{"id":525159,"date":"2025-10-24T16:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/525159\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T16:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:41:15","slug":"the-album-paul-weller-and-robert-smith-both-called-the-greatest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/525159\/","title":{"rendered":"The album Paul Weller and Robert Smith both called the “greatest”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Fri 24 October 2025 16:00, UK <\/p>\n

In 1979, The Cure<\/a> marked their official arrival with Three Imaginary Boys.<\/p>\n

A record that Robert Smith would look back on without any semblance of fondness, Three Imaginary Boys came at the tail-end of a movement that proved to be no picnic for rock bands looking for a darker, more gothic outlook on creative expression. In the same pool were bands like The Jam, who just so happened to be in the same studio when The Cure were working on their ill-fated debut. <\/p>\n

Smith would later describe the record with words like \u201csuperficial\u201d and \u201clightweight\u201d. All of this probably came as a result of Smith feeling rushed with the production and sometimes writing lyrics on the spot. But most of his qualms about it only became fully realised after the fact. He still tried to make it work, even under pressure, knowing that his vision would eventually become one that defined an entire genre.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, he even made use of the shared studio space, dipping out to borrow equipment from The Jam. \u201cWe used to sneak in at night and use their equipment,\u201d Smith later told Rolling Stone. This fact probably went unnoticed by Paul Weller, who, as we know, had some fairly vicious remarks about his fellow rock peer a couple of years back. But while the details of their obvious feud aren\u2019t clear, some historical moments deserve paying attention to.<\/p>\n

Punk, for instance, is a movement that Smith once said couldn\u2019t be seen as political. He went so far as to say people would be \u201cstupid\u201d to listen to someone like Weller, softening the blow by adding that they\u2019d also be \u201cparticularly stupid\u201d to \u201cbelieve someone like me\u201d. Singling out Weller probably didn\u2019t do him any favours when it came to Weller\u2019s future attack, but it certainly felt more like a criticism of audiences putting their idols on pedestals when the crux of the music was for artistic expression, not politics.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Weller made his passionate hatred for The Cure frontman crystal clear<\/a>. There seems to be absolutely no common ground with this pair, except maybe the fact that they were discovered by the same person. That said, interviews and comments elsewhere show that perhaps this isn\u2019t the only thing they have in common after all. On two separate occasions, both Weller and Smith have praised the late legend David Bowie, singling out his masterpiece Low as the \u201cgreatest\u201d record he ever made.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Bowie\u2019s Low is the greatest record ever made,\u201d Smith told NME in 2013. \u201cI bought it on cassette, and the same day I went to a garden centre with my mum. I\u2019d ordered it from the local record shop, and Paul, who was in the band and is my brother-in-law, had dropped it through the letterbox. It\u2019s like one of those weird days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Weller once told Mojo that he\u2019s \u201ca born-again Bowie freak\u201d and that Low is \u201cone of my favourite records\u201d. <\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWhatever gripes I\u2019ve had about Bowie in the past, Low\u2019s been a constant since I bought it in 1977.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably a far stretch to assume that the two of them could one day put aside their differences and rebuild based on their shared love for Low. But even for an unlikely alliance, it does say a lot about how their shared tastes shaped two distinctively different visions that still ended up in similar categories. Whatever the reason for Weller lashing out, he likely doesn\u2019t realise just how much they\u2019d probably get on without the lingering bad blood casting tension where there needn\u2019t be any.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Fri 24 October 2025 16:00, UK In 1979, The Cure marked their official…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[4157,77,269,38541,22416,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-525159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-david-bowie","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-paul-weller","12":"tag-robert-smith","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115430142664163307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}