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Quite right to all of this! I would say more but I'm about out of here for SF and then Carmel, so you'll have to discuss without me. Back on the 27th. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree with Nitsuh's comment above - he troubles to articulate properly what I was merely gesturing towards.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And I just thought they were fat goths who liked to get bladdered...

― Snotty Moore, Tuesday, 25 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four months pass...

Well I've never heard this, but I love the Pink Floyd song "Hey You".

― Anna Rose, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Today I heard 'Hey You! [!!(?)]' again for the first time in probably a year.

The above still applies, I expect.

Some other songs I still like on that terrific record include:

Torture - those high notes in the riff / How Beautiful You Are: the way the drums and piano chase each other in / If Only Tonight: maybe for the instrumental chorus at the start / The Snakepit: not much, but I like the verse lyrics about Christmas and stupid girls / and almost literally many more.

― the curefox, Tuesday, 23 December 2003 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

It should have three !'s in the title: I am surprised my thread did not register that from the start.

I'll give it another listen, soon!

― the snowfox, Friday, 23 December 2005 10:28 (twenty years ago)

Nitsuh painfully OTM

― Baaderonixx weaves a daisy chain for... SATAN!! (baaderonixx), Friday, 23 December 2005 10:33 (twenty years ago)

so i was the only one who shouted out :

".. the Rocksteady Crew! show'em what to do make a break make a move'
(or something along those lines)

when this thread title popped up in the list ?

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 23 December 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

.. yeah, you. Elvis is dead...

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 December 2005 11:24 (twenty years ago)

I'll listen to it, later.

― the snowfox, Saturday, 24 December 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

I started singing Mr Magic by And The Native Hipsters when I saw this thread title.

― emil.y (emil.y), Saturday, 24 December 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

It could be a day to listen to this song.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 23 December 2010 11:24 (fifteen years ago)

never noticed the recurring christmas motif in the cure's lyrics, but i have been listening to them a lot lately. coincidence? not according to this thread!

in particular, i was craving to listen to 'kiss me' again, so i went to download it, right, but what is normally a two-step process was complicated by the fact that all of the downloads i found did not include 'hey you!' or were in atrocious bitrates.

so strange that the first cd pressings of this album did not include this fantastic, standout track.

― marc iv, Thursday, 23 December 2010 11:35 (fifteen years ago)

they didn't??

I didn't know that.

I was thinking the other day of buying the 2CD rerelease. Or is my old tape, already 2nd-hand in 1992, enough?

― the pinefox, Thursday, 23 December 2010 11:57 (fifteen years ago)

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