“Killing An Arab” was the first single released by The Cure. It was inspired by the pivotal moment in the 1942 novel The Stranger by Albert Camus where the protagonist shoots his friend’s mistress' brother, a man identified in the book only as ‘the Arab’. It is the apathy of the main character that...
[Verse 1]
Standing on the beach with a gun in my hand
Staring at the sky, staring at the sand
Staring down the barrel at the Arab on the ground
I can see his open mouth, but I hear no sound
[Chorus]
I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an Arab
[Verse 2]
I can turn and walk away or I can fire the gun
Staring at the sky, staring at the sun
Whichever I chose, it amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing
[Chorus]
I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an Arab
[Verse 3]
I feel the steel butt jump, smooth in my hand
Staring at the sea, staring at the sand
Staring at myself reflected in the eyes
Of the dead man on the beach
(The dead man on the beach)
[Chorus]
I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an Arab
Killing an Arab was written by Robert Smith & Lol Tolhurst & Michael Dempsey.
Killing an Arab was produced by Chris Parry.
The Cure released Killing an Arab on Thu Dec 21 1978.
As early as 1978, Smith has been defending the song as not racist:
…it’s not really racist, if you know what the song is about. It’s not a call to kill Arabs. It just happened that the main character in the book had actually killed an Arab, but it could have been a Scandinavian or an English bloke....