the firstborn is dead

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds reaped what they sowed with the longsuffering black crow blues of this fierce funereal flood.  Following the breakup of The Birthday Party, Cave had formed a new band and recorded their debut album 'From Her to Eternity' in London.   The group relocated to Germany to record 'The Firstborn Is Dead' at Hansa Studios in Berlin with producer Flood (Mark Ellis).  The sessions featured  Nick Cave on vocals and harmonica;   Barry Adamson on bass, guitar, organ, drums, and backing vocals;   Blixa Bargeld on guitar, slide guitar, piano, and backing vocals;   and  Mick Harvey on drums, piano, guitar, organ, bass, and backing vocals.   

Cave would reveal:    "Berlin gave us the freedom and encouragement to do whatever we wanted. We'd lived in London for three years and it seemed that if you stuck your head out of the box, people were pretty quick to knock it back in. Particularly if you were Australian. When we came to Berlin it was the opposite. People saw us as some kind of force rather than a kind of whacky novelty act."

'The Firstborn Is Dead' went to number fifty-three on the UK album chart and number two on the UK independent album chart.  






http://nickcave.com/






The apocalyptic "Tupelo" references the song by John Lee Hooker and the stillborn twin brother of Elvis Presley,  Jesse Garon Presley.   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oSl4KX7zBTQ



Looka yonder! Looka yonder!
Looka yonder! A big black cloud come!
A big black cloud come!
O comes to Tupelo. Comes to Tupelo

Yonder on the horizon
Yonder on the horizon
Stopped at the mighty river
Stopped at the mighty river and
Sucked the damn thing dry
Tupelo-o-o, O Tupelo
In a valley hides a town called Tupelo

Distant thunder rumble. Distant thunder rumble
Rumble hungry like the Beast
The Beast it cometh, cometh down
The Beast it cometh, cometh down
Wo wo wo-o-o
Tupelo bound. Tupelo-o-o. Yeah Tupelo
The Beast it cometh, Tupelo bound

Why the hen won't lay no egg
Can't get that cock to crow
The nag is spooked and crazy
O God help Tupelo! O God help Tupelo!
O God help Tupelo! O God help Tupelo!

Ya can say these streets are rivers
Ya can call these rivers streets
Ya can tell ya self ya dreaming buddy
But no sleep runs this deep
No! No sleep runs this deep
No sleep runs this deep
Women at their windows
Rain crashing on the pane
Writing in the frost
Tupelos' shame. Tupelo's shame
O God help Tupelo! O God help Tupelo!

O go to sleep lil children
The sandmans on his way
O go to sleep lil children
The sandmans in his way
But the lil children know
They listen to the beating of their blood
listen to the beating of their blood
listen to the beating of their blood
listen to the beating of their blood
They listen to the beating of their blood
The sandman's mud!
The sandman's mud!
And the black rain come down
the black rain come down
the black rain come down
Water water everywhere
Where no bird can fly no fish can swim
Where no bird can fly no fish can swim
No fish can swim
Until The King is born!
Until The King is born!
In Tupelo! Tupelo-o-o!
Til The King is born in Tupelo!

In a clap-board shack with a roof of tin
Where the rain came down and leaked within
A young mother frozen on a concrete floor
With a bottle and a box and a cradle of straw
Tupelo-o-o! O Tupelo!
With a bottle and a box and a cradle of straw

Well Saturday gives what Sunday steals
And a child is born on his brothers heels
Come Sunday morn the first-born dead
In a shoebox tied with a ribbon of red
Tupelo-o-o! Hey Tupelo!
In a shoebox buried with a ribbon of red

O ma-ma rock you lil' one slow
O ma-ma rock your baby
O ma-ma rock your lil' one slow
O God help Tupelo! O God help Tupelo!
Mama rock your lil' one slow
The lil one will walk on Tupelo
The lil one will walk on Tupelo
Black rain come down, Black rain come down
Tupelo-o-o! Yeah Tupelo!
And carry the burden of Tupelo
Tupelo-o-o! O Tupelo! Yeah!
The King will walk on Tupelo!
Tupelo-o-o! O Tupelo!
He carried the burden outa Tupelo!
Tupelo-o-o! Hey Tupelo!
You will reap just what you sow






'The Firstborn Is Dead'
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TVGira8RJo




