“The Boatman’s Call” was the follow up to “Murder Ballads” and you can easily detect the musical, if not lyrical, similarities between the two. But while “Murder Ballads” was a humorous romp “The Boatman’s Call” is a struggle with the death of love, wonderfully poetic but at times in language that is harsh and accusatory. The Bad Seeds are elegantly restrained throughout, holding back to allow Cave’s words the lead in this show. And what words to begin with 

“I don’t believe in an interventionist god, But I know darling that you do”

The table is set from the very start of “Into My Arms”. There’s a struggle going on between the singers needs and the needs of the object of the singers desire. No belief in God or angels but a belief they can guide his desire to him along with an absolute belief in love. It’s a hell of an opening statement.

“Lime Tree Arbour” continues in a similar vein but in “People Ain’t No Good” things start to crumble

“To our love send a dozen white lilies, To our love send a coffin of wood”

And in “Brompton Oratory” you’re not quite sure whether the love or the lover has passed on

“Outside I sit on the stone steps with nothing much to do

Forlorn and exhausted, baby by the absence of you”

And so it goes on, the singer struggling with his ideas of love and faith and how the two, one of which he believes in the other he seemingly doesn’t, reconcile with each other.

Side 1 ends with my very favourite of Nick Cave’s songs, the utterly beautiful “(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?”. I will argue long and convincingly with anyone that it is the most devastating love song ever written and on the surface that’s exactly what it is, a love song, a testimonial from a lover to the object of his desire who he has been separated from or is awaiting their arrival. Cave had been in a relationship with PJ Harvey and their breakup is the main subject matter of “The Boatman’s Call” and “(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?” says everything about being hopelessly in love. But…

Cave had been in and out of another relationship for many years, with drugs. He has said that when Harvey broke up with him "I was so surprised I almost dropped my syringe" ! A read through the lyrics of “(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?” could bring you to the realisation that the singer is singing not about his lover but about Heroin.

“I think of you in motion and just how close you are getting, And how every little thing anticipates you

All down my veins my heart-strings call, Are you the one that I've been waiting for?”

Who is getting closer. The lover or the dealer ? All down his veins calling for what, the lover or the rush ? It’s a brilliant piece of songwriting. If you want to hear it as a beautiful love song you can, if you want to read in something more ominous, you can.

Side 2 seems more openly about PJ Harvey particularly “West Country Girl” and “Black Hair”. The final three songs are a man coming to terms with a breakup.  “The Boatman’s Call” is an album full of questions, love and pain. This album is the soundtrack to a broken heart.

(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For? - https://youtu.be/Dd51SEljBU0?t=20

It’s almost certain that Nick Cave’s most widely known known song resides here and it’s also as likely that said song worked wonders for two careers. The duet “Where The Wild Roses Grow” with soap star and PWL (a.k.a Stock, Aitken and Waterman) starlet Kylie Minogue thrust Cave into a pop world he’d normally have been excluded from and it bestowed a veil of alternative cool on Minogue. 

“Murder Ballads” is a collection of original songs, traditional arrangements and covers of songs on the subject of murder, or specifically “crime passionnel” as the French would have it, crimes of passion. “Where The Wild Roses Grow” is a perfect example of the genre, sung from the point of view of both sides of the passion and resulting in the male protagonist beating his love’s brains out with a gert big rock ! It’s a musical format that has existed for centuries.

The songs on this album are populated by a bunch of psychopaths, cut-throats, sadists and nut-jobs. The arrangements of two traditional songs feature “Stagger Lee”, a violent pimp from 19th century America who murdered Billy Lyons allegedly for stealing his stetson, and “Henry Lee”, a traditional Scottish tale of infidelity and murder sung as a duet with PJ Harvey.

“The Curse of Millhaven” regales us with the story of Lottie, a 15 year old serial killer and no lover of dogs either; “Lovely Creature” is an ambiguous tale set among a choir of eerie vocals concerning a girl who meets a man and is most certainly done away with; “Song Of Joy” sees a gent return from his travels to find his whole family brutally murdered; “The Kindness Of Strangers” is a favourite of mine. Poor Mary Bellows just wants to escape home and travel to see the ocean. She meets Richard Slade upon whom she impresses the fact that she is a good girl, but still they “found Mary Bellows cuffed to the bed with a rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head”; “Crow Jane” is another traditional song but Nick makes it his own to the extent he gets a writing credit. Jane is ravaged by 20 miners in her own home and subsequently takes bloody revenge by reducing the population of the mining town of New Haven by 20 souls.

