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Thread: Album Club: 16.08.2011: Nick Cave - Murder Ballads

  1. #1
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Cricklewood

    Posts: 9,074
    I'm ILOB.

    Default Album Club: 16.08.2011: Nick Cave - Murder Ballads

    Its been hard thinking of what album I should start off with I was tempted very much to go with Grace but perhaps another time. So I gone for an album whilst not usually considered a classic is reasonably well known

    Nick Cave - Murder Ballads 1996 (CD, Vinyl, Casette)



    http://open.spotify.com/album/5mCZgkh6C5xD49i9yIk3bs

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Ballads

    So why have chosen this album
    I think along with a Boatman Call this is Nick at the height of his powers. The album is basically a series of songs about murder. Nick has always had a dark side to his music listen to some of the songs in the past such as A box for black Paul or the Mercy Seat you can clearly see Nick playing with themes of death
    What Nick does is play with myth and fable dabbling away with a dark tortured and seductive quality taking the listener deeper into the music.
    This is not an album for everyone, its dark, has touches of macabre humour, but the song writing and supporting cast is of the highest quality, even has Kylie singing on Where the Wild Roses Grow
    It be interesting what others will make of this album
    Last edited by Alex_UK; 16-08-2011 at 08:27. Reason: Added Cover Image and slight tidy up
    Loves anything from Pain of Salvation to Jeff Buckley to Django to Sarasate to Surinder Sandhu to Shawn Lane to Nick Drake to Rush to Beth Hart to Kate Bush to Rodrigo Y Gabriela to The Hellecasters to Dark Sanctury to Ben Harper to Karicus to Dream Theater to Zero Hour to Al DiMeola to Larry Carlton to Derek Trucks to Govt Mule to?

    Humour: One of the few things worth taking seriously

  2. #2
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: Sarf Lunnon

    Posts: 2,068
    I'm Dave.

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    This was the first time I'd heard this album and to be honest I struggled to get through it. By the end of track three I was facing the wall with a lifeless stare, razor in hand.

    It was a combination of the dirge style music and his Cohen style voice that almost pushed me over the edge.

    It is one of those albums that you probably have live with for a bit to appreciate but to be honest I fear for my own sanity were I to listen to it again..
    In - Tweaked Lenco GL75, Linn Ittok, Ortofon Cadenza Black
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    Dave

  3. #3
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Cricklewood

    Posts: 9,074
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    I certainly think a lot of people here will struggle with it, its not easy but a lot more commercial than his early material It will be either love or hate for most people (most likely hate) and no appologies for chosing something that will bring that kind of response, sometimes good music should push boundaries
    If I can get a few people into the album then job done
    Loves anything from Pain of Salvation to Jeff Buckley to Django to Sarasate to Surinder Sandhu to Shawn Lane to Nick Drake to Rush to Beth Hart to Kate Bush to Rodrigo Y Gabriela to The Hellecasters to Dark Sanctury to Ben Harper to Karicus to Dream Theater to Zero Hour to Al DiMeola to Larry Carlton to Derek Trucks to Govt Mule to?

    Humour: One of the few things worth taking seriously

  4. #4
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Coventry

    Posts: 3,039
    I'm Will.

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    Good choice John...for myself I would probably have gone with 'Abattoir Blues', but that's just my personal favourite and he's got a large portfolio of very good work, 'Murder Ballads' is a fine album.
    Cheers, Will

  5. #5
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Newport

    Posts: 391
    I'm Simon.

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    A great choice. I love this album.

    This was the album where I accepted Nick Cave in to my life fully, I seemed to be think his albums were always one good track followeed by one bad track, ironically a similar problem I had with the lovely Miss Harvey at the time. this album not only got me in to Cave properly but I also went after Miss Harvey's albums afterwards.

    The songs run like these wonderfully dark little stories - Harvey and Minogue's cameos being the more commercial side but they are wonderfully dark little pop songs, imo.

    For me I always enjoyed Nocturama better which followed this album but this was the first Cave album I enjoyed from start to finish.

    Sadly I lost the cd version in a flood a couple of years ago but had the vinyl stored safely in another location.

    Of course for me Cave hasn't been as good since Blixa stopped being a Bad Seed of course the plus side was some quality Einsturzunde Neubauten so not all bad.

