Editing Robert Smith (musician) (section)

===The Cure: 1976–present===
{{Main|The Cure}}

====As singer and frontman====
Smith did not intend to become the lead vocalist of the Cure. Bowler and Dray note that the Obelisk had "featured Dempsey and Ceccagno as guitarists and him [Robert] on piano as very much a background player."<ref name="Bowler & Dray, p. 10">Bowler, Dave, and Bryan Dray, ''The Cure – Faith'', (1995), Sidgwick & Jackson, p. 10; {{ISBN|0-283-06229-0}}</ref> As the Group gradually became Malice and began regular rehearsals in January 1976, Smith was still one of several floating members.<ref name="Bowler & Dray, p. 10"/><ref>Membership "used to fluctuate between five and fifteen" people according to Smith.</ref> Of their first "proper" rehearsal at St Edwards Church, Smith said:

{{blockquote|I think it all came about because Marc Ceccagno wanted to be a guitar hero. Michael had a bass, I had got hold of a guitar and our first drummer, Graham, had a drum kit. His brother had an amp and a mic, so he sang.<ref>Apter, Jeff, ''Never Enough: The Story of The Cure'', (2009) Omnibus Press, p. 33; {{ISBN|978-1-84772-739-8}}</ref>}}

By December 1976, Graham's brother had been replaced by vocalist Martin Creasy, a journalist with ''[[Crawley#Media|The Crawley Observer]]'', whose brief tenure with the group was a live débâcle according to those involved.<ref name="Barbarian, Sutherland & Smith">Barbarian, L., Steve Sutherland & Robert Smith, ''Ten Imaginary Years'', (1988), Zomba Books; {{ISBN|0-946391-87-4}}</ref> By January 1977 Malice had changed their name to Easy Cure,<ref name="Thompson & Greene, p. 6">Thompson, Dave & Jo-Ann Greene. ''The Cure – A Visual Documentary'', (1988), Omnibus Press, p. 6; {{ISBN|0-7119-1387-0}}</ref> partly to distance themselves from these earlier shows. Both drummer Lol Tolhurst and bassist Mick Dempsey are also noted as having performed vocals with the group in the early years. Tolhurst also sang on a cover of "[[Wild Thing (The Troggs song)|Wild Thing]]" at Malice's early shows,<ref>Thompson, Dave & Jo-Ann Greene. ''The Cure – A Visual Documentary'' (1988), Omnibus Press, p. 6; {{ISBN|0-7119-1387-0}})</ref> and Dempsey sang backing vocals on songs like "Killing An Arab", and even recorded lead vocals on one track on the Cure's debut album, their cover of Hendrix's "Foxy Lady".<ref>''Cure News 5'', May 1988.</ref><ref>''Cure News 11'', October 1991</ref> During March 1977, a vocalist named Gary X came and went, and was replaced by Peter O'Toole, described as "a demon footballer and Bowie fan" who made his singing debut in April.<ref name="Barbarian, Sutherland & Smith"/> O'Toole remained Easy Cure's steady front man for several months while the group played the local pub circuit, "building up an enormous local following", and was even the singer on the home demo tapes that landed them their first recording contract with [[Hansa Records]].<ref name="Thompson & Greene, p. 6"/>

However, by the time Easy Cure entered London's Sound And Vision Studio to record for Hansa in October 1977, O'Toole had left to work on a [[Kibbutz]] in Israel.<ref name="Barbarian, Sutherland & Smith"/> Smith then fell into the vocalist role by default, since no better replacement appeared. He told ''[[Musician (magazine)|Musician]]'' magazine in 1989: {{Blockquote|When we started, and were playing in pubs, I wasn't the singer ... I was the drunk rhythm guitarist who wrote all these weird songs. We went through about five different singers – they were fucking useless, basically. I always ended up thinking, 'I could do better than this.' ... I mean, I hated my voice, but I didn't hate it more than I hated everyone else's voice ... So I thought, 'If I can get away with that, I can be the singer.' I've worked on that basis ever since.<ref>Considine, J. D., "What's The Big Idea? Robert Smith's Conception of the Cure", ''[[Musician (magazine)|Musician]]'', 1989.</ref>}}

