This is one of those songs that you put on when you want to sit back, relax, and float away to somewhere warm and safe.
A friend of mine once told me that she had an out-of-body experience to this song as she was meditating.
This is a song that I put on a mixed tape to give to a lover once as a way of showing that I would be there with her through it all, accompanying her journey as you explore the realms of love and life.
Nick Cave is one of those musicians that cannot be put into any one category in a musical sense. This song is the epitome of that. This song sounds nothing like anything else of his that I have ever listened to, yet it is distinctly Nick Cave the same way that Tom Waits is inimitably Tom Waits, even if he were to be singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time."
First of all, this song is a hidden track. You have to go looking for it. It's actually a "0" track that you have to rewind backwards from song #1 in order to find. Computers will not play this song. Many cd players will not, either. So it's fun to track down...
Then there's the music. The best description of I ever heard of The Dirty Three is that their music "sounds like music that belongs to a spaghetti western directed by David Lynch." The wailing backgroung strings evoke a sense of forlorn longing and desperate wanting, evoking an image of fallen angels reaching towards heaven...
"We were searching for the secrets of the universe
and we rounded up Demons and forced them to tell
us what it all meant.
We tied them to trees and broke them down one by one.
On a scrap of paper it wrote these words,
as we read them the sun broke through the trees.
'Dread the passage of Jesus for he will not return.' "
Look for it. The Curious and eclectic side of you won't be disappointed.
available on CD - Songs in the Key of X (Warner Brothers)
10 May 03 ·konsu: A brilliant collaboration. One that should be commited to an entire album to say the least. Also look for Dirty 3's "Sharks" EP, which has Nick and the boys doing a great version of "Running Scared" live. I think it's a promo tour release from 98'.
Okay so it's a cover song. Fleetwood Mac re-released it a few years ago when the original members get back together. Then there was the recent popularity of the Dixie Chicks version. Now, I will admit that it is tough to beat the original version.
But this one's *real* close.
This song came out of left field. From a group whose first work was primarily long, drawn-out, sometimes cacophonous chords, this song was like a splash of cold water in the face. The CD itself is a B-sides compilation that fits like a "lost chapter" to the Pumpkins early work.
Keep in mind; this is not a happy song. It was not supposed to be. That's why Billy Corgan's version stands well above the Dixie Chicks� version, His voice accompanied by a solo acoustic guitar is able is capture the abject heartache of the song�s words and rhythm.
Which makes it a great cover song.
available on CD - Pisces Iscariot (Virgin Records)