{ Lick That Riff! }

Forgive me Father for I have sinned, it has been 7 weeks since my last Hero Worship post. But what a way to carry on the Worship with  a  great, if not weird looking guitarist. He comes from a band that first formed in 1976, but had their most success in the 80′s. He is often considered as one of the pioneering guitarists of the Alternative Rock and Indie music scene. The band have sold more than 27 Million Albums worldwide and have their main success in the United States. They have had 13 studio albums to date with their eight studio album, Disintegration being their most successful with both critics and fans alike. Rolling Stone magazine placed Disintegration at 326 in their list of the 500 best albums and it sold over three million copies worldwide. So who is this amazing guitarist and amazing Alternative band? Well the band is of course, The Cure. And the legendary guitarist is the gothic-looking frontman, Robert Smith.

What Total Guitar Said About Him:

You Know Him By His: Iconic appearance, pained delivery and cascading guitar parts.

Greatest Moment: At 0:25 in Just Like Heaven, as the thunderous drums and synthesisers give way to Smith’s heartbreaking main lick.

We all know what Robert Smith looks like. He occupies that curious middle ground between grim reaper and clown; dressed entirely in black apart from his anaemic make-up and blood red lipstick. We all know what Robert Smith sounds like. It’s strangulated yelp, wracked with hatred and melancholia. Both the aspects of Smith have been picked apart by parents and media pundits alike since The Cure appeared in 1977. They’ve been parodied over a thousand column inches and sketch shows; lampooned by countless end-of-the-pier comedians looking for cheap laughs by putting on eyeliner and a rather silly voice.

What people don’t talk about so much is Smith’s playing. Because of the singer’s iconic status and vocal delivery, it seems to have slipped beneath the radar that he’s also an incredible guitarist. Like any androgynous young man worth his salt, Smith channeled his teenage disaffection with real life into the strings of his Gibson Country Gentleman, patenting a hybrid of rhythm and lead that carries all the band’s finest moments. It paid off. From the brooding intro riff of A Forest to the hypnotic glide of Lullaby, Smith always plays with imagination and considerable lightness of touch. He’s equally happy clunking out the play-in-a-day chord sequence of Boys Don’t Cry, or cascading through the exceptionally tricky opening chimes of Just Like Heaven.

If Smith was merely trading off a caricature, he could never have lasted four decades in the industry. His band’s far-reaching influence and continued success prove beyond doubt that the elements some people accuse Smith of being defined by – the slap, the mop, the moping – are actually just trimmings to the main event: fantastic songs played by an uncommon talent. Bloodless guitar parts and autopilot songwriting are diseases, and nearly 30 years after he first sulked out of the shadows, Robert Smith is still the cure.

Well that is it for this weeks worthy guitar hero worship. I hope you have enjoyed it this week and I hope this has opened a few peoples eyes to view Smith as more than a painted clown or gothic image, and look at his amazing guitar style and brilliant songwriting ability. Here I will leave you with my favourite Cure song. Enjoy.

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