On 14 October 2024, Smith announced that he plans on retiring in 2029. "I’m 70 in 2029, and that’s the 50th anniversary of the first Cure album [''[[Three Imaginary Boys]]'']. If I make it that far, that’s it. In the intervening time, I’d like to include playing concerts as part of the overall plan of what we’re going to do. I’ve loved it; the last 10 years of playing shows have been the best 10 years of being in the band. It pisses all over the other 30-odd years! It’s been great" Smith said.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fu|first1=Eddie |title=The Cure Will Retire After 50th Anniversary of Debut Album in 2029 |url=https://consequence.net/2024/10/the-cure-retire-50th-anniversary |website=Consequence |access-date=14 October 2024 |date=14 October 2024}}</ref>

====As principal songwriter====
Smith was also not the sole songwriter or lyricist in the group during their early years; the band name Easy Cure came from a song penned by Lol Tolhurst,<ref>Bowler, Dave, and Bryan Dray. ''The Cure – Faith'' (1995). Sidgwick & Jackson. p. 15; {{ISBN|0-283-06229-0}}</ref> while Grinding Halt began as a Tolhurst lyric that Smith shortened to the first half of each line.<ref>Apter, Jeff, ''Never Enough: The Story of The Cure'', (2009) Omnibus Press, p. 90; {{ISBN|978-1-84772-739-8}}</ref><ref group="note">The Easy Cure "group home demo" of "Grinding Halt" from March 1978, with Tolhurst's longer original lyric, was later released on ''Deluxe Edition'' (2004) of ''Three Imaginary Boys''.</ref> Easy Cure condensed its name to the Cure shortly afterwards.<ref>{{cite book |last=Apter |first=Jeff |year=2006 |title=Never Enough: The Story of The Cure |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |isbn=1-84449-827-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/neverenoughstory00apte |pages=56–57}}</ref> During 1978–79, Smith composed and recorded demo versions of some of the Cure's definitive early songs on his sister Janet's [[Hammond organ]] with a built-in tape recorder, including "[[10:15 Saturday Night]]".<ref>Beebe Lapriore, Elaine. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A245-2004Dec14.html "Rediscovering The Cure: Group's 1979 Debut Arrives at Last"], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 15 December 2004; retrieved 15 October 2012.</ref><ref group="note">"Robert Smith home demo" version of "10:15 Saturday Night", recorded in February 1978, appears on the 2004 ''Deluxe Edition'' of ''Three Imaginary Boys''.</ref>

By the time the ''[[NME]]'' interviewed the band in October 1979 during their tour with [[Siouxsie and the Banshees]], Smith was acknowledged as the principal writer of "almost all of the Cure's songs and lyrics", and stated that he was uncomfortable playing and singing songs that were not his own.<ref>Pearson, Deanne, "No Image, No Style, No Bullshit", ''NME'', 6 October 1979.</ref> Following his return from the Banshees' tour, Smith also composed most of the music for the album ''[[Seventeen Seconds]]'' using the Hammond, a [[drum machine]] and his trademark Top 20 Woolworth's guitar, during a home demo session in his parents' basement. Most of the lyrics had been written in one night in Newcastle.<ref>Apter, Jeff. ''Never Enough: The Story of The Cure'', (2009), Omnibus Press, p. 106; {{ISBN|978-1-84772-739-8}}</ref><ref group="note">Some of the new songs, however, had been debuted live while on the Banshees tour.(Thompson, Dave & Jo-Ann Greene, ''The Cure – A Visual Documentary'', (1988), Omnibus Press, p. 18; {{ISBN|0-7119-1387-0}})</ref> Michael Dempsey, discussing his own departure from the group at this time, later remarked: {{Blockquote|Robert's new songs were more of a personal statement – entirely personal to him – and I couldn't make that statement on his behalf.<ref name="Bowler & Dray, 1995, p. 52">Bowler, Dave, and Bryan Dray. ''The Cure – Faith'', (1995), Sidgwick & Jackson, p. 52; {{ISBN|0-283-06229-0}}</ref>}}

