Between the end of the Seventies and the beginning of the Eighties, the Cure contributed to redefining the language of post-punk, alongside groups such as Joy Division, Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees in the birth of a new musical aesthetic, darker, more introspective and experimental. A decisive role in this transformation was played by Robert Smith, who in 1979 temporarily joined the Banshees as guitarist during the British band's British tour, replacing John McKay.
That experience profoundly changed his artistic vision. “The first night on stage with the Banshees I was overwhelmed by the power of that kind of music. It was completely different from what we were doing with the Cure. Until then I wanted us to be some sort of Buzzcocks or Elvis Costello, the Beatles of punk. But playing with the Banshees completely changed my perspective,” Smith recalled.
After the albums “Seventeen Seconds” (1980) and “Faith” (1981), fundamental works in the definition of sound gothic of the group, Robert Smith and companions released a single standalone entitled “Charlotte Sometimes”. The song, released in October 1981, is a tribute to one of Robert Smith's most beloved novels: “Charlotte Sometimes”, written by Penelope Farmer and published in 1969.
As the Cure's musical atmospheres gradually darkened, Smith's lyrics also became increasingly influenced by literature. More than telling linear stories, the singer began to explore dreams, shifting identities, memory and reality, finding in books the same sense of emotional ambiguity that he sought in music. Among its authors of reference were Albert Camus, a source of inspiration for “Killing An Arab”, and Franz Kafka, but Penelope Farmer's novel occupied a special place.
The story follows Charlotte, a young girl who, after her first night at boarding school, awakens forty years in the past and in the body of another child. The theme of the double, of the splitting of identity and of the confusion between present and past deeply affected Smith, who also included in the text some sentences taken almost literally from the incipit of the book. The opening words of the novel, “By bedtime all the faces, the voices, had blurred for Charlotte to one face, one voice”, in fact become in the song: “All the faces/ All the voices blur/ Change to one face/ Change to one voice”.
Robert Smith has repeatedly included “Charlotte Sometimes” among his favorite books, explaining the reason for his connection with that work: “I was obsessed with 'Charlotte Sometimes', with that idea of temporal collapse, duality, identity problems and the suffering that comes from it”. Then, he added: “Charlotte, after her first night at boarding school, wakes up forty years in the past and in the body of another person. This connects to the theme of twins, on which Penelope Farmer wrote a fascinating book, Two or the Book of Twins and Doubles. I have always dreamed of having a twin, someone who cannot be fooled, who is always there, like a mirror.”
The protagonist of the novel is Charlotte Makepeace, a little girl who arrives at an English boarding school in 1958. The first night she falls asleep in the dormitory and, when she wakes up, she suddenly finds herself in 1918. The world around her has changed: the First World War is underway, her classmates are different and everyone calls her Clare. The next day, however, Charlotte wakes up again in 1958. From that moment on, every night she continues to oscillate between the two eras.
As the days pass, Charlotte realizes that she and Clare are somehow switching places in time. Having just arrived at boarding school, no one notices anything strange in 1958, while in 1918 it is Emily, Clare's sister, who immediately realizes that the girl is not really her sister. Charlotte can't explain what's happening, but she suspects it all depends on the bed she and Clare share in their respective eras.
The balance is broken when, during one of her stays in 1918, Charlotte is transferred to another dormitory. Deprived of the bed that served as a mysterious link between past and present, she risks being trapped in the wrong time. From here begins a series of increasingly disturbing events, which force her to question her own identity and the very meaning of her relationship with Clare.
More than a simple time travel novel, “Charlotte Sometimes” uses the fantastic device to tell the identity crisis typical of adolescence. The continuous passage between two eras becomes the metaphor of the difficulty of recognizing oneself, of the fear of losing one's personality and of the delicate transition from childhood to adulthood. Penelope Farmer thus constructs a story suspended between dream and reality, capable of combining fairy-tale atmospheres and profound psychological anxieties, transforming time travel into an intimate exploration of growth and self-search.
More than forty years after its release, “Charlotte Sometimes” remains one of the most evocative episodes of the Cure's early period. A danceable and romantic song, where Smith seems to identify himself, not for the last time, with a sweet and dreamy feminine ideal, the only lifeline in the face of the sincere anguish that seems to grip him. A perfect example of how the Cure frontman has been able to merge literature and music in a unique poetic universe, suspended between dream, melancholy and restlessness.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