All lyrics by Nick Cave

00:00 "Tupelo" – 7:17 (Adamson, Harvey)
07:19  "Say Goodbye to the Little Girl Tree" – 5:10 (Harvey)
12:29  "Train Long-Suffering" – 3:49 (Cave)
16:18  "Black Crow King" – 5:05 (Bargeld, Cave)
21:24  "Knockin' on Joe" – 7:38 (Cave)
29:03  "Wanted Man" – 5:27 (Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash)
34:32  "Blind Lemon Jefferson" – 6:10 (Adamson, Bargeld, Harvey, Cave)

bonus
40:41 The Six Strings That Drew Blood
45:31 Tupelo [Single Version]

the good son

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds found healing waters for ancient wounds in the supplication of these strange and sorrowful songs of romance, regret, and redemption.   The group had formed in 1983 from the ashes of The Birthday Party with Nick Cave and Mick Harvey and a revolving cast of musicians that included   Blixa Bargeld,  Hugo Race,  Barry Adamson, Dawn Cave,  Rowland S. Howard,  Tracy Pew,  Thomas Wydler,  Roland Wolf,  and Kid Congo Powers over five albums   (From Her to Eternity in 1984,  The Firstborn Is Dead in 1985,  Kicking Against the Pricks and Your Funeral... My Trial in 1986,  and  Tender Prey in 1988) of dark brooding blues rock.  


In 1989, Cave went into rehab and then relocated to Brazil, where he became involved with Viviane Carneiro.  He then brought the Bad Seeds to Brazil to record 'The Good Son'  with engineer Victor Van Vugt at Cardan Studios in Sao Paulo.   The album features  Nick Cave on vocals, piano, hammond, and harmonica;    Mick Harvey on bass, acoustic guitar, vibraphone, percussion, and backing vocals;    Blixa Bargeld on guitar and backing vocals;      Kid Congo Powers on guitar;     and  Thomas Wydler on drums and percussion;     with the string section arranged by Mick Harvey and Bill McGee:    violins by Alexandre Ramirez, Altamir Tea Bueno Salinas, Helena Akiku Imasoto, and Lea Kalil Sadi;    violas by Akira Terazaki and Glauco Masahiru Imasoto;    and   cellos by Braulio Marques Lima and Cristina Manescu.  


 Powers remembers:   “We went from Berlin to Brazil to play and it was about this time Nick met a girl who was to be the mother of his child. He was really taken with Brazil – as we all were. So we decided – Nick decided – that it would actually turn out to be cheaper to get a studio in Brazil, and fly us all out there and stay there to record an album. So we went to Sao Paulo and stayed for three weeks making The Good Son – tracking it all. And that was a great time. A great experience. I was sober and I was excited about making a record again...The music was changing. He was getting more songwriter-y – they were more song-like. Although there was still an experimental edge, the songs were a little more formed – I think because he wrote them all on piano. He was going through a big change at the time as well. And so that was really a great experience being in Sao Paulo and being in Brazil. It was such a completely different atmosphere than Berlin or London which was a kind of cold and hard reality. And Brazil was beautiful and sunny and the people were really nice. Even though there was a lot of poverty and crime there, it still was OK with us. It was a good good good time.”

Cave reveals:   "[Brazil] has had a big influence over me. Not necessarily their music. I mean, if you live in Brazil, you live with their music. It's everywhere, they're constantly playing their music. They love it, all that Samba and all that sort of stuff, and you hear it everywhere. That's not really what I'm influenced by in Brazil, but as a country itself, atmospherically, and the people... the amount of time I actually spent on my own. I spent a lot of time there by myself. That's been a big influence on me...I think Brazil is a remarkable country in the kind of corruption and the brutality of the government and the social situation there and what it does to people is so evident and so in your face and so inescapable that it can’t just be pocketed away. In that respect, it’s far more brutal than say some place like New York. At the same time it’s much more bearable for me somehow — it’s more honest in a way. I mean even when you get robbed there. I’ve been robbed two or three times, and I don’t feel any kind of bitterness. They’re not going to blow your head off for kicks. They’re not going to drive by your schoolyard and shoot a shotgun into it like it seems to happen more and more regularly in America. It’s awful to see what’s happening to the people there. I didn’t live under a palm tree when I was there; I lived in Sao Paulo, which is the third largest city in the world. It’s just this huge, massive business center in Brazil...I don’t want to have to run away and hide from the world. I mean, I don’t want to have to disassociate myself from the world simply because I have no control over it. What I do on occasion, and the prime reason I lived in Brazil for three years, even though Brazil is a terrifying place in itself, is sort of escape — escape from what I just couldn’t tolerate in the modern world. I don’t really want to do that [anymore]. I mean, I have a child, and I don’t want to gather up my family and sort of escape somewhere because of what the world is becoming, but sometimes it seems like it’s the only thing you can do ... I do kind of consider myself a storyteller in a lot of ways, although that's not to say I don't write about myself and that I only write about other people. I'm finding that increasingly I'm writing about things that concern myself and entering into an area that I'm finding increasingly interesting to write about -- which is the effects and mysteries of a long term relationship. It's something that I could write about as I got older, the mysteries of domesticity. I'm actually becoming more and more concerned about writing about myself and writing a far more personal kind of lyrics, but still very often putting it into a narrative form as if I'm telling some kind of story. I often times use characters to tell these kinds of stories instead of an I, I, I kind of story, but it shouldn't be assumed that these things aren't a part of my life." 