Although Smith wrote most of the lyrics for ''Seventeen Seconds'', many were also rewritten by the group during the recording of the album itself. Dempsey's replacement Simon Gallup described the collective writing process to ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]'' in 1980: {{Blockquote|When we play new songs live Robert [[Ad libitum|ad libs]] [vocals] a lot until he gets the feel of it. Then when we record it if it's still not right it means everyone sitting around Chris Parry's (their manager's) kitchen all night scrawling sheets and sheets of paper – for "At Night" we got really desperate and finished up at six in the morning with Lol standing on the table pressing his head against the ceiling because he thought that might help.<ref name="Manhattan Interiors">Sutcliffe, Phil, "Manhattan Interiors", ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds (UK)]]'', 3 May 1980</ref>}} Lol Tolhurst later stated that he, Gallup and Smith all wrote lyrics for the Cure's early albums, and that the group dynamic only changed after their 1982 album ''[[Pornography (album)|Pornography]]'': {{Blockquote|Generally as Robert had to sing the words he chose which ones he sang but they were from all of us. He kept a big box of words to which I contributed from time to time (Simon too) and he would use them all for songs.<ref name="Tolhurst hispaCure Interview">{{cite web |url=http://www.hispacure.com/b/prensa/archivo/reportajes/hispacure/HispaCure_interview_to_Lol_Tolhurst_April2007.pdf |title=Lol Tolhurst, el gato gris |publisher=Hispacure.com |date=April 2007 |access-date=29 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208090429/http://www.hispacure.com/b/prensa/archivo/reportajes/hispacure/HispaCure_interview_to_Lol_Tolhurst_April2007.pdf |archive-date=8 February 2012}}</ref>}} Tolhurst claimed to have written the lyrics for "All Cats Are Grey" from the 1981 album ''[[Faith (The Cure album)|Faith]]'', which he later re-recorded with his own project, [[Levinhurst]].<ref name="Tolhurst hispaCure Interview"/> In contrast to Tolhurst's recollection of their songwriting as a group effort until after ''Pornography'', in 1982 Smith claimed to have written "90 per cent of the ''Pornography'' album", and that he therefore could not leave the Cure, because it would not be the Cure without him.<ref name="The Incurables">Sutherland, Steve, "The Incurables", ''Melody Maker'', 18 December 1982.</ref>

For their first four albums (''Three Imaginary Boys'', ''Seventeen Seconds'', ''Faith'' and ''Pornography''), all members of the group had received equal songwriting credits. With Simon Gallup's departure reducing the group to a duo, and Tolhurst quitting drums to start taking keyboard lessons,<ref name="The Incurables"/> from July 1982 until Gallup's return in February 1985, according to Smith, much of the writing and recording process within the Cure effectively became a solo effort. Nonetheless, Tolhurst was credited as co-writer of five of the eight songs featured on 1983's singles and b-sides collection ''[[Japanese Whispers]]'' (including "Let's Go to Bed" and "[[The Walk (The Cure song)|The Walk]]"), while "[[The Love Cats (song)|The Love Cats]]", "Lament" and "The Dream" were credited to Smith only.<ref>True, Chris. [https://www.allmusic.com/album/japanese-whispers-mw0000198005 "Japanese Whispers – The Cure"], Allmusic.com; retrieved 29 October 2012.</ref> Of 1984's ''[[The Top (album)|The Top]]'', Smith would say it was "the solo album I never made",<ref>Inskeep, Thomas. [http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/the-cure/the-top-the-head-on-the-door-kiss-me-kiss-me-kiss-me.htm "The Cure – The Top/The Head on the Door/Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me"], ''[[Stylus Magazine]]'', 20 November 2006; retrieved 29 October 2012.</ref> having played nearly all instruments himself except for drums (by Andy Anderson),<ref>Thompson, Dave & Jo-Ann Greene. ''The Cure – A Visual Documentary'', (1988), Omnibus Press, p. 58; {{ISBN|0-7119-1387-0}}</ref> with Porl Thompson contributing saxophone to one song ("Give Me It"),<ref name="picturesofyou.us">{{cite web |url=http://www.picturesofyou.us/86/rs-this-is-your-life-1.htm |title=Smash Hits, May 1986 |access-date=19 November 2020}}</ref> and Tolhurst contributing keyboards to 3 of the album's 10 songs.

In 1985, the band had success with ''[[The Head on the Door]]'', with Smith as the sole songwriter. The line-up also included Gallup, Tolhurst, Thompson and [[Boris Williams]]. In 1987, the double album ''[[Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me]]'', with singles "[[Just Like Heaven (The Cure song)|Just Like Heaven]]" and "[[Hot Hot Hot!!! (The Cure song)|Hot, Hot, Hot!]]" was released to increasing popularity for the band in the US. From that time and on subsequent records, the writing was made by the whole band but still with Smith as the main composer and arranger.