    I'm going to enjoy listening to this during the week.

  6. #6
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: South Wales

    Posts: 7,487
    I'm the'greatunwashed'.

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    Nice one John, this is easy so far as I have the albums in my collection already I'm looking forward to getting this one out.
    "People will hear what you tell them to hear" - Thomas Edison

  7. #7
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Cricklewood

    Posts: 9,074
    I'm ILOB.

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    Simon I totally agree about Nick earlier work they had moments of brillance and then the moments of whats that...... This is quite a comercial album I have a few friends who do not like it as they think its to pop but for me it gets the balance right
    I love Boatman Call as well; which is kind of love song to PJ Harvey and yet still maintains a sense of darkness at times
    I always wanted to hear Kate Bush with Nick
    Loves anything from Pain of Salvation to Jeff Buckley to Django to Sarasate to Surinder Sandhu to Shawn Lane to Nick Drake to Rush to Beth Hart to Kate Bush to Rodrigo Y Gabriela to The Hellecasters to Dark Sanctury to Ben Harper to Karicus to Dream Theater to Zero Hour to Al DiMeola to Larry Carlton to Derek Trucks to Govt Mule to?

    Humour: One of the few things worth taking seriously

  8. #8
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Newport

    Posts: 391
    I'm Simon.

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    Johnny Cash did a great version of Mercy Seat.

    His tone and delivery really seemed to suit Cave's songs, just a shame he didn't get a chance to do a few more versions.

    In the Cash boxset of the American recordings, in the booklet Cave mentions about doing a song with him. A bit of a shame Cash never got a chance to be a Bad Seed, I think it would have worked very well.

    As I've gotten older, and hopefully wiser, Cave's earlier stuff has appealed to me a lot more than when I was younger coming in to them.

    Maybe it's just me but I find him seriously underrated as a songwriter. I know he has quite a strong following but he should really be more appreciated, imo, of course.

  9. #9
    Join Date: Sep 2010

    Location: High Peak, Derbyshire

    Posts: 2,241
    I'm Keith.

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    Mmmm, never really liked any Nick Cave stuff that I've heard so far and haven't got this album, but I do have a mate who is a big Cave fan so will borrow it off him for Thursday.
    Keith
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  10. #10
    Join Date: Jun 2008

    Location: N. Ireland

    Posts: 2,475
    I'm Steve.

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    Man I LOVE this album. Dark though the subject matter is, Cave manages to add humour through his use of well crafted lyrics. I particularly like O'Malley's Bar, and I am sure I will not be alone here. Nick Cave is a poet, an orator, a comedian and psychologist all rolled into one. You might think with such insight and detail to the song I mention that it was a real event, or that he had fantasised about doing the deeds within in his warped mind! Whatever the truth, it gets me every time and I put the album unreservedly in my top 10. Just read the lyrics!

    I am tall and I am thin
    Of an enviable hight
    And I've been known to be quite handsome
    In a certain angle and in certain light

    Well I entered into O'Malley's
    Said, "O'Malley I have a thirst"
    O'Malley merely smiled at me
    Said "You wouldn't be the first"

    I knocked on the bar and pointed
    To a bottle on the shelf
    And as O'Malley poured me out a drink
    I sniffed and crossed myself

    My hand decided that the time was nigh
    And for a moment it slipped from view
    And when it returned, it fairly burned
    With confidence anew

    Well the thunder from my steely fist
    Made all the glasses jangle
    When I shot him, I was so handsome
    It was the light, it was the angle

    Huh! Hmmmmmm

    "Neighbours!" I cried, "Friends!" I screamed
    I banged my fist upon the bar
    "I bear no grudge against you!"
    And my dick felt long and hard

    "I am the man for which no God waits
    But for which the whole world yearns
    I'm marked by darkness and by blood
    And one thousand powder-burns"

    Well, you know those fish with the swollen lips
    That clean the ocean floor
    When I looked at poor O'Malley's wife
    That's exactly what I saw

    I jammed the barrel under her chin
    And her face looked raw and vicious
    Her head it landed in the sink
    With all the dirty dishes

    Her little daughter Siobhan
    Pulled beers from dusk till down
    And amongst the townfolk she was a bit of a joke
    But she pulled the best beer in town

