DJ Xero, Operative of SeeDarkly™ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seedarklyxero) wrote2019-07-21 10:00 am
seedarklyxero) wrote2019-07-21 10:00 am
SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies: The Hot Yeet Is Calling
Welcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Let's take a look back at a cover from the 20th Century with our monthly Third Sunday Throwback! This one is a rare cover from early in the career of an EBM group doing their version of an eighties post-punk track that follows a murderer with extreme religious convictions on his way to one very hot seat.:
Stromkern – The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released The Mercy Seat in June 1988, roughly three months in advance of their fifth studio album, Tender Prey. Cave wrote the song at the same time he was working on his first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, published in 1989. Its plot followed a mute whose life of suffering with abusive parents and his rejection in a fanatically religious Southern community lead him down a path of madness and vengeance, fueled by, as Cave puts it, "hate inspiration straight from God." Though unstated, some of that character may linger in the one portrayed in The Mercy Seat, perhaps giving voice to what might have been the mad ravings inside the mute's head. In the song, a convicted criminal describes his misdeeds and fate in ranting religious metaphor drawn from both testaments of the Holy Bible. "The Mercy Seat" itself refers to the lid (or "cover" in some translations) of the Ark of the Covenant, also referred to as the "Throne of God," here used as a symbol for the electric chair that this character awaits on death row.
While the single was not a resounding success, the song has defiantly resonated with fans and the band is said to still be performing it at every show. "There are songs that I pretty much think are as good as I can get, and The Mercy Seat isn't one of them,” Cave once admitted. “I mean, I was surprised that people went for it the way they did."
It has been covered over a dozen times, by artists such as Anders Manga, Goethes Erben, Unter Null, and Johnny Cash (considered by Cave to be a personal "hero") who included it on an album meaning to drawn attention to the problem of wrongful convictions in the penal system.
But perhaps the first cover of The Mercy Seat came from the EBM band Stromkern's first E.P. release, Flicker Like A Candle in 1996. The cover was the first song on the eight-track E.P. which also included a remix of it by Attrition. Frontman and founder James "Ned" Kirby said in one interview, "I've always loved Nick Cave's music, and The Mercy Seat was the only song of his that really made sense to cover in the style I'm operating in. I mean, I love Blind Lemon Jefferson but it would have sounded a bit ridiculous with synthesizers and sequenced drumbeats, right? Musically and lyrically The Mercy Seat was the best fit, it's also the first Bad Seeds track I ever heard so it has a certain nostalgia attached to it for me, I think."
Stromkern has invested very little in cover songs after that; possibly their only other known remake is that of Gang of Four's Anthrax on their 2002 LP Re-Align.
Both versions of the song are powerfully driven in different ways: Cave's by his presence and the intensity of the performance, and Stromkern's by an infectious dance rhythm that somehow smoothly saddles against the dark imagery conveyed in the lyrics. Stromkern may not venture beyond their original material often since, but this is an inspired rendition that certainly set the foundation of what fans might expect from them in the years that followed.:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
If you haven't already detected my stealth theme for the month, you get one last chance to figure it out with a band named after something you don't want to be wearing during this unrelenting season and they've done a darkwave cover of a hot eighties new wave hit that's just bananas! (Hint on the theme... Johnny Cash did NOT cover this one!)
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.
(And if, after 4 years and 221 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, please click over to my profile and find out how you can leave us a tip if you like.)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jul 14 - Clavvs – I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen)
Jul 07 - 3Teeth – Pumped Up Kicks (Foster the People)
Jul 30 - Gaytron – Tora Tora [Tora!] (Depeche Mode)
Jun 23 - Blind Delon w/ HIV+ – Almost A Kiss (Throbbing Gristle)
Jun 16 - Erasure – Supernature (Cerrone)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Let's take a look back at a cover from the 20th Century with our monthly Third Sunday Throwback! This one is a rare cover from early in the career of an EBM group doing their version of an eighties post-punk track that follows a murderer with extreme religious convictions on his way to one very hot seat.:
Stromkern – The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released The Mercy Seat in June 1988, roughly three months in advance of their fifth studio album, Tender Prey. Cave wrote the song at the same time he was working on his first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, published in 1989. Its plot followed a mute whose life of suffering with abusive parents and his rejection in a fanatically religious Southern community lead him down a path of madness and vengeance, fueled by, as Cave puts it, "hate inspiration straight from God." Though unstated, some of that character may linger in the one portrayed in The Mercy Seat, perhaps giving voice to what might have been the mad ravings inside the mute's head. In the song, a convicted criminal describes his misdeeds and fate in ranting religious metaphor drawn from both testaments of the Holy Bible. "The Mercy Seat" itself refers to the lid (or "cover" in some translations) of the Ark of the Covenant, also referred to as the "Throne of God," here used as a symbol for the electric chair that this character awaits on death row.
While the single was not a resounding success, the song has defiantly resonated with fans and the band is said to still be performing it at every show. "There are songs that I pretty much think are as good as I can get, and The Mercy Seat isn't one of them,” Cave once admitted. “I mean, I was surprised that people went for it the way they did."
It has been covered over a dozen times, by artists such as Anders Manga, Goethes Erben, Unter Null, and Johnny Cash (considered by Cave to be a personal "hero") who included it on an album meaning to drawn attention to the problem of wrongful convictions in the penal system.
But perhaps the first cover of The Mercy Seat came from the EBM band Stromkern's first E.P. release, Flicker Like A Candle in 1996. The cover was the first song on the eight-track E.P. which also included a remix of it by Attrition. Frontman and founder James "Ned" Kirby said in one interview, "I've always loved Nick Cave's music, and The Mercy Seat was the only song of his that really made sense to cover in the style I'm operating in. I mean, I love Blind Lemon Jefferson but it would have sounded a bit ridiculous with synthesizers and sequenced drumbeats, right? Musically and lyrically The Mercy Seat was the best fit, it's also the first Bad Seeds track I ever heard so it has a certain nostalgia attached to it for me, I think."
Stromkern has invested very little in cover songs after that; possibly their only other known remake is that of Gang of Four's Anthrax on their 2002 LP Re-Align.
Both versions of the song are powerfully driven in different ways: Cave's by his presence and the intensity of the performance, and Stromkern's by an infectious dance rhythm that somehow smoothly saddles against the dark imagery conveyed in the lyrics. Stromkern may not venture beyond their original material often since, but this is an inspired rendition that certainly set the foundation of what fans might expect from them in the years that followed.:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
If you haven't already detected my stealth theme for the month, you get one last chance to figure it out with a band named after something you don't want to be wearing during this unrelenting season and they've done a darkwave cover of a hot eighties new wave hit that's just bananas! (Hint on the theme... Johnny Cash did NOT cover this one!)
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.
(And if, after 4 years and 221 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, please click over to my profile and find out how you can leave us a tip if you like.)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jul 14 - Clavvs – I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen)
Jul 07 - 3Teeth – Pumped Up Kicks (Foster the People)
Jul 30 - Gaytron – Tora Tora [Tora!] (Depeche Mode)
Jun 23 - Blind Delon w/ HIV+ – Almost A Kiss (Throbbing Gristle)
Jun 16 - Erasure – Supernature (Cerrone)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .