The Rumpus.net » tony dushane

Nick Cave Monday #28: “Jack The Ripper”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:00:28 +0000

Jack the Ripper killed women in real life. He is known as Jack the Ripper, and was never caught for his violent crimes.

Nick Cave kills people in his music. He is known as the greatest singer in the world, and is in a band called The Bad Seeds. He has been caught by video cameras and audio recordings performing his murderous songs.

It’s only fitting that Jack the Ripper would make it into Nick’s brilliant back catalog.

Fellow Bad Seeders, indulge in “Jack The Ripper”:

It’s not only a video, it’s a public service announcement. So, ladies, if you’re overbearing on your man, it’s best to hide the cutlery and other sharp objects.

Here’s “Jack The Ripper” from their 1992 tour:

I covet those white shoes. The Bad Seeds dress code is toeing that thin line between looking like a well dressed preacher or a high-end pimp.

Germany, 1996:

Those awful festival barriers. As you have seen from earlier Nick Cave Mondays, these days Nick likes to jump out into the crowd even if they’re 30 feet away from the stage. I can’t wait until the Bad Seeders shoot video from Coachella.

If you haven’t seen Nick Cave yet on the 2013 tour, you’re in luck, “Jack The Ripper” is on their set list.

Here they are in Nashville, including some fun banter with a drunk audience member:

Jack The Ripper has been the subject of song by other musicians over the years. By far my second favorite song referencing Jack the Ripper is by Screaming Lord Sutch.

Marilyn Manson’s grandpa is pretty scary.

In other Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tour news, here’s a great segment on his back up singers in Canada a few days ago.

How cute are those petit Bad Seeders? Welcome to the club kids.

“Well you know the story of the viper, it’s long and lean with a poison tooth.”

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #27: “Tupelo”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:00:45 +0000

It was a dark and stormy night in April 1936. The city of Tupelo, Mississippi was ravaged by a tornado that killed more than 230 people. It is ranked as the fourth deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

Tupelo is also the birthplace of Elvis Presley. But the real reason we’re here is because “Tupelo” is one of the defining songs of The Bad Seeds….a song that tends to make it frequently into their live sets.

My fellow Bad Seeders, here is the original video from 1985:

“Tupelo” is the first track off “The Firstborn Is Dead.” On the B-side of the single version is a brilliant re-do of “The Six Strings That Drew Blood” originally released by The Birthday Party.

The Bad Seeds on the record are Barry Adamson, Blixa Bargeld and Mick Harvey.

I love the the “Looka, looka yonder” line in the song. A reference to Leadbelly’s song “Black Betty” which Nick Cave has also covered.

Of course, leave it to Nick to make a storm and the birth of Elvis Presley sound apocalyptic.

From the song:

“Well Saturday gives what Sunday steals,
And a child is born on his brother’s heals,
Come Sunday morn the first-born’s dead,
In a shoe-box tied with a ribbon of red.”

The firstborn who’s dead is Jesse Garon Presley, Elvis Presley’s twin brother. Jesse was stillborn and Elvis was delivered 35 minutes later.

It’s currently in their live set as they tour the world. Since Barry Adamson is back with The Bad Seeds, it’s really cool to have him perform songs he worked on years ago with the band.

Here’s a great live version from 1992:

It’s a good thing Gladys rocked baby Elvis to sleep and kept him safe from the brutal pounding of nature on their “clapboard shack with a roof of tin,” or we wouldn’t have “The King.”

Here’s a photo of the house Elvis was born in and what Nick was referencing.

Here are The Bad Seeds performing the song for the BBC in 2008:

“The Firstborn is Dead” has been referred to as the blues record. The Bad Seeds have a habit of trying to keep things fresh and not delivering what’s expected. I love their anti-formula of sorts.

“The public gets what they deserve, not what they demand, unless we all decide to be a business, not a band.” (“Breakdown” by Agent Orange.)

This wasn’t the first time a song was written about the tornado of Tupelo, John Lee Hooker recorded his own version. In the video below the title says it’s about the 1927 flood of Tupelo, but that has to be a mistake since the major one happened in 1936.

