“Why Can’t I Be You?” by The Cure

“Why Can’t I Be You?” was the song that turned me on to The Cure. It was so weird and so catchy, blaring horns, Robert Smith’s whiny/screechy vocals, that stomping beat, loud, giddy, comically lascivious, gender-neutral. 

I kept an eye out for a used copy of “Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me,” The Cure album on which “Why Can’t I Be You?” appeared. Being a double album, even used it was more expensive than most of my purchases. 

I loved to put “Why Can’t I Be You?” on the stereo and crank it up and whirl and thrash around the room. It was a song to lose it to. 

The lyrics are not your usual love stuff. Why can’t I be you? Is that envy? A desire so fervid the lover wants to become the beloved? It’s kind of trans — transformational, transgender (perhaps). Were the beloved of the same sex the plaint could include envy (you’re so much prettier than me); why can’t I be more like you? Why can’t I be just like you? I want to be you! 

I love the line, “I'll kiss you from your feet to where your head begins.” The kissing starts with the feet and goes up to another beginning. There’s a little bit of dissonance with that head, too — it begins at the top, right?, but it could also begin on the way up, at the chin or nape. The underside of the head would be where the head would begin for one working their way up from the feet. I like the instability of that. Where the head begins, where the head ends. Then there’s the other head. The head of the cock. How high up does the singer climb?

The singer sees everything “you do [as] kissable.” Not every part of you, but everything “you do.” The beloved actions are kissable. The lover is so besotted, they are full of action, “run[ning] around until … out of breath,” the actions even becoming violent, “hug you to death,” and, boy, that appetite is worked up and yet the lover is feeling “bitten … cooked.” It’s a messy song lyrically. And the way the words are shouted, crooned, whined, yowled … the messiness of the lyrics seems right.  

There were other songs on the album that I grew fonder of. “Just Like Heaven” and “Catch” are much sweeter and catchy and easy to like. “Why Can’t I Be You?” can get grating, and I stopped playing it for a while. But in the right mood it drives you the kind of crazy you need.

I think this is the first time I’ve seen the video. I often like videos. But sometimes they detract. I’m not sorry the images in this video weren’t a major part of my experience of the song. Still, it’s goofy fun. I like Smith’s blobby fur suit. 

source: Live 105's Cool 105.3 for 1987