Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Opium Tea (1997)

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds released their tenth studio album in 1997, with 'The Boatman's Call' being entirely piano-based, alternately somber and romantic in mood, and a marked departure from the bulk of the band's post-punk catalogue. Recording for the album began at Sarm West Studios in London in mid-1996, with 'The Garden Duet' being the first song to be recorded, although it was to be one of a number of songs which didn't appear on the final record. Further recordings were later done at Abbey Road Studios, with Cave moving away from full-band arrangements and character-based narratives, and the album's music and lyrics moving towards the more intimate sound of his solo voice accompanied by piano or a few other instruments. The tempo is also generally slow, reflecting the sombre mood of the songs, while many of the lyrics seem to reflect on Cave's personal relationships and spiritual yearnings at the time of writing. Precious few studio outtakes from Cave predating the mid-90's actually exist, something he attributes to the fact that they were often too strung out to record more than the bare minimum, but having recently kicked heroin, and also had his heart scrambled by Polly Harvey, following their brief relationship, he entered Sarm West in 1996 with an abundance of material. Several strays from the sessions turned up on 2005's 'B-Sides And Rarities', and a couple ended up as b-sides on singles from the album, while alternate versions of four of the tracks from the record have also appeared, most radically a full band version of 'Black Hair'. You can hear why the long, half-realised 'Garden Duet' and sleazy blues of 'I Got Another Woman Now, Dear' might not have fitted in with the rest of the tracks chosen for the album, although they are still well worth hearing, whereas the decision to discard the wracked 'I Do, Dear, I Do' is, quite frankly, a mystery. I've had to make one small edit, as the afore-mentioned 'I Got Another Woman Now, Dear' had an annoying glitch in the first verse on every single online copy that I found, and try as I might I couldn't fix it, so as it was a lengthy track to start with I've just removed the whole of the first verse, and if I hadn't told you I don't think you'd have noticed.  

Track Listing

01 Come Into My Sleep (b-side of '(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?' 1996)
02 Little Empty Boat (b-side of 'Into My Arms' 1997)
03 Right Now I'm a-Roaming (b-side of 'Into My Arms' 1997)
04 The Garden Duet (out-take 1996)
05 I've Got Another Woman Now, Dear (out-take 1997)

06 Wake Up My Lover (out-take 1997)
07 Baby I Got You Bad (b-side of '(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?' 1996)
08 I Do, Dear, I Do (bonus track on Japanese CD)

09 Opium Tea (out-take 1997)
10 Sheep Shall Safely Graze (out-take 1997)
11 Farewell, So Long, Goodbye (out-take 1997)

Nick Cave - Covers With Others (2011)

For my second collection of Nick Cave's cover versions I've selected a number of songs which he performed either as a duet with another artist, or as guest vocalist on a friend's album. Once again, the sheer variety of songs on here shows his eclectic taste in music, from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's 'Bedazzled' at one end of the spectrum, via country music on Hank Williams' 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry', to his superlative reading of the Leonard Cohen classic 'Suzanne'. A couple of these artists aren't that well-known, so Anita Lane was a former girlfriend of Cave's, and was briefly a member of The Bad Seeds, co-writing a number of songs with Cave while with the band. Chris Coco is a pseudonym of DJ Christopher Mellor, who, as well as being was one of the first house music resident DJs also makes downtempo, ambient albums. His 2002 release 'Next Wave' not only features Nick Cave, but also author Iain Banks and guitarist Peter Green. Die Haut were an experimental German post-punk and post-rock band, who enjoyed some local success in Berlin during the 1980's and 1990's, and hopefully the rest of the artists are well-known enough to need no introduction.
The songs on this album come from the following sources:
'All The Pretty Little Horses' is Nick's vocal contribution to the title track of Current 93's 'All The Pretty Little Horses (TheInmostLightItself)' album from 1996 
'I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)' is Nick helping out on Die Haut's 1988 album 'Headless Body In Topless Bar'
'Sunday Morning' is taken from Chris Coco's 2002 album 'Next Wave'
'Bedazzled' is from Anita Lane's 1995 single 'The World's A Girl'
'Cindy' is taken from the 2006 Johnny Cash album 'Cash Unearthed'
'She's Not There' is from the 2011 soundtrack album to the TV series 'True Blood'
'I Love You...Nor Do I' is also from Anita Lane's 1995 single 'The World's A Girl'
'Kiss Of Love' is a Jools Holland/Sam Brown song from Holland's 2003 album 'Friends 3'
'Suzanne' is taken from the soundtrack of the 2005 film 'I'm Your Man'
'The Big Hurt' is from the soundtrack of the 1997 film 'Mojo'
'What A Wonderful World' was a 1992 single by Cave and Shane McGowan
'Free To Walk' is from the 2009 Jeffrey Lee Pierce tribute album 'We Are Only Riders'
'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' is from the 2002 Johnny Cash album 'American IV: The Man Comes Around', and
'The X Files Theme' is from the 1996 'Songs In The Key Of X' compilation album
The cover is based on Reinhard Kleist's graphic novel 'Mercy On Me'.   

