Music Montag: The Cure
by James Glazebrook
Bet you didn’t know The Cure were once signed to Berlin’s Hansa Records. For like, a second…
On the pointed club crossover 12-inch in question (Boys Don’t Cry), Smith balanced out its somewhat grotesque ambition by lampooning their early days: Included on the flipside were the slinking, original 1979 track “Plastic Passion”, the faltering pop/punk stab “Pillbox Tales”, and an in-studio disco joke, “Do the Hansa”. Recorded under the name Easy Cure in 1978, the last two tunes were leftovers from the group’s first big break, a contract with Germany’s then-largest independent label, Hansa, whose interest in the band proved superficial. After being pressured to record covers of Paul Revere & The Raiders’ “Great Airplane Strike” and the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law” (which, by that time, The Clash were already well known for), Easy Cure took their £1000, their tapes and their pride home with them, then recorded “Do the Hansa”, an embittered shot at the suits.