Here are The Bad Seeds performing the song in 2009:

Some have pointed out the line in the song, “Water water everywhere” is a reference to “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The video below is from their show in Mexico last month. The video isn’t too sharp, but the audio is decent.

In other news, The Bad Seeds are on world tour and as they perform I’ll try to keep up with video gems from recent shows.

Here they are in Brisbane on March 8th doing a killer version of “Stagger Lee”:

“O God help Tupelo, O God help Tupelo!”

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #26: “Brother, My Cup is Empty”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:00:49 +0000

When the the relationship is over, when your heart is cracked open and leaking blood on your pinstripe suit, when you’re out of cash and you need something to numb the pain of a break up, tell that wretched dude at the bar to buy you a drink.

“Brother, My Cup is Empty” is the fourth track from the album “Henry’s Dream” released in 1992.

It takes two to make a breakup happen so Nick admits:

“I cannot blame it all on her,
To blame her all would be a lie…”

But, he’s stilled pretty pissed at the lady:

“For many a nights I lay awake,
I wish that I could watch her die,
To see her accusing finger spurt,
To see flies swarm her hateful eye,
To watch her groaning in the dirt,
To see her clicking tongue crack dry.”

Nick has said he kills people in his songs so he doesn’t have to kill them in real life.

“Brother, My Cup is Empty” performed in 1996:

Nick is one of the greatest lyricists and sometimes his songs aren’t so easily defined. Could his cup be his soul? We can get deep here.

Relationships don’t start out bad, they just sometimes take a wrong turn. Before Nick was the captain of his pain he was “sliding down on rainbows” and “swinging from the stars.”

I wonder if he wrote it for one lady and she knows it’s about her and can’t stand the song. Or if a few different ladies think it’s about them.

In other news, Thomas Wydler isn’t on The Bad Seeds world tour because he is sick. I haven’t heard anything specific, but Nick has said that it’s not life threatening, just enough to keep him from touring right now.

Thomas we hope you get well soon.

“My friend, my only brother, do not let the party grieve,
throw a dollar on the bar, now kiss my ass and leave.”

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #25: “Abattoir Blues”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:00:40 +0000

Sometimes things get murky in our brains. The depression takes hold. It’s more than melancholy, it’s to the point of absolute despair.

“Abattoir Blues” is the title track on the double album released with “Lyre of Orpheus” by The Bad Seeds in 2004. With their intent on keeping things fresh for every new release, the band brought in the London Gospel Community Choir. Not only for the recording, but also for the world tour.

If Nick was playing the role of a preacher on earlier records, he took it to a whole new height here. Members of the choir didn’t know who Nick Cave was and received their education fast. They were also Christians, so they needed to be okay with the songs. (More on that in a few months when we get to “Hidin’ All The Way.”)

Why is it when Nick calls upon outside people to help him out they don’t know who he is? Us fans would die for a chance to perform as part of The Bad Seeds. It makes me depressed. It gives me the “Abattoir Blues.”

Only Nick Cave could make a Starbucks drink sound sinister and violent. Is Frappucino a metaphor? Is he giving a dig to our global world of Starbucks in almost every city, partially responsible for turning the world’s metropolises into generic strip malls? That bums me out too.

Nick calls out to his lady for some understanding and comfort.

Can she sees what he sees? “Mass extinction darling, hypocrisy, these things are not good for me.”

An abattoir is literally defined as a slaughterhouse…where they kill the animals for meat. It’s from the French the word abattre, which means to strike down. Abattoir is also used to imply something is as devastating as entering a slaughterhouse to be killed with the rest of the animals.

Later he wants a way out with his lady. “Can we leave this place now dear? Is there someway out of here?”

Ah, but life goes moves forward here on this planet and we have to plug away as humans. One of the oddly inspirational lyrics from Nick Cave for me comes in the last verse of the song:

“I awake with the sparrows and hurry off to work/
the need for validation, babe, gone completely berserk/
I wanna be your superman but I turned out such a jerk/
I got the Abattoir Blues….”

