Why Can't I Be You? by The Cure

Album: Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)

Charted: 21 54

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During live performances, The Cure often used this song to play around with and incorporate different songs into the performance. These other songs have included "The Lovecats," "Fly Me To The Moon," "Young At Heart," and "Out Of Touch," among others. >>
Suggestion credit:
Richard - Alva, OK
The video clip to this song cleverly included some risqué word play, turning "Can't" into "Cu-t." When the members of the band are symbolizing the words "Why Can't I Be You" as the letters Y _ I B U, by shaping their bodies into the shape of these letters, the word "Can't," which is the only word that could not be symbolized by a letter, was instead represented by a large mouth, or "Pair of lips" turned sideways (i.e. a vagina). Thus, 'Y c-nt I B U.'

Robert Smith denied responsibility for the joke and placed the blame on director Tim Pope. He explained: "The obvious phonetic depiction of the word 'can't' was nothing to do with me - it's the childish side of Tim Pope's award-winning nature. It seems crass now. We thought it would be seen once, fleetingly, on telly."

The original film clip is nowadays often replaced with the film clip of the remix to this song which doesn't include this part of the clip. >>
Suggestion credit:
Anthony - Tokyo, Japan
This was the lead single from the band's first and only double album. The record was their first to enter the Billboard Top 40.
In a 1987 interview with Les Inrockuptibles, songwriter Robert Smith said that the title "is not to be taken generally, on the contrary it comes from a particular situation. I was in the middle of a tense discussion and these people around the table were looking at me as if I was going to make some groundbreaking revelations, and I thought to myself, 'Good God, why can't I be elsewhere? Why isn't someone else in my place?' I would've traded with anyone. I would've preferred to be that guy leaning at the bar than myself."
Smith has also said that the song was written as a keepsake for a 1985 visit to his Peruvian sponsored child, Aurora.
This was used in the 2007 movie I Could Never Be Your Woman, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd.

Comments: 9

Padraig from Nowhere In ParticularWhy can't I be You is such a brilliant madhouse of a pop song, close in spirit to House of Fun by Madness or to what the B52s were doing at the time, and nothing like what The Cure had done before - or since, come to think about it.

The hardcore fanboys back then immediately disowned the song, murmuring about selling out, but I - never a devoted fan, just someone who liked a bit of The Cure from time to time - was more like: come one, they are millionaire rockstars living the dream. It would be completely inauthentic to go on glooming like they do on Pornography. Instead, I felt that Why can't I be You was as uniquely authentic as can be for Robert Smith in 1987. It must have been such a weird experience to tour the world and come across people obsessed with looking like him (or - guess what - wanting to be him) wherever he went. The song deals with this very elegantly, not by mocking or slamming the fans, but by coating the issue in lyrics in which Robert himself is the obsessed one, and by underlying it with a sound that is just as mad as the "surrounded by wannabe doppelgangers" situation itself.

I actually felt that going back to the gloominess on the 1989 album Disintegration - and, allegedly, doing drugs to get in the "right" mood - was much closer to selling out, constituting mere fan service without any of the existential(ist) depth of The Cure's first four albums. But the fanboys by and large did not see it that way (although the real hardcore ones would not listen to anything released after Pornography without being personally offended by it anyway). Still, maybe, just maybe, growing up in Crawley makes you authentically gloomy forever, no matter how well life treats you.
Gaute from Oslo, NorwayRobert Smith has said in different interviews, on several occasions, that this song is about the foolishness of some peoples wish to be exactly like someone else. What makes this song even funnier (if you have ever been to one of the Cures live shows) is that a lot of cures fans try their best to look exactly like Robert Smith does, with the make-up, the wild hair and everything. Which must seem somewhat wierd to Robert himself.
Scott from Palm Desert, CaThis song seemed to be to giddy to actually be the Cure.
Ali from Wine, Caoh i know. Hes so hungry for his cats...

but actually ive never really understood this song. >.<
Stopdead from Gold Coast, AustraliaThis video is Roberts impression of the band "5 Star", on reflection he says "it looks nothing like them after actually seeing them."
Adam from Sydney, AustraliaI read an interview that the Cure did with a music magazine where Smith said the inspiration for the song came to him from a fan who said "Why can't I be you?" to him in passing. Smith took the phrase and used it from his perspective, rather than the fans; ie - why can't I have the normality in life that a rock star can't possibly have.
Firstinspace from Luling, LaRobert wanting to be one of his cats.
J from New Cumberland, PaI highly doubt that... because the tracks for Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me were recorded in at Miravel in France, and in the Bahamas. Nice try, though.
The Jyd from Albany, NyIn a late night session after the recording of this song, Robert Smith was talking with my brother(he was working at the studio in London) and told him this was referenced to Castro. He directed the title to him....

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