Three Imaginary Boys



Three Imaginary Boys is the debut studio album by British alternative rock band the Cure, released on 8 May 1979 by record label Fiction. It was later released in the United States and Australia with a different song track list as Boys Don't Cry.

Release
Three Imaginary Boys was released on 8 May 1979 by record label Fiction. The record company decided which songs were put on the album, as well as the cover artwork, without Robert Smith's consent. For all Cure albums since, Smith has ensured he is given complete creative control over the final product before it goes on sale. The "Foxy Lady" soundcheck, with vocals sung by Michael Dempsey, was not supposed to be on the album, and was removed for the American release. Smith has stated that "songs like 'Object' and 'World War' and our cover of 'Foxy Lady' were [Chris Parry's] choice".

The album was reissued on 29 November 2004 and featured a second disc of unreleased material, including songs recorded under the band name Easy Cure with Porl Thompson. It was originally supposed to be released in early 2004 along with the band's next three studio albums, (Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography), but was delayed multiple times before being released by itself at the end of 2004. Since it featured a variety of old songs, it was the only Deluxe Edition by the band which did not include an alternate version of each song on the first disc. Some of the early booklets in the reissue had missing lyrics, which were made available on the Cure's website in PDF form. All copies since contain the lyrics. The band's first single, "Killing an Arab", was excluded from the reissue, most likely due to its controversial nature (see the article). A one-disc reissue was released on 5 September 2005, containing only the original album. It was also released in the standard jewel case, and not a box. In some countries, the Deluxe Edition has become a collector's item as production was phased out, being replaced by the more economic single-disc version.

Reception
Despite Smith's displeasure with the record, Three Imaginary Boys was well-received critically at the time of its release. Sounds ' Dave McCullough praised it in a 5-star review and noted: "The Cure are going somewhere different on each track, the ideas are startling and disarming". McCullough noted the variety of the material and qualified "Grinding Halt" as a "pop song that reminds you of the Isley Brothers or the Buzzcocks". Red Starr, writing in Smash Hits, described the album as a "brilliant, compelling debut". However, NME ' s Paul Morley didn't share the same point of view and wrote: "Most of the time, it's a voice catching its breath, a cautiously primitive riff guitar, toy drumming and a sprightly bass".

Chris True of AllMusic retrospectively christened it "a very strong debut", and a "semi-detached bit of late-'70s English pop-punk". Nitsuh Abebe of Pitchfork described the album as new wave and called it "as original a record as anything else to spin off from the tail end of punk." BBC said "Smith was forging his own take on the post-punk zeitgeist", while critic Martin Charles Strong said it "remains among the Cure's finest work, their strangely accessible post-punk snippets lent an air of suppressed melancholy".

Live performances
On the 2007–2008 4 Play Tour, the band performed, as an encore, "Three Imaginary Boys", "Fire in Cairo", "Boys Don't Cry", "Jumping Someone Else's Train", "Grinding Halt", "10:15 Saturday Night" and "Killing an Arab" (sung as "Killing Another") (the singles "Boys Don't Cry", "Jumping Someone Else's Train" and "Killing an Arab" were on the American edition of the album).

In 2011, the Cure performed the album in its entirety at venues in Sydney, New York and Los Angeles. These shows, billed as The Cure: "Reflections", were filmed for potential DVD release.

Track listing
Note
 * The album included an uncredited, final instrumental track informally called "The Weedy Burton". This fact was not acknowledged until the Deluxe Edition reissue.

Personnel
 The Cure


 * Robert Smith – guitar, lead vocals (all but 7), harmonica (6)
 * Michael Dempsey – bass, backing and lead (7) vocals
 * Lol Tolhurst – drums

 Additional personnel


 * Porl Thompson – lead guitar, backing vocals (1–4, 6, 7 of bonus disc)

 Technical


 * David Dragon – sleeve illustrations
 * Michael J. Dutton – "assistant"
 * Martyn Goddard – sleeve photography
 * Mike Hedges – engineering
 * Connie Jude – sleeve illustrations
 * Chris Parry – production
 * B. Smith – sleeve photography
 * Bill Smith – sleeve design