The creative life is a topsy-turvy existence and we can’t avert our eyes to the crap going around us…we just have to get back to work. Sometimes that takes its toll on our relationships, and sometimes we’re lucky enough to find a woman who understands.

That’s part of my abattoir blues. Your abattoir blues mileage may vary.

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #24: “Mack The Knife”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:00:51 +0000

One night in January 1995, you may have been alive and lucky enough to have tuned your TV to “Great Performances” a special featuring the music of Kurt Weill.

It was the coolest of the cool performing Kurt’s music including Elvis Costello, William S. Burroughs and our man Nick Cave.

Here he is performing “Mack the Knife.”

The lyrics could have been written by Nick himself and we wouldn’t have even guessed the song was written almost a century ago. Weill wrote the music, with his lovely haunting circus orchestrations. The lyrics were originally in German by Bertolt Brecht and it was part of “The Threepenny Opera.”

The song is also known as “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” and “Die Moritat von Mackie Messier.”

After Nick’s groovy opening credits sequence there are other major stars of music on the show.

Here is the sexy Polly Jean performing “Ballad of the Soldier’s Wife.”

Let’s also check out David Johansen from New York Dolls, absolutely killin’ it with “Alabama Song.”

In other Nick Cave news, did you catch the Los Angeles show online Feb. 21st? They kept it online for one day. To watch them perform the whole release of “Push the Sky Away” was absolutely brilliant. That album seems like a forty-two minute song with a few breaks. When I’m listening with my ear buds, I tend to take longer walks and let a couple of buses pass so I can take in the full release on every playback. It’s so good!

And to see Barry Adamson as a Bad Seed again. Perfection!

Coming soon is an interview with Agent OO666. (Barry Adamson song reference, stay tuned for more in April.)

Here we go. It’s 2013, the year of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds touring the world. Check in from your cities and countries on stories regarding the gigs. I wanna hear about every hip swivel and set list.

“See the shark, with teeth like razors, and he wears them, in his face, and Mack he has got a knife, but not in such an obvious place….” Danke Kurt Weill and Nick.

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #23: “Hard On For Love”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:40:13 +0000

It was 1994. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds were performing The Fillmore in San Francisco. I was crushed against the stage and Blixa Bargeld strummed his guitar in front of me. Midway through The Bad Seeds set I summoned the courage to yell, “Play Hard On For Love.”

“What?!” Nick walked towards me, pointing his finger. Like God striking me with leprosy for blaspheming his name. Nick glared into my eyes and I was on the spot. He actually listened and I was conversing with THE Nick Cave.

“Play Hard On For Love,” I said with more of a squeak.

“We have our set taken care of, thank you,” He replied.

Nick and I actually spoke to each other. I was so scared of him as a young worshiper. Nick Cave was God.

The song wasn’t performed live by The Bad Seeds until their 2008 tour.

Their live version had more ferocity than the recorded version on “Your Funeral, My Trial.”

The 1986 recording was a prophecy for what Nick Cave would become in future years, especially after 2007.

Nick has embraced his inner perv, the animal he is as a man….at least through his lyrics and his novel “The Death of Bunny Munro” which was about a pervy, degenerate bloke. In the hands of Nick, sex crazed literary brilliance.

Hard On For Love could have been included on the first Grinderman record in 2007 and it would have been just as fresh as “No Pussy Blues.”

The first Grinderman release had an obvious influence on the next Bad Seeds record “Dig, Lazarus, Dig” and it made sense to add Hard On For Love to their set for the live tour of the record. The song even included a lyric about Lazarus, “Coming at her like Lazarus from above.”

A song I thought I would never hear live and if it wasn’t for Grinderman, there’s a chance we wouldn’t have heard a live version of the song.

Here’s the studio version of the song:

I adore how Nick takes Psalms 23 and flips it into lyrical pornography.

The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want
The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want
But he leadeth me like a lamb to the lips
Out of the valley of the shadow of death
I am his rod and his staff
I am his scepter and shaft
And she is heaven and hell
At whose gates I ain’t been delivered
I’m going to give those gates a shove.

