The Cure | Lullaby (1989)
"Lullaby" is a song by English rock band the Cure from their eighth studio album, Disintegration (1989). Released as a single on 10 April 1989, the song is the band's highest-charting single in their home country, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart.
1989-04-10 19:00:00 - The Cure
It additionally reached number three in West Germany and Ireland while becoming a top-10 hit in several other European countries and New Zealand. The music video won the British Video of the Year at the 1990 Brit Awards.
The song's narrator describes a nightly visit from a menacing "spiderman" who is "always hungry" and "looking for the victim shivering in bed". The meaning of "Lullaby" has been speculated by fans, including as a metonymy for addiction, depression, or sexual assault and Smith has offered multiple explanations as to its theme or content, such as childhood nightmares or abuse.
One explanation by Smith follows that the song is about the disturbing songs his father sung to him as a kid, and the horrible ending they would always have. Tim Pope, a long-time collaborator of the Cure on many of its music videos, interprets "Lullaby" as an allegory for lead singer Robert Smith's drug-addled past.