The song in context
Lament was released as a special song for the UK magazine Flexipop in 1982. The final version was released as a B side for the successful single The Walk and eventually included in the compilation known as Japanese Whispers (1983). It is track number seven (that spiritual number!) on the record and was written by Smith alone.
This song being a little-known gem, it was the first one chosen to be a cover song as part of a collection of songs published under the label of The Cure Is Us in 2017. Of all the songs included in these annual releases, it is the top playing one on Spotify, and by far…
Lyrics with comments
Today there was a tragedy
Underneath the bridge
A man walked
Cold and blue
Into La Ment
The sky coloured perfect
As the man slipped away
Waving with a last vanilla smile…
Somewhere at a table
Two drowned fools
Smoking
Drinking water as they talked
Of how they loved our lady
And oh! the smell as candles die…One more ice cream river body
Flowed underneath the bridge
Underneath the bridge
It is a quintessential Cure / Cold Wave / Gothic in that it is a lament (as the name indicates!) over the tragedy and tragedies of existence. The artist is observing the universe like God or like an angel and sees the flow of dead bodies passing under the bridge of human existence, an existence happily blessed with happy moments or even drunken moments to forget the pain, but fleeting away like the smoke of a dying candle…
Lament: Original by The Cure