Psalms 23 is now a biblical chapter of horny innuendo, rewritten by Nick, who should have his lyrics included in a future bible cannon.

Maven did a cover of Hard On For Love featuring Marilyn Manson on vocals:

Well, Marilyn Manson gave it a go and picked a great song, but he may want to stick to covering acts like The Eurythmics.

When I interviewed Nick before their gig in San Francisco in 2008, I told him about our 1994 encounter.

“What did I say?” he asked.

“You said our set was taken care of.”

He laughed. “We probably didn’t know how to play the song. We’re playing it in our set now, a very aggressive version of the song.”

Nick Almighty is sweet and gracious and funny in person.

Other magical lyrics from the song:

“My aim is to hit this miss.” – “I am the fiend hid in her skirts and it’s as hot as hell in here.”

And the repeated chant, “Rise and fall her breasts, rise and fall her breasts….”

After our interview in 2008, at the Warfield theater I was at the front of the stage and about an hour into their set, Nick pointed at me and said, “This song’s for you.”

I wasn’t sure if it was really happening, I pointed at myself, “Me?”

“Yeah, you with the beard and hat.”

My friends all in the front row knew me and were excited and yelled to Nick, “His name is Tony, his name is Tony.”

Nick looked at them confused, like – leave us alone, we’re connecting here – then he went into the song. My friends didn’t know I interviewed Nick earlier that day.

It only took 14 years, but Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds finally performed my request from when I was a kid. For extra credit, he dedicated the song to me.

“It is for she that the cherry bleeds…”

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #21: “Nature Boy”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:00:46 +0000

We’re stuck in a world where bad shit happens all the time. Nick Cave, our Nature Boy, watches the news with his dad and sees “ordinary slaughter” and “routine atrocity.” Dad tells Nature Boy not to look away, be strong and bold because beauty will save the world.

Beauty turns out to be a woman hanging out at a flower show. What happens when Nature Boy sees her?

Here is Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds with “Nature Boy” on Jools Holland:

I love that Nature Boy walks like a “leper coming down with some kind of nervous hysteria.”

Again, Nick is our brilliant lyricist.

His hottie approaches him and his knees go weak, he can’t speak and he’s having thoughts “that were not in my best interests to mention.”

There’s a little Nature Boy in all of us, wondering how it would feel to roll around naked with you.

Here is the original video:

If you’re playing the Bad Seed board game, you’ll notice that in the video the players have changed and the guitarist is Warren Ellis and the bassist is James Johnston of the band Gallon Drunk. Johnston was a Bad Seed from 2003 – 2008. If you check out the Jools Holland clip again, you’ll see him on keyboards. I also crack up at Jim on drums, the way he smirks during the video makes him look like an uncle you might not want to have babysit your kids.

The effect the woman has on Nature Boy is amazing. And when he falls, she lifts him up.

Thanks babe, I’ll be your Nature Boy.

Some have compared elements of the song to “Make Me Smile” by Steve Harley:

Let’s give “Nature Boy” another go with a live version:

Smiles, beauty, and getting dorked out on falling in love. La dolci vita!

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #20: “Henry Lee”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:00:41 +0000

Today we learn a valuable lesson. If you have a girlfriend, but you are in love with another girl and you tell your girlfriend that this other girl is way hotter than she is, do not stick around when she starts to make out with you.

The song is “Henry Lee”:

Here is the duet performed by Nick and PJ that was released on “Murder Ballads”:

I watch that clip and my glasses fog up it’s so steamy. PJ and Nick dated for a while. It was too perfect, they were plopped into existence and at some point in life they needed to find each other and bang. When PJ Harvey meets Nick Cave, do they even have to speak?

- Hi, I’m Nick.
- Hi, I’m Pollie.

Thirty minutes later.

- Yeah, we can share this cigarette and I’ll call the concierge to see if we can get another pack sent up to the room.

Here’s Nick talking about falling in love:

Yes, I absolutely agree. Love is fun. You run the risk of being gutted with a pen knife, but walking across the street is risky, so go for it.

