Additionally an electro techno project is called "The Glove".
It all started at the YMCA....
Robert Smith of The Cure first encountered Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees when they both pitched up at the bar of the YMCA in London's Tottenham Court Road during a Throbbing Gristle gig on August 3, 1979. "I was wearing sunglasses and a very distinctive green check suit" remembers Robert. "I thought I looked pretty hip and happening. Severin came over to me and whispered in my ear "Charlie Caroli I presume?" That made me laugh! We got to talking, and by the end of the night had agreed The Cure should play with the Banshees on their forthcoming UK tour" During the course of this tour, which included Robert's stint as emergency Banshee's guitarist, the pair discovered mutual interests in music, literature, cinema and more, and so began an enduring friendship that led in the spring of 1983 to work on their new infamous joint project The Glove. "We had first talked seriously about doing something together in late 1980 when Robert was working on Faith," Remembers Steven. At that time Robert was completely in The Cure and I was of course in The Banshees, so a collaboration couldn't really have worked, we had to wait....when it finally happened it seemed to the outside world like 'the other half' of The Banshees side project, even though we'd planned it all long before The Creatures stuff!" Named after the evil animated glove in the Beatles film Yellow Submarine, Robert and Steve's psychedelic project was originally conceived as a few weird singles to be aimed at the Japanese market with hopes of bigger things to follow. Having booked Britannia Row Studios in London, in part because of its historic connections with Pink Floyd. Steven and Robert suddenly had their rainbow-hued feathers ruffled by Chris Parry, head of The Cure's label Fiction Records, who reminded the pair that Fictions contract with Robert specifically precluded him from singing on anything except Cure records. Parry's concern was that Robert had been taking too much time out from The Cure. He had already toured twice as the Banshees guitarist and reasoned Parry, if he enjoyed doing The Glove, he might abandon The Cure altogether. Parry's fears were far from unfounded because Robert had been somewhat dissatisfied with The Cure ever since the acrimonious departure of bassist Simon Gallup nine months earlier. Robert and Chris Parry now locked horns. "It was a real struggle" explains Robert, "as I was insisting on my right to sing on something other than The Cure. The irony of it of course, was that I didn't have a clue as to what I was actually going to record as we didn't have any songs!" At the eleventh hour a deal was thrashed out green-lighting Robert to sing on two tracks of The Glove project, which had now assumed the dimensions of a full-blown album. "So now we needed a vocalist for the rest of the album" points out Robert, "and after a few very truppy auditions we decided on Jeanette Landray, girlfriend of The Banshees drummer Budgie." A member of ZOO. The top of the pops dance troupe Landray had never sung before. Severin remembers the sessions as, "pretty insane" There was an ongoing 'happening' in Britannia Row...Marc Almond of Soft Cell would be there, The Associats, John McGeoch,...it was like a mainline train station. We recorded from 6pm to 6am, then Robert would go back to my flat and watch video nasties!" but even after the video nasties, Bad Timing, Videorome, The Evil Dead, etc formed part of the Glove's master plan. The idea was that by drowning themselves in acid and junk culture the pair would produce the kind of mental disorientation essential to the creation of genuinely psychedelic music. Another technique involved the use of exotic instruments. "We thought that if we stuck to the instruments we had always played we would end up sounding like a cross The Cure and The Banshees." explains Steven. "instead we experimented and came up with new ways of working. Landray meanwhile was realizing that as The Glove was very much Robert And Steven's project, her contributions were going to be limited. "I had a strange role involved, but not with any say in the way things turned out..almost like a session musician really." Readily acknowledging that Jeanette had been thrust into an awkward position Robert admits that he found it disconcerting to hear somone else singing songs he had demo'd with himself in mind. "I remember Jeanette being a bit unsure as to how to sing certain songs...but she was very determined and very patient which she had to be as I'm pretty sure that my advice was at best cryptic!"
Members of "The Glove" ~~~
Robert Smith - guitar, vocals on original recording of "Mr. Alphabet Says", "Perfect Murder", and Disc 2 of Deluxe Edition
Steve Severin - bass
Martin McCarrick - keyboards, real strings (later joined Siouxsie and the Banshees)
Jeanette Landray - vocals on majority of tracks on original album
Andy Anderson - real drums (later joined The Cure)
Ginny Heyes - real strings
Anne Stephenson - real strings
Porl Thompson- Special Guest in The Glove's Videos (From The Cure)
Punish Me With Kisses
The Glove Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You trace the taste of yesterday the bruise upon my lip
You touch my eyes and hypnotize and slip inside my heart
I wait for this forever but we always fall apart
You want to hold me closer and secretly entice
You take the size of shadowed men
And punish me with kisses every night
This espionage is sweeter now now that we're alone
But I meet your eyes and then dispise all we call our own
I write my name in lipstick on the mirror as I leave
To stay would be too dangerous
To break the make believe.
The Glove's song "Punish Me With Kisses" seems to describe a tumultuous, unhappy relationship filled with conflict and intense desire. The lyrics convey the sense of being trapped in a cycle of pain and pleasure, where the singer is torn between wanting to be with their partner and wanting to escape. The opening lines suggest a kind of masochistic pleasure in the pain of the past that the singer associates with their current partner - the "morning smile of torture" is both alluring and frightening, a reminder of both their physical wounds and emotional scars. The next line, "You trace the taste of yesterday the bruise upon my lip" paints a vivid picture of the physical violence that has occurred, but also implies that the victim is complicit in the abuse, possibly even addicted to it.
The second stanza continues this theme of eroticized violence, suggesting that the partner is using their strength to manipulate the singer: "You take the size of shadowed men / And punish me with kisses every night." The word "punish" here implies a kind of domination and control, but the fact that it's accompanied by "kisses" suggests that there's an element of tenderness to it as well. The dynamic between the two is further complicated by the third stanza, where the singer realizes that what they have is essentially a fantasy - "To stay would be too dangerous / To break the make believe." The fact that they "write [their] name in lipstick on the mirror as [they] leave" suggests that this is all just a game, a way to escape the mundane reality of their lives.
Overall, the song seems to be an exploration of the paradoxical nature of desire, and how it can lead us to make choices that are ultimately self-destructive. The imagery is both beautiful and disturbing, and captures the complex emotions and dynamics at play in a relationship that is both intensely loving and deeply dysfunctional.
Line by Line Meaning
Your morning smile of torture holds me in it's grip
The way you greet me every morning with a smile that conceals your true intentions has me captivated
You trace the taste of yesterday the bruise upon my lip
You remind me of the pain you caused me, as if savoring it, and it keeps me fixated on you
You touch my eyes and hypnotize and slip inside my heart
Your touch entrances me to the point where I can't resist your allure and I fall for you deeply
I wait for this forever but we always fall apart
Despite my hopes for us to last, our relationship is always doomed to fail
You want to hold me closer and secretly entice
You desire to bring me closer to you and lure me into your hidden desires
You take the size of shadowed men
You take on the qualities of a mysterious, unknown man
And punish me with kisses every night
You use your seductive kisses to torment me, night after night
This espionage is sweeter now now that we're alone
Our secret relationship is more thrilling now that it's just between us
But I meet your eyes and then dispise all we call our own
However, when I look into your eyes, I am filled with disgust for everything we have between us
I write my name in lipstick on the mirror as I leave
As I depart from our encounters, I leave a symbolic mark of my presence to remind you of me
To stay would be too dangerous to break the make believe.
Staying with you would be too risky and threaten the illusions we've created together.
Lyrics © DOMINO PUBLISHING COMPANY, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ROBERT JAMES SMITH, STEVEN SEVERIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@ibelieveicansoar
I just randomly bought the 1980 book by William Bayer that this song was presumably named after.
Back cover description:
“One Sister Lived By The Heat Of Men’s Desires.
The Other Watched From The Shadows... And Waited.”
Further down on the back cover:
“What erotic obsession had driven her sister to the point of madness?
And who was the powerful dark man who dominated her fantasies?”
I can see some likely tie-ins with the lyrics there. And the front cover fine print says “Don’t Love Me. Don’t Trust Me. Just Punish Me.”
@rleeroberts6350
I bought this album when i was 17..im pushing 50 now and its still FUKKIN amazing.
@sonofhibbs4425
It really is.
@Nick_G7IZR
#MeToo :)
@stevepettit2064
Me and you are two of a kind fella totally agree.
@isamuu99
LOL join the club! Bought it after a friend loaned me the cassette version.
@chinarose1358
The vinyl is available to buy at HMV. Wonder if anyone has the new pressing and if it is any good
@villedocvalle
Steve Severin and Robert Smith, how I wish the pair would produce another gem now
@docsavage8640
I doubt Robert can. Hasn't done anything good in nearly 30 years
@discodiffusioner
@@docsavage8640 "tHeY HAvnT DOnE ANyThiNG GooD SincE "FRIdAY iM in LOve" poser
@theoriginalbluey
Docsavage you're right. I carried on buying the records but none of it does anything for me. I can't get over though how amazing the earlier Cure songs and The Glove LP still sound as fresh now as they ever did. @@docsavage8640