“Murder Ballads” crowning glory is the first song that was written for the album and the reason the album was made at all. “O’Malleys Bar” was written during the recording of “Henry’s Dream”, 4 years previously, but was so different from anything else written for that, or the subsequent album “Let Love In”, it was decided to make an album on which the song could co-exist with others like it. It is a 14 and a half minute epic of dark brooding, murderous malevolence in which a man walks into a bar (boom-boom…literally) and kills everyone inside, describing each murder in great detail (for example “and with an ashtray as big as a f*cking really big brick, I split his head in half”), and ruminating upon his reasons before meekly surrendering to the Police because he doesn’t want to die. It’s quite brilliant and someone should turn it into a film.

Final song “Death Is Not The End” is a cover of a Bob Dylan song in which, surprisingly, no-one dies. In total 65 people and a dog die during “Murder Ballads”*** (plus those covered by the line “he's done many, many more" in “Song Of Joy” and the uncounted victims of "the fire of '91" mentioned in “The Curse of Milhaven”) making it, I would think, the most homicidal album ever made. It is with that in mind that I can’t help but wonder whether all those Kylie Minogue fans that bought it weren’t scarred for life.

The Comfort Of Strangers - https://youtu.be/gunKL5lfUt4

***Yes, someone counted them - http://www.bad-seed.org/~cave/info/albums/mb_count.html

I’m reasonably certain “The Good Son” was the first thing I heard by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. I’m also fairly certain it would have been on a tour bus, far from home, late at night or more likely in the wee small hours of the morning. Cos, as magnificent as this album is, it’s not one for playing on a bright sun-shiney day while you’re sipping cocktails with your pals. Like much of Nick Cave’s work there is a dark beauty smothering it all.

It’s a concise record, just 9 songs (plus 3 more if you’re lucky enough to own the bonus 7”, which I do) but there’s not a bad one among the 9. The titles say a lot about the content “Foi Na Cruz” (Portuguese for “(it was) On The Cross”), “Sorrow’s Child”, “The Weeping Song” and “Lament” give you an idea. That’s not to say it’s all doom and gloom, “The Ship Song” is a genuinely uplifting melody, in fact luscious melodies are this albums trade.

“The Good Son” was written and recorded in Brazil where Cave was living and had gone through rehab. The subject matter is in the main concerned with that and his new romantic interest, a Brazilian journalist. It’s much more sedate an album than his previous two, “Your Funeral…My Trial” and “The Tender Prey”. The latter of those two is a more twitchy, almost paranoid partner to “The Good Son” (PS “The Tender Prey” opens with “The Mercy Seat” which was brilliantly covered by Johnny Cash. Both are worthy of your time and effort). You can feel the search for a calmer life in these songs, bought about (maybe ?) by the rehab.

A number of the songs are based on other (traditional) compositions, “Foi Na Cruz” on a Brazilian hymn, the title track on the African-American chain-gang song "Another Man Done Gone" mixed up with the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel, “The Witness Song” on American gospel song "Who Will be a Witness?" (also an influence on Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get A Witness”). The Bad Seeds are in brilliant form throughout and guitarist Blixa Bargeld’s duet with Cave on “The Weeping Song” is equal parts ominous and hilarious. “The Ship Song” is a rare thing indeed, a delicately performed ballad but strident in its melody and a complete admission of all encompassing adoration. The closing “Lucy” is as sad as it is joyful. 

“The Good Son” is the start of a run of albums by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds over the next 15 years that are breathtaking in their quality and sheer brilliance at times, I’d advise you to check out any of them if you find yourself liking this. Oh and for info, the reason there are 4 songs on here titled The “something” Song (Weeping, Ship, Hammer and Witness songs) is, they never got around to titling them properly so stuck with their working titles.

The Ship Song - https://youtu.be/T0spQCw35D4