tender prey

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds expanded their sound and their lineup for the brooding biblical balladry and challenging chaos of this diverse and dramatic distillation. In the two years following 'Your Funeral... My Trial', Cave pursued writing and acting. Cave revealed at the time:  "The last year I've been working my arse off.  It may not appear that way since no product has come out, but I'll reap the fruit this year. I've written a novel. I have two books coming out this year. I'm involved in a couple of films. Um, yeah, records and that shit...I've always felt that my areas of creativity were fairly open. But it's only in the past couple of years that I've actually had the chance to become involved in other things...[In ' Ghosts... of the Civil Dead'] I played a psychopath with a leaning towards self-destruction and shooting his mouth off.  It's about the authorities deliberately provoking a situation, where a series of violent events occur, so that the prison can be put under what's called lockdown, that's kind of twenty-four hours a day locked in the cells without any privileges or whatever. And there's that story plus the following of one particular character who goes into the prison a smalltime criminal and comes out a killer...The 'Ghosts' film is the first I've done any music for. Apart from 'Wings of Desire', but that was only playing a couple of songs from our repertoire on stage. It wasn't actually doing music for the film as such. For 'Ghosts', I'm actually having to compose music to suit a certain type of atmosphere and so forth to kind of please the producer. And in that way it's kind of the first time I've had to do anything like that and it's quite a challenge. Usually I'm only pleasing myself...I've written lots of prison songs... there's two or three prison songs on the next album...The basic theme in my latest record are death, isolation and prison, basically the same things I've always been harping on about...Sex and violence of course.  There's a good deal of sex and violence in it...We've recorded quite a lot of songs for it, but we're still interested in recording more. Basically we want to make a better record than the last one even though I'm very happy with the last one. And I won't be really happy until I've done that." 

'Tender Prey' was produced by Flood over four months at Vielklang Studios and Hansa Tonstudio in West Berlin, Germany; and at Trident Studios and Strongroom Studios in London, United Kingdom.  The sessions featured Nick Cave on vocals, Hammond, piano, harmonica, vibes, tambourine; Blixa Bargeld on slide guitar, guitar, and backing vocals; Mick Harvey on bass, bass loops, piano, guitar, xylophone, drums, percussion, acoustic guitar, organ, and backing vocals; Roland Wolf on guitar, piano, and organ; Kid Congo Powers on guitar and backing vocals; Hugo Race on guitar and backing vocals; Thomas Wydler on drums; Ian Davis on backing vocals; and strings by Gini Ball, Audrey Riley, and Chris Tombling. 

'Tender Prey' charted at number seventy-seven in the Netherlands and sixty-seven in the UK.  









http://www.nickcave.com/









The Mercy Seat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahr4KFl79WI

And they came, took me from my home

Put me in Dead Row

Of which I am nearly wholly innocent

I'll say again, I am afraid to die

I began to warm and chill

To objects and their fields

A ragged cup, a twisted mop

The face of Jesus in my soup

Those sinister dinner deals

A meal trolley's wicked wheels

A hooked bone rising from my food

All things either good or ungood

And the mercy seat is awaiting

And I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth

Of an eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And anyway I told the truth

And I'm not afraid to die

Interpret signs and catalogue

A blackened tooth

A scarlet fog

The walls are bad, black, bottom kind

They are the sick breath at my hind

They are the sick breath at my hind

They are the sick breath at my hind

They are the sick breath gathering at my hind

I hear stories from the chamber

Christ was born into a manger

And like some ragged stranger

Died upon the cross

And might I say

It seems so fitting in its way

He was a carpenter by trade

Or at least that's what I'm told

Like my good hand

Tattooed evil all across his brothers fist

That filthy five

They did nothing to challenge or resist

In Heaven His throne is made of gold

The ark of His Testament is stowed

A throne from which I'm told

All history does unfold

Down here

It's made of a wood and wire

And my body is on fire

And God is never far away

Into the mercy seat I climb

My head is shaved, my head is wired

Like a moth that tries

To enter the bright eye

Till I go shuffling out of life

Just to hide in death awhile

And anyway

I never lied

Kill hand is called evil

Wears a wedding band that's good

To the long suffering shackle

Collaring all that rebel blood

And the mercy seat is a burning

And I think my head is glowing

In a way I'm hoping

To be done with all this weighing up of truth

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And I've got nothing left to lose

And I'm not afraid to die

And the mercy seat is glowing

And I think my head is a melting

In a way I'm helping

To be done with all this twisting of the truth

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And anyway I saw no proof

And nor a motive why

The mercy seat is a melting

And I think my blood is a boiling

In a way I'm spoiling

All the fun that I always consequence the truth

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And I've got nothing left to lose

And I'm not afraid to die

And the mercy seat is awaiting

And I think my head is burning

In a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And anyway there was no proof

And nor a motive why

And the mercy seat is awaiting

And I think my head is burning

In a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And anyway I've told the truth

And I'm not afraid to die

And the mercy seat is awaiting

And I think my head is burning

In a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of proof

A lie for a lie

And a truth for a truth

And anyway there was no proof

And I'm not afraid to die

And the mercy seat is awaiting

And I think my head is smoking

And in a way I'm hoping

To be done with all this looks of disbelief

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

And anyway I've told the truth and I'm not afraid to die

And the mercy seat is awaiting and I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning to be done with all this measuring of proof

'Tender Prey'
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGbEdVaJJVs



Songs written by Nick Cave, except where noted.


1.The Mercy Seat - 00:00  (words: Cave, music: Cave / Mick Harvey)
2. Up Jumped the Devil - 07:22 (words: Cave, music: Cave / Harvey / Roland Wolf / Blixa Bargeld / Kid Congo Powers / Thomas Wydler)
3. Deanna - 12:38
4. Watching Alice - 16:22
5. Mercy - 20:25   (words: Cave, music: Cave / Mick Harvey)
6. City of Refuge - 26:48
7. Slowly Goes the Night - 31:36
8. Sunday's Slave - 37:00
9. Sugar Sugar Sugar - 40:42   (words: Cave, music: Cave / Mick Harvey)
10. New Morning - 45:44