THE CURE "THE WALK" 6-SONG EP FIRST PRESS FICTION/SIRE 1983 A BEAUTY

$

40

THE CURE "THE WALK" 6-SONG EP FIRST PRESS SIRE/FICTION 1983
THE CURE "THE WALK"  LABEL: SIRE/FICTION 1-23928 (9 23928-1 b on spine) RELEASED: JULY 5, 1983 EDITION: FIRST US PRESSING 6 SONG EP/MINI LP ARTWORK: PARCHED ART MASTERING: SHEFFIELD LABS (MATRIX w/ SLM △4754) PRESSING: ALLIED RECORD COMPANY ( ɑ IN MATRIX)  PRODUCER: STEVE NYE MATRIX (SIDE A): 1⋅23928 A SH2 [ɑ] B-18287 - SH2 SLM △4754 1-2  (scratched out) 0-1 SM 1-1 MATRIX (SIDE B): 1⋅23928 B SH1 [ɑ] B-18288 - SH1 SLM △4754-X 1-2 (scratched out) SP 0-1
CONDITION:  VINYL: EX-    JACKET: EX-
I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection recently and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 40 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
This week on EBay I am offering up this fantastic, clean copy of the US First Pressing of The Cure's 'The Walk' EP. A very nice, clean copy I've had in my collection for nearly 40 years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This 12" EP includes the Cure's 'hit' "Let's Go to Bed" and the hit "The Walk," along with 4 other great songs.
The bottom left of the front label has a circular label stating that this album is a "6 cut mini LP" and has a "$5.99 manufacturer's suggested list price"
The back cover has the Warner/Sire marketing information and the 'also available on cassette' comment.
Almost all of the songs on this Mini LP can be found on the compilation album 'Japanese Whispers' and the later 'Join The Dots' box set. 'Whispers' adds the 2 additional songs, "Speak My Language" and "The Lovecats"
The only thing that's really 'unique' to this EP is the extended version of 'Just One Kiss' which has never been released on other other Cure record or on any Cure CD.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many Cure fans call this release the 'Fly' album for obvious reasons. The Fly on the cover is caught mid 'walk' and it's a great image. It's very 'Cure', capturing both the Post-Punk aesthetic as well as the creepy, darker side of their music. A timeless image.
The cover, like most of the Cure's record sleeves & logos was created by 'Parched Art' an art company formed by The Cure’s Porl Thompson and his friends.
Thompson was a childhood friend of Robert Smith and was in very early versions of the band. He had different ambitions and left the band to go to art school.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When this EP was released in the summer of 1983, The Cure were barely functioning and in a difficult situation. 1983 was the first full year in which the band did not release an Album and their Record Label were desperate for product.
Bassist Simon Gallup had famously quit the band in June 1982 and he and Smith weren't even on speaking terms. The band was basically reduced to a duo at this point. They were in desperate need of a Bass player AND a drummer as Lol Tolhurst had mostly switched over to playing more keyboards. The Cure were in transition, with an uncertain future, and almost broken up for good. 
Smith was quite depressed, fighting his demons and other substances, and trying to keep himself occupied with other projects. He partied, recorded and toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees, did a side project with Banshee offshoot The Glove and tried to find his musical direction.
This period in the band's career was certainly a low point, but Fiction Records boss Chris Parry put his faith, and his label's future, in Robert Smith's immense talent as a songwriter. Parry knew that Smith still had many great songs in him.
Smith's brief touring with the Banshees allowed him to see and hear what was currently happening in the UK club scene, and he was exposed to lots of new music.
After hearing bands like New Order and their hit 'Blue Monday', Smith wrote his own take on the electronic dance-floor scene and called it 'The Walk'. It was a huge commercial breakthrough for The Cure. It made it into the UK top 20 in late 1982 and basically saved the band.
'The Walk' was released as a 4-song EP with a fold-out Poster sleeve. It included the title track, plus “Lament”, “The Dream”, and “The Upstairs Room.”
As the song 'The Walk' started getting attention in the clubs and on the radio, that single was expanded into this 6-song EP, also called 'The Fly'. It was a bonus priced, 6-song EP that included the 'Walk' single, it's various B-sides and some other songs, including the 'hit' "Lets go to Bed" and an extended remake of the song “Just One Kiss”. It was released in the summer of 1983. 
