NICK
CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
Tender Prey
MUTE 1988
Tender
Prey is one of the finest moments of one of the best bands
of all time . The modal build of “The
Mercy Seat,” made even more famous by Johnny
Cash, perhaps even surpasses “From
Her to Eternity” in intensity and is justly considered
one of the band’s best recordings. “Deanna,”
about a suicide pact, is the peppiest and pop-iest song on this
side of The
Boys Next Door and will have you singing “…I
came here for your soul” years later as you wash the dishes.
While both of these tunes have become contemporary standards and
I haven’t seen a Bad Seeds show that didn’t include
them, the rest of the record also contains one-hundred-percent solid
matter – combining all kinds of generic forms in the abstract
fashion of some of the better Twentieth century modernist classical
compositions - blues, folk, gospel, cabaret, Neubauten-esque
rigid noise, piano balladry, orchestration,... you name it.
What hasn’t
been said about Tender Prey? While there are plenty of
places to read about the amazing songwriting, unique vocals, and
general circumstances behind the album, not much has been spoken
about the extraordinary guitar team cut by Blixa
Bargeld and Kid Congo Powers on this slab o’wax.
I would attribute this to the fact that 1) there are so many other
things going on, 2) the guitars often have a more ambient function,
and, 3) most importantly, they’re not as high in the mix as
with a usual rock-based ensemble (see what happens when the musical
leader of the band takes up the bass!). While you can find them
spicing up the breaks with their unique collective approach, look
a little closer and notice that they are the atmospheric and rhythmic
secret weapon – coloring and accenting a lot of the best songs.
On “Up
Jumped the Devil,” while Mick
Harvey’s bass, his xylophone, the string section,
and Roland Wolf’s piano are up at the top of the mix, at points
the guitars are chuck-a-chucking against the song – syncopated
in unusual places – and briefly squealing for the slaughter
in the right spots. Though they are still not as loud as Harvey’s
bass, they are brought up for a brief solo interlude almost about
two-and-a-half minutes into the song. While Mick Harvey’s
doing Tracy,
Blixa and Kid’s dual solo is reminiscent of some of Junkyard’s
Mick Harvey and Rowland
S. Howard duals – totally different tones panned
and dancing around one another in atonal harmonies (or is Mick also
one of the guitars on that one?). However subtle, the dynamic duo
save the song from the becoming a complete generic gothic Broadway/Music
Hall cartoon – particularly as they fan the flames at the
end. I always wish that damn section was longer.
Or check out
the weird guitars on “Deanna.” Just like Cave’s
discussion of “the murder plan,” neither guitar does
anything near what you would expect on an upbeat soul-pop-garage
sing-along. The first taste is on the breaks. Then throughout the
second half of the song the two do some kind of odd rhythmic mutated
R&B string-bending and string-banging as they asymmetrically
lock into one another in a much more artful fashion than Gang
of Four ever managed - plus create some unreal feedback
as well.
On “Mercy”
Kid and Blixa are pure dark smoky atmosphere – again –
barely in the mix. As for “City
of Refuge,” you can hear Mick busting out the
acoustic guitar - foreshadowing his future role in the bad and sounding
almost like something from Henry’s Dream. The electric
guitars again are again very driven yet super-subtle until the conclusion
when they finally explode into dual feedback.
Of course there’s
so much more to say about this record - and particularly one of
my favorite early Cave performances, "Slowly
Goes the Night." It’s quite a voyage from
the heavy existential doom of “The Mercy Seat” to the
major key gospel "poor spiritual fruit" of “New
Morning” - but it’s a hell of a lot easier
than living it.
Hear
Kid tell you more about recording Tender Prey.
Go
back to Kid Congo Powers' Discography, Pt. 2
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New York Night Train , 2006
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