Henry's Dream Remastered

[scarecrow]

I've found the identity of the missing track. It is Where The Action Is, a B side to Red Right Hand. Never heard it, so I don't know if we're missing much, but it should've been on there.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Where The Action Is
-shitty youtube audio, but it's alright, not very Cave-esque though.

[blindtonydinton]

This thread has rekindled my love for Nick and the Bad Seeds after a bit of a lapse in faith, so thanks to you all. While I can't help but admire and envy Tables' clinically precise description of the latter day Cave as a "perverted Australian Neil Diamond surrogate" it's nice to be reminded of the good stuff.
Ignatius, there's a good book called Stagolee Shot Billy by Cecil Brown about the origins, myths and songs that surround the Stagolee story that's well worth a look. That oldweirdamerica website looks worth a squint too.
I remember reading an interview years back where Cave mentioned that his version of Tower of Song was originally something like 80 minutes long and veered through virtually every musical genre known to man which intrigues me strangely. 
Has anyone got the remastered From Her to Eternity? That's got to be the album in most dire need of a buffing. I can feel a stroll to Fopp coming on.

[CaledonianGonzo]

A word of support for the latter-day Cavester.

Sure, he's mellowed a tad (Grinderman excepting), and has mostly shorn some of his music of the more portentous overtones and spook-goth trappings, but I don't think his muse is in bad shape at all.  Nocturama was a bit of a misstep (Babe, I'm on Fire and a couple of others aside), but there's some really great stuff on both Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus and Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!  In fact, when in need of a Cave-fix, I'm just as likely to listen to something from the combover years as the hairspray years.

As for the current band, Mick Harvey's been replaced with Ed Kuepper of The (S)aints, hasn't he?  While I agree with the general ' it's Nick'nWarren, now' sentiment, dudes like Martyn Casey and Thomas Wydler are still around.

[Why I Hate Tables]

Sure, he's mellowed a tad (Grinderman excepting), and has mostly shorn some of his music of the more portentous overtones and spook-goth trappings, but I don't think his muse is in bad shape at all.  Nocturama was a bit of a misstep (Babe, I'm on Fire and a couple of others aside), but there's some really great stuff on both Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus and Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

I've never got the Nick Cave - goth connection for anything after The Birthday Party (and I'm sure he'd take exception for either that, he seems to have Eldritch-Smith notgoth syndrome when that time is mentioned). As for portentous, adding a gospel choir isn't the best way of reducing the level of drama in your music. That said, Nick's worst stuff tends to be miles ahead of the best material of a lot of others with only one or two embarassing songs in his back catalogue and even the latter day albums contain a fair smattering of gems. Even Nocturama has the fantastic opening and closing tracks.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Of course Cave himself would quibble, but I'd say that at the very least his lyrics are rooted in the Southern Gothic tradition.  He's more about McCarthy-esque backwoods and Appalachian antiquity than cobwebs and castles, but it's a flavour of gothicity nonetheless.

I'd also disagree that gospel backing vox adds a potentive, ominous cast to his music.  I find it a soothing, ameliorating, even soulful addition.  Clanking, on the other hand.....

But anyway, we quibble over the small print.  It is, as you note, almost all good.

[Johnny Townmouse]

A three-part podcast interview with Mick Harvey discussing a few different things, but most importantly the reasons behind his unexpected exodus from the Bad Seeds.

http://meltingpod.free.fr/

Excerpts include:

"Honestly, we'd play the Weeping Song, and it's disrespectful to the audience in my opinion. To play that kinda *shit* to them, they deserve better than that, the band deserves better than that, to be given versions of stuff that's challenging and they have to work to make sound exciting...bashing through them like they're some stupid rock song, that's a death."

"A lot of people wondered if I had problems with other members of the band or if there's a problem with Warren, I can only say that in the end any problems with anyone else in the band don't really matter in the Bad Seeds, the only thing that could really make you not be able to continue playing in the Bad Seeds is if you weren't having a good time with Nick. And I wasn't having a good time with Nick. He was giving me a very hard time, was very unkind to me, and it got to a point where I didn't want to put up with it any more."

"Nick should've shown me a lot more respect than he did. I deserved a LOT more respect than I got from him in the last 18 months. It is surprising after everything that happened for 35 years that he would be so unkind to me. You'll have to ask him why that was."

Oh...

[Why I Hate Tables]

I've just listened to the podcasts and it's sad to hear what I'd been thinking for a while from the horses' mouth. I'm not entirely surprised that Nick Cave can be a bit of a bastard, it's just sad to think that he'd treat Mick like that. Obviously, that's only one side of the story. On the plus side, it'll be nice to hear more solo stuff from him.