No.29  Nick Cave – Henry’s Dream

No.29  Nick Cave – Henry’s Dream

I’m not sure why I had such a negative impression of Nick Cave. I had the idea he was some sort of boring old fart, and I wanted nothing to do with him. (This is around 1995) Then my friend Ruth lent me Let Love In and it blew my mind. I’d never heard anything like it and was obsessed with Red Right Hand for a long time after. I slowly started to dig through the band’s back catalog and had to Goldilocks my way through their albums. Too weird and evil (From Her to Eternity) to saccharine (The Good Son) and I came down on just right with Tender Pray and Henry’s Dream. A heady mix of what the Bad Seeds do best, mix beautiful love songs with tales of murder that would make a Noir novelist blush. 

It’s an incredible testament to the band that the opening one, two salvo of songs on this album, Papa won’t Leave You Henry and I Had a Dream Joe are somehow, not the best two opening songs in his career. (That honour goes to Tender Prey) but they are a fearism

duo. I’m pretty sure Nick’s wariness of cancel culture comes almost exclusively from the lyrics of Papa won’t leave you Henry. That line about “A f*g in a whale-bone corset wiping his d*ick across my cheek” is definitely going to upset a lot of people, but Cave’s songs can be mean, evil things. Pain, violence, murder, there’s no end to the horrors the protagonists of his tales befall. 

This is vile stuff but still one of the best songs on the album. But, these are tales, stories, good and bad. I’m not looking to Henry’s Dream for a mediaeval morality play. On this album we’re in the world inhabited by unspeakable characters. Don’t look for salvation in these songs, it’s not here. Cave excels in putting storytelling into music, his fire and brimstone preacher routine is captivating and his ability to hold an audience is second to none. Well, I say that but I haven’t seen the Bad Seeds live since the Dig Lazarus Dig tour, but I hear good things.

Mixed in with all this violence and murder are songs like Christina the Astonishing, a strange track about a very strange Nun who became a Saint, and two of his best love songs. 

Over the years, Loom of the Land has become my favourite song on the album. Cave has always been able to write a great love song amidst all the blood and violence, but this may be his finest. That chorus is just a thing of magic, a deft touch of tenderness on an album with more than its fair share of horror.  

I’ve picked Henry’s Dream as I think it’s Cave’s most consistent album. There are other albums with higher peaks but this feels like Cave’s most fully formed work. This would probably annoy Cave as he’s talked about how disappointed he is with it and about how working with a producer spoiled what they hoped the album would sound like. But what does he know? This album is great.

https://lynkify.in/song/papa-wont-leave-you-henry-2010-remaster/ZvN6RwlI