ARTIST: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds feat. Kylie Minogue; TITLE: Where The Wild Roses Grow; LABEL: Mute; FORMAT: CDS; CAT. NO.: CD MUTE 185; YEAR: 1995; COUNTRY: UK.
This tangentially links in the last post on Bowie - inspired by having a listen to Bowie's 'Baal' EP the other day, specifically one track 'The Drowned Girl' which got me thinking as to whether it's an influence on the Nick Cave and Kylie duet "Where The Wild Roses Grow" from the "Murder Ballads" album. The song's a bit of good one - and for anyone used to the usual Kylie fare this must have come as something of a surprise, and which showed there was a lot more to her than the PWL pop stuff - and as you'd tend to expect, pretty much standard Nick Cave type stuff - ie dark romanticism tinged with the usual gothic touches. And you pretty much know that the narrator of the song as voiced by Kylie isn't going to come out of it well. The song also gave Nick Cave his biggest hit in the UK, getting as high as 11 in the Charts. The other 2 tracks on the single are the wonderful "The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane" - which plays out like a scene from a Tarrantino film and a wonderful bit of black humour as well! The final track is "The Willow Garden" sung here by Bad Seed Conway Savage.
The second single to be released from the "Murder Ballads" album is this wonderful duet with PJ Harvey. With "Henry Lee" the boot is definitely on the other foot - as you'd tend to expect from a Polly Harvey related song from this period of her career - check her 'To Bring You My Love' LP for further info - and it's the bloke that gets it here in no uncertain terms! The next track is Nick Cave's take on 'Froggy Went A-Courting' giving the archetypal Cave treatment - with blood and guts aplenty! The last track is the rather brilliant "Knoxville Girl" - an Appalachian murder ballad where despite the deed being done - remorse gets the better of the narrator and he ends up behind bars after being tormented by his guilt over what he's done. The song has it roots in an Irish murder ballad 'The Wexford Girl' which itself derives from an English one called 'The Oxford Girl' - which I think is the same one the Oyster Band did.
No comments:
Post a Comment