The Cure - Charlotte Sometimes (1981)

"Charlotte Sometimes" is a 1981 single by The Cure. The lyrics to both sides were based on the 1969 children's novel of the same name by British writer Penelope Farmer. The single peaked at number forty-four in the UK Singles Chart. The song "Charlotte Sometimes" is based on Charlotte Sometimes,[1] a children's novel by British writer Penelope Farmer, published in 1969.

Lyrics include "she was crying and crying for a girl who died so many years before" and "sometimes I'm dreaming where all the other people dance". It has dream-like rhythmic and melodic structures; recurring modal transitions, numerous harmonic suspensions and lamenting vocals create a feeling of inevitable drift into darkness. Originally a non-album single released in between Faith and Pornography, the song later appears on the 2005 reissue of Faith. A powerful live take was included on the Concert album.

The B-Side of "Charlotte Sometimes" is "Splintered in Her Head", which is also based on the novel.[1] The mood of "Splintered in Her Head" is overall more disquieting, with metallic, distorted vocals and heavy percussion, foreshadowing the next year's Pornography. The Cure released a third song based on the novel, called The Empty World on the album The Top.

The ten minute live version of Faith on the B-side of the 12" version was recorded at the Sydney Capitol Theatre in August 1981 by the then Australian Broadcasting Commission's youth radio station 2JJJ. This version is reproduced on Disc 2 of the deluxe reissue of album Faith.

The music video for the song was filmed at Holloway Sanitorium, the location of several other high profile music video shoots in the 1980s. It features the character of Charlotte recreating scenes from the story in the presence of the band, while Smith mimes the words of the song.

The cover of the single is a distorted picture of Mary Poole, Robert's then-girlfriend and now-wife. The same picture was used again as the cover of The Cure's 1990 single Pictures of You, but in that case the picture was clear and undistorted.

Lyrics:
all the faces
all the voices blur
change to one face
change to one voice
prepare yourself for bed
the light seems bright
and glares on white walls
all the sounds of
charlotte sometimes
into the night with
charlotte sometimes

night after night she lay alone in bed
her eyes so open to the dark
the streets all looked so strange
they seemed so far away
but charlotte did not cry

the people seemed so close
playing expressionless games
the people seemed
so close
so many
different names...

sometimes i'm dreaming
where all the other people dance
sometimes i'm dreaming
charlotte sometimes
sometimes i'm dreaming
expressionless the trance
sometimes i'm dreaming
so many different names
sometimes i'm dreaming
the sounds all stay the same
sometimes i'm dreaming
she hopes to open shadowed eyes
on a different world
come to me
scared princess
charlotte sometimes

on that bleak track
(see the sun is gone again)
the tears were pouring down her face
she was crying and crying for a girl
who died so many years before...

sometimes i dream
where all the other people dance
sometimes i dream
charlotte sometimes
sometimes i dream
the sounds all stay the same
sometimes i'm dreaming
there are so many different names
sometimes i dream
sometimes i dream...

charlotte sometimes crying for herself
charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself
but it's always with love
with so much love it looks like
everything else
of charlotte sometimes
so far away
glass sealed and pretty
charlotte sometimes

Category:

Music

Tags:

• The
• Cure
• Charlotte
• Sometimes
• (1981)

[MrCdog3722]

love this song everytime i liisten i listen about 10x in a row love it, love the cure period.....

[ferpastorino]

Superb!!!

[MrBelorix]

Aswesome song ^__^