Martin, (our esteemed Swedish correspondent), had this to say yesterday in respect of The Cure/Banshees/The Glove and all the music that Robert Smith was involved in back in 1983:-
I must point out that the B-side of the first single by The Glove (Like an animal) is one of the best pop songs ever recorded by RS, Mouth To Mouth.
Note I post this as a fact.
Dirk, (one of our esteemed German correspondents), mused thus:-
Even better than the A-Side, Martin? Must listen to it once I get home … and if it ever comes to an ICA, ‘Like An Animal’ M.U.S.T. be included … at least as far as I’m concerned …
To which Martin responded….
Dirk – In my eyes, yes without a doubt! And it has Robert singing as if I remember correctly he could for contractual reasons not do the lead vocals on any of the singles. Like an animal has Landray on vocals.
I was intrigued by this exchange and went hunting for info.
Wiki is reasonably helpful as far as facts are concerned:-
Meanwhile, Severin and Smith both started to work on a project called the Glove. The band’s name referred to the enormous flying glove in the Beatles’ 1968 animated movie Yellow Submarine. Their album’s title, Blue Sunshine, referred to the horror film Blue Sunshine, in which people who took the fictional “Blue Sunshine” variety of LSD became psychotic murderers 10 years later.
Since Smith was contractually prohibited from singing with another band (one of the reasons he cited for the 2001 split from the Cure’s longtime label), former Zoo dancer Jeanette Landray (a former girlfriend of Severin’s bandmate Budgie) was recruited as the lead singer.
What I did find was that the b-side of the single did in fact feature Landray on lead vocal – that was certainly my recollection from the time (I never owned the 45 but a flatmate had a copy). I’m guessing what Martin had in mind is the demo version of Mouth to Mouth which was made available back in 2006 when Blue Sunshine was remastered and re-released as a 2-CD set with the second disc containing what had been twelve unreleased demo versions on which Robert had taken the lead vocal.
mp3 : The Glove – Like An Animal
mp3 : The Glove – Mouth To Mouth
mp3 : The Glove – Mouth To Mouth (demo version)
Regardless of things, all three tracks are well worth a few minutes of your time.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 