    I swooped magnificent upon her
    As she sat shivering in her grief
    Like the Madonna painted on the church-house wall
    In whale's blood and banana leaf

    Her throat it crumbled in my fist
    And I spun heroically around
    To see Caffrey rising from his seat
    I shot that mother fucker down

    Mmmmmmmmmm Yeah Yeah Yeah

    "I have no free will", I sang
    As I flew about the murder
    Mrs. Richard Holmes, she screamed
    You really should have heard her

    I sang and I laughed, I howled and I wept
    I panted like a pup
    I blew a hole in Mrs. Richard Holmes
    And her husband stupidly stood up

    As he screamed, "You are an evil man"
    And I paused a while to wonder
    "If I have no free will then how can I
    Be morally culpable, I wonder"

    I shot Richard Holmes in the stomach
    And gingerly he sat down
    And he whispered weirdly, "No offense"
    And then lay upon the ground

    "None taken", I replied to him
    To which he gave a little cough
    With blazing wings I neatly aimed
    And blew his head completely off

    I've lived in this town for thirty years
    And to no-one I am a stranger
    And I put new bullets in my gun
    Chamber upon chamber

    And I turned my gun on the bird-like Mr. Brookes
    I thought of Saint Francis and his sparrows
    And as I shot down the youthful Richardson
    It was St. Sebastian I thought of, and his arrows

    Hhhhhhhhhh Mmmmmmmmmmmm

    I said, "I want to introduce myself
    And I am glad that all you came"
    And I leapt upon the bar
    And shouted out my name

    Well Jerry Bellows, he hugged his stool
    Closed his eyes and shrugged and laughed
    And with an ashtray as big as a fucking really big brick
    I split his head in half

    His blood spilled across the bar
    Like a steaming scarlet brook
    And I knelt at it's edge on the counter
    Wiped the tears away and looked

    Well, the light in there was blinding
    Full of God and ghosts of truth
    I smiled at Henry Davenport
    Who made an attempt to move

    Well, from the position I was standing
    The strangest thing I ever saw
    The bullet entered through the top of his chest
    And blew his bowels out on the floor

    Well I floated down the counter
    Showing no remorse
    I shot a hole in Kathleen Carpenter
    Recently divorced

    But remorse i felt and remorse I had
    It clung to every thing
    From the raven's hair upon my head
    To the feathers on my wings

    Remorse sqeezed my hand in it's fradulent claw
    With it's golden hairless chest
    And I glided through the bodies
    And killed the fat man Vincent West

    Who sat quietly in his chair
    A man become a child
    And I raised the gun up to his head
    Executioner-style

    He made no attempt to resist
    So fat and dull and lazy
    "Did you know I lived in your street?" I said
    And he looked at me as though I were crazy

    "O", he said, "I had no idea"
    And he grew as quiet as a mouse
    And the roar of the pistol when it went off
    Near blew that hat right off the house

    Hmmmmmm Uh Uh

    Well, I caught my eye in the mirror
    And gave it a long and loving inspection
    "There stands some kind of man", I roared
    And there did, in the reflection

    My hair combed back like a raven's wing
    My muscles hard and tight
    And curling from the business end of my gun
    Was a query-mark of cordite

    Well I spun to the left, I spun to the right
    And I spun to the left again
    "Fear me! Fear me! Fear me!"
    But no one did cause they were dead

    Huh! Hmmmmmmmmm

    And then there were the police sirens wailing
    And a bull-horn squelched and blared
    "Drop your weapons and come out
    With your hands held in the air"

    Well, I checked the chamber of my gun
    Saw I had one final bullet left
    My hand, it looked almost human
    As I raised it to my head

    "Drop your weapon and come out!
    Keep your hands above your head!"
    I had one one long hard think about dying
    And did exactly what they said

    There must have been fifty cops out there
    In a circle around O'Malley's bar
    "Don't shoot", I cried, "I'm a man unarmed!"
    So they put me in their car

    And they sped me away from that terrible scene
    And I glanced out of the window
    Saw O'Malley's bar, saw the cops and the cars
    And I started counting on my fingers

    Aaaaaah One Aaaaaah Two Aaaaaah Three Aaaaaaah Four
    O'Malley's bar O'Malley's bar


    Now that is an epic story, even if you do not like the subject matter!
    They swim... the mark of Satan is upon them. They must hang.


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