Track listing 

01 All The Pretty Little Horses (with Current 93) (Trad./Current 93)   
02 I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) (with Die Haut) 
                                                                                                                        (Mickey Newbury)
03 Sunday Morning (with Chris Coco) (Lou Reed/John Cale)         
04 Bedazzled (with Anita Lane) (Peter Cook/Dudley Moore)  
05 Cindy (with Johnny Cash) (Trad.)     
06 She's Not There (with Neko Case) (Rod Argent)
07 I Love You... Nor Do It (with Anita Lane) (Serge Gainsbourg/Mick Harvey)   
08 Kiss Of Love (with Sam Brown) (Sam Brown/Jools Holland)   
09 Suzanne (with Perla Batalla & Julie Christensen) (Leonard Cohen)                      
10 The Big Hurt (with Gallon Drunk) (Wayne Shanklin)                                  
11 What A Wonderful World (with Shane McGowan) (Weiss/Douglas)      
12 Free To Walk (with Debbie Harry) (Jeffrey Lee Pierce)       
13 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (with Johnny Cash) (Hank Williams)
14 The X-Files Theme (with The Dirty Three) (Mark Snow)

Nick Cave - The Pricks Kick Back (2009)

Back in 1980 I heard a song on the John Peel show which was unlike anything I'd ever heard before - the song was 'The Friend Catcher' and it was by The Birthday Party, an Australian post-punk band led by a young Nick Cave. I tried to find more by them but there wasn't much around, although 'Mr Clarinet Man' proved that the earlier song wasn't just a one-off. The band started out in 1975 as a sextet, with Cave on vocals, joined by Mick Harvey on guitar, Phil Calvert on drums, Brett Purcell on bass, Chris Coyne on saxophone and John Cocivera on second guitar. After playing a few local venues under various names, they decided to continue as a four-piece, with Tracey Pew taking over on bass, and in 1976 The Boys Next Door was born. They were still doing covers, such as 'Gloria' and 'Blitzkreig Bop', but Cave was now coming up with some dark and disturbing songs, such as the afore-mentioned 'The Friend Catcher'. In 1978 they recruited Rowland S. Howard as a second guitarist, resulting in a change in their sound, with Howard's use of feedback combining with the prominent repetitive basslines and minimal drumming to make a noise that incorporated punk, blues, rockabilly and free jazz. 
In 1980 they headed to London and changed their name to The Birthday Party, and were championed almost immediately by John Peel, offering them a Peel session early in their career. With the 'Release The Bats' single they really hit the mainstream, and from there on could do no wrong. Their debut album was a classic of the post-punk genre, and while the follow-up 'Junkyard' had a lot to prove, and so suffered for that, there was some good stuff on there as well. The years 1982 to 1983 were especially fraught for the band, with arguments between the band-mates resulting in one member after another leaving, and after the excellent 'Mutiny' and 'The Bad Seed' EP's in 1983 the band split up for good. Perhaps surprisingly, considering that they made such a unique sound together, each member has gone on to considerable solo or band success since the spilt, with Mick Harvey forming Crime And The City Solution, Rowland S. Howard teaming up with Lydia Lunch for a number of records, and then forming These Immortal Souls, and of course Nick Cave going on to the greatest success after he formed The Bad Seeds with ex-Einsturzende Neubauten guitarist Blixa Bargeld, Barry Adamson, and for a short period Tracey Pew, before he passed from injuries sustained following an epileptic seizure in 1986. 