Releasing this deluxe. 6-song, budget-priced EP in the summer of 1983 was very smart marketing by Fiction records and their American equivalent, Sire records. It was was the perfect way to keep the Cure's fans, who were anxious and worried about the future of their favorite band, happy and satisfied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 6 songs on this EP are a perfect blend of Old & New Cure. They mark the transition between the Cure's dark "gothic" period, their more melodic, poppy mid-80s singles period, and the deeper, more richly produced sound of their later full-length albums. 
Smith's vocals on the three completely 'new' songs, 'The Upstairs Room', 'The Dream' and 'The Walk' - while typically melancholy and anguished, are also energized, intense and thoroughly engaging, with playfulness and whimsy thrown in.
His voice and delivery is beautifully nuanced, dynamically and tonally wide-ranging and just perfect. These newer songs are Pop, yet pop with depth, intelligence and substance, like the best of The Cure's earlier material.
The Cure's early music had a lean, minimalist, guitar-driven post-punk sound, but on these tracks Smith's guitar was pushed back in favor of the bass and keyboard tones and Smith's voice and lyrics started to be more important.
The six songs on 'The Walk' show the distinction between the dark, minimalist style of the early Cure and the more upbeat, pop, psychedelic sound that would soon take them to global mainstream stardom.
All of the songs on this EP feature Robert Smith's amazing arrangements. Like Paul McCartney, Smith always had an uncanny ability to decide how a certain song should sound; how it should be structured, put together and presented. The songs on this EP show his ability to create ever-varied, inventive, beautiful, synth-dominated textures.
With this 'album' the band didn’t lose their initial new wave/post-punk/goth fan-base. Instead, the dramatic punch of each song gained some new fans, and broke The Cure out into superstardom instead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By late 1983, Smith and his band pulled themselves together and released their next single, “The Love Cats,” a gorgeous slice of jazzy pop that broke into the UK Top 10 and opened up the band's career. They had no idea they were soon going to become Worldwide Rock stars.
By December 1983, the label pulled together all of the band's recent hits and singles, including 'Lovecats,' most of the material on 'The Walk' EP, and released 'Japanese Whispers' a top selling album.
The rest, as they say, is history.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Six great songs on this EP include:
Side 1: The Upstairs Room Just One Kiss (extended 7:18 version) The Dream
Side 2: The Walk La Ment Let's Go To Bed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This EP starts off with the soft, delicate and whimsical "Upstairs Room."
It has a post-punk beat, accented with Robert Smith’s nervy, stabbing guitar lines over a nice, subtle keyboard backing. The instruments blend nicely, and it's a great tune, strong enough, like all the songs on this EP, to be an A-side. 
That's my personal take on this EP. All 6 songs are good enough to stand on their own as singles, so why not release a 6-song 'single'
Next up is the unique, extended version of "Just One Kiss." 'Kiss' was the B-side to “Let’s Go to Bed” Coming in as the 2nd song, after the mellower 'Upstairs', it really kicks this EP into higher gear with it's more upbeat, post-punk style.
The expanded, extended version here is over 7 minutes long and has a longer, off-kilter introduction, with unusual, alternately tuned guitar work, and a more extended middle section. I think it works much better in the longer format.
This is the only song that's 'unique' to this record. As I said, the others were all collected and added to the upcoming 'Japanese Whispers' release. 
This longer version of "Just One Kiss" was never released on other Cure LPs and never released on CD, making it, and this EP an interesting Cure collectible. It should have been on the 'Japanese Whispers' album with the others. Not sure why it was left off. Maybe it will make the re-issue version of the CD, if they ever get around to it. 
The original B-Side single version was dreamy and catchy, with it's delicate blend of keyboards and guitars, but too short. This extended mix is nice Ear Candy, with a longer intro followed by the great catchy dance groove. There's some odd 'percussion', scraping & scratching sounds, that aren't on the original, but add to the groove and feel. Much better than the single mix.
This song is a good example of the 'transition' the band was going thru in 1982/83. It has the strong bass & drum rhythms of their previous "Pornography" album, but also hints at Robert's darker, confused romantic, melancholy style emerging.
