The Cure’s first album comes out in 1979. It’s called Three Imaginary Boys. The band consists of Robert Smith, who plays guitar, sings and writes the songs, Michael Dempsey, who plays bass, and Laurence “Lol” Tolhurst, who plays drums. All three are from England, as is their album.

Same LP comes out in the States a little later, minus Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” and three other tracks. It’s called Boys Don’t Cry, it features that song, a few more new ones, and “Killing An Arab,” their debut single based on The Stranger,

by zany humorist Albert Camus. Song’s protagonist is on a beach, standing over an “Arab.” Should he kill him? Key line “Whichever I choose amounts to the same/Absolutely nothing.” Anyway, he kills him.

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It’s their last American album for some time.

Next up are Seventeen Seconds and Faith. The Cure’s personnel has changed. The band used to be abrasive; here, they become silky smooth. Smith used to almost sneer his lyrics; now, they’re occasionally inaudible, purposely subliminal. There are keyboards. Prior dabblings in kiddie existentialism finally result in cheery tunes the likes of “At Night,” “The Final Sound,” “The Drowning Mart” and “The Funeral Party.” Yee-hah'