About a year ago, Rhino Records reissued the early albums by The Cure in deluxe two-disc, slipcased editions packed with rare demos, live tracks and more. "Three Imaginary Boys," "Seventeen Seconds," "Faith" and "Pornography" were among the records that guided me through junior high and high school, so I devoured the reissues and smiled as I made space for them in the CD rack.
Now, there are similar versions of "The Top," "The Head on the Door" and "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" -- three records that I only mildly paid attention to back in the day. I know I bought 'em, but I'm hard pressed to picture myself listening to any of the other than 1984's "The Top."
But if anything can draw me back in, it's these carefully-compiled sets with the original LP on one CD and demos, alternate mixes and live material on the second disc (presumably all the singles b-sides are absent because Rhino has also done a box set of those, but it seems sad, especially when there's room on disc one for them).
These were the years (1984-'88) when, more than at any other time in the band's career, The Cure balanced its doomy, gloomy goth rock with light-hearted, infectious pop tunes and somehow made it work. Presumably, a deluxe edition of 1989's huge U.S. breakthrough "Disintegration" will follow.
Especially interesting are Robert Smith's demos for familiar tracks like "Inbetween Days," "The Caterpillar" and "Just Like Heaven," that help illustrate how the band took sometimes little more than a nugget of an idea and shaped it into a great little pop song.
The liner notes are informative and the booklets also have lots of pictures and lyrics.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