Some of the earlier versions of the song went by other titles including “Young Hunting” and “Love Henry.”

Here’s Judy Henske singing “Love Henry”:

Give a listen to a Dick Justice:

In some versions of the song the woman offers Henry a drink and gets him drunk before she kills him.

The song was written years before inventions like phones, email, Facebook, text messaging and Twitter.

Henry would probably have lived out his life if he had just sent his girlfriend a quick text that they were over. Even without technology he also could have run after he broke it off with her. But Hank was an alcoholic and just couldn’t pass up the tempting demon juice, and that kissing his ex-girlfriend could lead to the possibility of one last romp in the sack….you know for old time’s sack.

Gutted.

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #19: “Straight To You”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:00:47 +0000

Leave it to Nick to create a love song amidst the horrors of judgment day.

When God strikes vengeance on us for our sins at Armageddon, Nick isn’t looking for survival, he’s looking for the woman he loves for that one last moment. Together.

The Bad Seeds weren’t particularly happy with the video and when they did their wardrobe changes they continued to take drinking breaks, which left a couple of the band members quite drunk by the final segment. (Always love Blixa, another drunken video clip coming soon.)

The song is beautiful, the video is a bit silly and it’s all in good fun.

“Straight To You” was on the 1992 release of “Henry’s Dream.”

This track has vivid meaning for me as I believed in Armageddon for many years growing up a Jehovah’s Witness….and I was also utterly in love with a few girls throughout my teen years, which was frowned upon in that restrictive environment. My love for Rachel, Michelle, Rebecca and Jasmine was stronger to me than Armageddon. But, God’s day of judgment was a continual panic attack, a constant lump in my throat, until I finally was able to leave and let go of that belief.

When this song came out, it spoke to me on a level that I don’t think Nick could even realize.

“Straight To You” was an anthem for the battle I used to have between knowing that my death was imminent at the hands of God vs. not caring because my heart was bound to someone special.

This vicious God of the bible, with his petty behavior of killing humans was quite a whack job. As for us lovers, we’ll run to the women who make our lives fuller for one last embrace.

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

Nick Cave Monday #18: “Lucy”

Tony DuShane — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:00:46 +0000

Who is Lucy? Nick’s ex-girlfriend? A ballerina? Whoever she was, we all have our Lucy. The woman who died too young. If you don’t have a Lucy yet, be assured, Lucy will come into your life. Perhaps a few times.

When The Bad Seeds busted out with a live version of “Lucy” on their last tour, it shattered me. I stood catatonic and a few tears made their way down my cheek.

The song came out in 1990 and I don’t remember ever hearing it in their live set before 2008.

“Lucy” was the last song on “The Good Son” record. It was a perfect ending to such a brilliant album, we get the first two and a half minutes of Nick singing the heartbreaking lyrics, then a couple of minutes of instrumental which continues to gut the soul.

“It was the end of love, of misery and woe….”

Play this song at my funeral.

Here is the studio version:

Shane MacGowan, lead singer of The Pogues, sings “Lucy” with Nick on Jools Holland:

That’s a fun clip since Nick does his version of “Rainy Night in Soho” by The Pogues. Also, the feature of auto tracking which was very common with VCRs.

Then of course, Shane and Nick doing their stunning duet of “What a Wonderful Life.”

Two great songwriters coming together. Good times. Especially when Nick gives Jools a little jab after he refers to them as crooners.

“I love her forever/
I love her for all time/
I love her ’til the stars/
Fall down from the sky”

Let me grab a tissue. Bring it home Nick:

Lucy, can you hear me when I cry, and cry……….and cry?

Thanks for reading and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.

The Rumpus.net » tony dushane

Nick Cave Monday #28: “Jack The Ripper”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #27: “Tupelo”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #26: “Brother, My Cup is Empty”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #25: “Abattoir Blues”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #24: “Mack The Knife”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #23: “Hard On For Love”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #21: “Nature Boy”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #20: “Henry Lee”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #19: “Straight To You”

Related Posts:

Nick Cave Monday #18: “Lucy”

Related Posts: