Song In My Head

I'm going way back in time for this one. It's the Robert Smith side project The Glove with "Punish Me With Kisses". Some back story: In 1982, Robert Smith took a break from The Cure after the Pornography album, which drained the band, led to substance abuse, infighting and led to the exit of bassist Simon Gallup. Later that year, Smith was invited to fill in on guitar and became a member of Siouxsie and the Banshees. When Siouxsie and drummer Budgie left to record an album as The Creatures, Smith and Steven Severin started work on their own side project as The Glove, named for the flying glove character from the "Yellow Submarine" movie. Smith was contractually prohibited from singing with a band other than the Cure, so they enlisted Budgie's girlfriend at the time, Jeanette Landray, on vocals. The result is some of the best gothic synth-pop of the 1980s, which arguably stands time's test a tad better than some Cure material from the same era.

So why am I thinking about it? I stopped in to the stellar Co-Op 87 record shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn the other night. As I was flipping through crates of vinyl, I came across The Glove's one and only LP Blue Sunshine, on offer for eight bucks. I had it as a kid, and I'm sure it -- and the rest of my erstwhile record collection -- is lurking out there somewhere -- so I passed. But when I went back and listened to those songs, I decided to buy it. Unfortunately, when I went back, it was gone.

Years later, in 2006, Blue Sunshine was re-released with a collection of demos featuring Smith on vocals. Here's that version as well, for comparison's sake.