Next up is the quirky and slightly jazzy, "The Dream"
The song has an odd, disjointed, stop-start beat, underlying an 80s style, floating & dreamy, synthesizer sound. The song is about one of Smith's dreams and is his lament to a lost love. There's cool splashes of keyboard as he sings "Dizzy, dizzy, dizzy..."
This song is a nice ending to side 1 of this EP.
~~~~ Side 2 is much more upbeat and intense and kicks off with the title track, 'The Walk.'
'The Walk' is a great song and it became The Cure's first top-20 hit. It's irresistibly danceable, undeniably catchy, yet tense and edgy, all in the same song. I can see why it was a hit.
There was a lot of talk at the time about the song being The Cure's response to New Order’s “Blue Monday.” The underlying beat may be similar, but 'The Walk' adds so much more; flashy keyboard hooks, a slightly 'oriental' flavor, and Robert Smith's dream-like lyrics “I saw you look like a Japanese baby. In that instant I remembered everything. Everything.” 
Those great lyrics probably had something to do with why the next album, a compilation of hits and singles, was called 'Japanese whispers.'
Next up is 'Lament' or La Ment' depending on how you interpret it. It's classic darker, moody, gothic, old-school Cure.
As I mentioned, The Cure was nearly dissolved before this EP came out and Smith was hanging out and touring with the Banshees for a time. This was written as a side project with 'Glove' collaborator and Banshee band-member Steven Severin. 
This is the one song on this EP that sounds like The Cure's earlier 'moody' period. It's similar to the haunting 'Flexi-Pop' version, but not as dark as that.
It's a sad song, almost like a French noir film soundtrack, which describes a river (La Ment) and a suicide near a bridge. The next part of the song cuts to 2 old friends (Smith & Gallup?) drunk, reminiscing and remembering (lamenting) an old shared love.
The beautiful watery sound of the river is created by the bubbling basslines, shimmering guitar and the flowing, eerie keyboards. Very 'Cure', very dark, tragic and dramatic.
Smith's voice is hauntingly beautiful; very sincere, very moving. A great, well-written song that deserves another, deeper listen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This EP does a great job of blending 'old' Cure and 'new' Cure styles. Next up, and closing out the EP, is their hit "Let's go to Bed", which is a perfect example of the new, less dark, upbeat poppy sound that would make the band Worldwide superstars.
The story goes that the Cure were nearly finished. A very depressed, drugged, Robert Smith met with Fiction label boss, Chris Parry.
Parry told Smith that what the band needed, to save them, was a big pop hit. Smith thought about what every 'rock star' and Fan really wanted. He realized the answer was sex and to get someone into bed. Smith wrote a tune getting right to the point.
It's a great, lighthearted, bouncy, catchy song, but failed to be the 'hit' they were expecting. An amazing song and part of the band's 'core' live setlist, but it barely cracked the top 50 in the UK when released. It's improved with age and remains one of their 'classic' tracks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Overall, this is a great, clean, crisp copy of the 6-song 'The Walk', or 'The Fly' EP from 1983. The record that saved the Cure and steered the towards Superstardom.
It's a great album to have in any Cure or classic Rock collection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, labels and vinyl in my pictures. I purchased this copy many years ago in Manhattan during one of my regular digs. I've taken great care of it since.
VINYL: The vinyl looks great. Clean and Bright. No scuffs, scrapes or obvious defects. Visually fine. I'll call it EX-, but Ebay doesn't allow that category. I'll list it as VG+ but it's much better than that. I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it looks. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.
LABELS: This is pressed on the early 80's yellow Sire labels. The labels are clean and bright. No marks or damage. The spindle holes are still sharp and clean, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling.
JACKET: The Jacket is in very nice condition. This copy has been sleeved and stored properly for years, and is still fantastic. Clean and bright.  The corners are relatively sharp. Spine is fine, no ring wear, no seam splits. You can see from my pictures it's quite nice. The album cover is clean and crisp.
This is a great record to add to any Cure or classic Rock collection. Original pressing copies don't turn up for sale often and it's a real gem. 
Overall, a very nice crisp, clean, copy of this classic Cure record from 1983. I'm sure you'll love it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** NOTE: I'm selling this rare 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare and as described and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
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THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far.  -- JOHN