[Kronomyth 12.02]
Four Minutes in a Fascist Tree Nation.
You Cure fans are a double-lucky lot because Cure singles are so much fun to collect. Take this one for example: it’s a remix of the original and the B side is the nonalbum “Babble.” As if that weren’t enough, an Extended Remix version of “Fascination Street” exists on a CD single and 12-inch that also includes (for US collectors) another nonalbum entry, “Out of Mind,” that had earlier appeared on the UK single “Lullaby.” And their discography is rife with fruit like this: nonalbum tracks of actual merit (“Babble” could have easily been an album track), interesting remixes, picture discs. I can’t tell you what the difference is in the single remix version of “Fascination Street” since I don’t own Disintegration, but I can tell you that the song itself is terrific. Always reminds me of PiL, two bands I don’t usually lump together for some reason but who, in fact, are very similar. I tried my hand at transcribing the lyrics from Babble, but the ends of the third and fourth couplets are a little hard to make out.
“Babble”
oh nothing ever changes, nothing ever moves
and I sit around in circles in the same old lifeless room
we talk about the mirror man that whispers in my ear again
the hot and sticky pillow man is smothering my face again
oh nothing ever changes, nothing ever moves
and I run around hysterical in dead persistent gloom
babble out in simile
like dog head monkey musing me
shut up shut up shut up shut up and let me breathe
shut up shut up shut up shut up and let me breathe
7-inch and Cassette Single Versions
A1. Fascination Street (Remix) (Robert Smith/Simon Gallup/Boris Williams/Porl Thompson/Roger O’Donnell/Laurence Tolhurst) 4:17
B1. Babble (Robert Smith/Simon Gallup/Boris Williams/Porl Thompson/Roger O’Donnell/Laurence Tolhurst) 4:16
12-inch promotional single
1. Fascination Street (Extended Remix)
2. Fascination Street (Remix)
12-inch Single Version
1. Fascination Street (Extended Remix)
2. Babble
3. Out of Mind
CD Single Version
1. Fascination Street
2. Babble
3. Out of Mind
4. Fascination Street (Extended Remix)
The Players
Remixed by Robert Smith, Chris Parry and Mark Saunders. Produced by Robert Smith and David M. Allen.
The Plastic
Released as a 7-inch, cassette, 12-inch and CD single on April 10, 1989 in the US (Elektra, 7 69300/94 69300/0-66704/66702) and Canada (Elektra, 96 67040); reached #46 on the US charts. Original 7-inch single featured a picture sleeve. Also released as a two-track promotional 12-inch single in 1989 in the US (Elektra, ED-5374).