'The Good Son' went to number ninety-three in Australia, forty-seven in the UK, forty-five in the Netherlands, thirty-eight in Norway, and nineteen in New Zealand.  






http://nickcave.com/







"The Weeping Song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqhOVY58zIo






"The Ship Song" charted at number eighty-four in the UK.
https://youtu.be/T0spQCw35D4


Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around
Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around
We talk about it all night long
We define our moral ground
But when I crawl into your arms
Everything comes tumbling down
Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around
Your face has fallen sad now
For you know the time is nigh
When I must remove your wings
And you, you must try to fly
Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around
Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around

https://youtu.be/vUqt-74CYTs






"Foi Na Cruz"

Foi na cruz, foi na cruz
Que um dia
Meus pecados castigados em Jesus
Foi na cruz
Que um dia
Foi na cruz

It was on the cross, was on the cross
That one day
My sins punished in Jesus
It was on the cross
That one day
It was on the cross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3qzv2uGBgA









'The Good Son' 
full album:

https://myspace.com/nickcaveandthebadseeds/music/album/the-good-son-19542860

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL999D4C0ECEE1E456



All songs written by Cave unless otherwise stated.

"Foi Na Cruz" – 5:39
"The Good Son" – 6:01
"Sorrow's Child" – 4:36
"The Weeping Song" – 4:21
"The Ship Song" – 5:14
"The Hammer Song" – 4:16
"Lament" – 4:51
"The Witness Song" – 5:57
"Lucy" – 4:17 (words: Cave. Music: Cave, Bargeld, Roland Wolf)






pinkpop festival 1990
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL577BA4A0BB12350A




"The Witness Song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-xpJ-XAQyg



"The Weeping Song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riiIV06Qm7Y



"The Ship Song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLqrvlYDMRA








interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdXEPvsn8J8





The Road to God Knows Where
directed by Uli M Schueppel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdqHptzBHx4

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

no more shall we part

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds sought healing in this dark and beautiful musical drama that is a personal reflection of chaos and contemplation, heartbroken resignation, and redemptive rehabilitation. Guitarist Mick Harvey and Violinist Warren Ellis create arrangements that expand the scope of the songs to bring in a sense of the psychological and the spiritual stuggles that show in elemental forms. Kate and Anna McGarrigle provide affecting backing vocals and Cave takes his voice to new places. The music goes from soft and soothing to griping and stirring, sometimes changing with no warning into a crescendo of sonic force that takes the eastern instrumentation of gypsy music and infuses it with cinematic orchestral grace.

http://nickcave.com/

'As I Sat Sadly By Her Side'

"God has given you but one heart

You are not a home for the hearts of your brothers

And God does not care for your benevolence

Anymore than he cares for the lack of it in others

Nor does he care for you to sit

At windows in judgment of the world He created

While sorrows pile up around you

Ugly, useless and over inflated"

'And No More Shall We Part'

"Lord, stay by me

Don't go down

I will never be free

If I'm not free now"

'Love Letter'

"Said something I did not mean to say

It all came out the wrong way"

'Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow'

"Is anybody out there, please?

It's too quiet and I'm beginning to freeze

I've got icicles hanging from my knees"

'God Is In The House'

"And at night we're on our knees

As quiet as a mouse

Since the word got out

From the north down to the south

For no-one's left in doubt

There's no fear about

If we all hold hands and very quietly shout

Hallelujah"

'Oh My Lord'

"How have I offended thee?

Wrap your tender arms round me"

'No More Shall We Part'
full album:

All tracks written by Nick Cave, except where noted.

1. "As I Sat Sadly by Her Side" 6:15

2. "And No More Shall We Part" 4:00

3. "Hallelujah" Nick Cave, Warren Ellis 7:48

4. "Love Letter" 4:08

5. "Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow" 5:36

6. "God Is in the House" 5:44

7. "Oh My Lord" 7:30

8. "Sweetheart Come" Nick Cave, Barry Adamson 4:58

9. "The Sorrowful Wife" 5:18

10. "We Came Along This Road" 6:08

11. "Gates to the Garden" 4:09

12. "Darker with the Day" Nick Cave, Warren Ellis 6:07