Cave's first album with the Bad Seeds was 'From Her To Eternity', and was the equal of anything by his former band. 'The Firstborn Is Dead' and 'Your Funeral... My Trial' followed, and established Cave as a musician of some note and influence, so it was something of a surprise that for his fourth album he decided to release a selection of cover versions by artists as diverse as John Lee Hooker, Johnny Cash, Leadbelly, Roy Orbison, Lou Reed, and Jimmy Webb. The album was a massive hit, and Cave has continued to perform covers in his shows and in the studio, although he's never got around to releasing a follow-up to 'Kicking Against The Pricks', so it's therefore down to me to put it together for him. Over the past 20-odd years Cave has covered a wide variety of songs for compilation and tribute albums, as well as helping out bands that he admired with vocals on their records, and so I've compiled two covers albums - one of just Cave and the band, and one of covers that he's performed as duets with other artists. 'The Pricks Kick Back' comprises songs recorded by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, or by Cave on his own, and are taken from a number of sources, as listed here:
'I Put A Spell On You' was an exclusive recording for the NME's cassette 'Department of Enjoyment' in 1984 
'The Pinery Boy' is from 'Rogues Gallery', a 2006 collection of Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs And Shanties
'Ramblin' Mind' is from the 2009 Jeffrey Lee Pierce tribute album 'We Are Only Riders'
'Let It Be' is from the soundtrack of the 2001 fim 'Son Of Sam'
'Mack The Knife is from 1997 CD September Songs, a collection of Kurt Weill songs   
'Helpless' was recorded for the 1989 Neil Young tribute album 'The Bridge' (this is the full version which is 40 seconds longer than the one on the 'B-Sides & Rarities' compilation 
'Disco 2000' was released as the b-side to Pulp's 'Bad Cover Version' single of 2002
'John The Revelator' was recorded for 'The Harry Smith Project' CD of American folk songs
'King Kong Kitchee Kitchee Ki-Mi-O' was the b-side of the 1996 single 'Henry Lee'
'Rainy Night In Soho' was the b-side to the 1992 single 'What A Wonderful World' (with Shane McGowan)
'I Feel So Good' comes from the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese's 2003 film 'The Soul Of A Man', and
'There's No Night Out At The Jail' was recorded for a 1993 Country covers album that never saw the light of day. 
So here we have a very belated second volume to 'Kicking Against The Pricks', which I hope is as interesting and varied a selection as the original album. 

Track listing

01 I Put A Spell On You (Screaming Jay Hawkins/Slotkin)
02 Pinery Boy (Trad.)
03 Ramblin' MInd (Jeffrey Lee Pierce)   
04 Let It Be (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)  
05 Mack The Knife (Bertold Brecht/Kurt Weill)    
06 Helpless (Neil Young)
07 Disco 2000 (Banks/Cocker/Doyle/Nackey/Senior/Webber)   
08 John The Revelator (Trad./Blind Willie Johnson)
09 King Kong Kitchee Kitchee Ki-Mi-O (Trad./Nick Cave) 
10 Rainy Night In Soho (Shane McGowan)  
11 I Feel So Good (J. B. Lenoir)
12 There's No Night Out In The Jail (John Harold Ashe)