lyrics project

Subway
Artist: The Cure
Song: Subway Song
Album: Boys Don’t Cry
Model: Tinkerbella
Location: Newbury, Berkshire UK

As a college student, I remember happening to be walking behind women, sometimes at night, down into the subway near my home. I’d hang back or take a different route because I didn’t want to worry or frighten them. It never seemed to matter if they were young or old, it just bothered me that my presence might frighten them. I’m sure they weren’t concerned at all and thinking back, it’s quite a sexist thought. Part of the reason I was concerned though was down to this damn song.

It appears on an otherwise mixed but relatively upbeat album and was released in 1979. I was 14. It’s less than 2 minutes long but shit, it creates a horrible atmosphere. The simple half whispered lyrics, haunting bass and harmonica, tap tap of the (faster than) heartbeat high hat, build to a shocking climax. It speaks of a person following a girl into a subway, her daring not to turn around. It ends with a piercing and terrifying scream. It doesn’t say anything else. She’s worried at the footsteps following behind ‘she dare not turn around’ and then the scream. No wonder I adopted the walking habits I did (and to an extent still do today!). It’s a stupid example of how songs can alter the way we think and behave in real life. The power music can have.

We shot this in a long subway in Newbury at around 10 o’clock in the evening. Tink admitted she didn’t like to walk down there late at night (maybe I’m right?) but she’d scurry through if she had to. I took loads of shots as I walked behind her, just an ordinary girl walking home, her look in this one frame meant it was always going to be the one I selected and is the moment she did turn around….before the scream.

Subway
Artist: The Cure
Song: Subway Song
Album: Boys Don’t Cry
Model: Tinkerbella
Location: Newbury, Berkshire UK

As a college student, I remember happening to be walking behind women, sometimes at night, down into the subway near my home. I’d hang back or take a different route because I didn’t want to worry or frighten them. It never seemed to matter if they were young or old, it just bothered me that my presence might frighten them. I’m sure they weren’t concerned at all and thinking back, it’s quite a sexist thought. Part of the reason I was concerned though was down to this damn song.

It appears on an otherwise mixed but relatively upbeat album and was released in 1979. I was 14. It’s less than 2 minutes long but shit, it creates a horrible atmosphere. The simple half whispered lyrics, haunting bass and harmonica, tap tap of the (faster than) heartbeat high hat, build to a shocking climax. It speaks of a person following a girl into a subway, her daring not to turn around. It ends with a piercing and terrifying scream. It doesn’t say anything else. She’s worried at the footsteps following behind ‘she dare not turn around’ and then the scream. No wonder I adopted the walking habits I did (and to an extent still do today!). It’s a stupid example of how songs can alter the way we think and behave in real life. The power music can have.

We shot this in a long subway in Newbury at around 10 o’clock in the evening. Tink admitted she didn’t like to walk down there late at night (maybe I’m right?) but she’d scurry through if she had to. I took loads of shots as I walked behind her, just an ordinary girl walking home, her look in this one frame meant it was always going to be the one I selected and is the moment she did turn around….before the scream.