Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Weeping Song

I like it when an A-side has one particular B-side and that is that. The big, chart-bound radio-friendly song, twinned with its strange half-brother that was deemed too weird and wiry for mainstream album consumption. No juggling tracks about or sticking live versions or remixes on there; the two songs are to remain forever associated. The songs, though different in nature, complement each other, forming a one-two punch. And that's what we have here with 'The Weeping Song' and 'Cocks 'n' Asses'.

I'm very underwhelmed by the sleeve of the record. The cover has Cave and Blixa Bargeld sat in a boat under the moon. Bit Echo-y. Nothing wrong with that, but it's pretty naff and well-charted territory. The thing is, it's not a very good photo. I'm sure there must have been better pictures from the session. I mean, Cave is all kind of stooped and hunched up like a shitting monkey and appears to have been caught mid-sentence.

As seems the norm with other Bad Seeds releases of the 80s and early 90s there's some shoddy design work, with the band logo lazily slapped on top of the snap with 'The Weeping Song' in some kind of Sunday papers women's magazine supplement typeface.

'The Weeping Song' is a highlight of The Good Son. Like most of that album it moves away from the intense and visceral sound of previous album Tender Prey and concentrates on creating a delicately mournful song. Notably, Blixa Bargeld shares vocal duty with Cave in the role of the 'Father' answering his son's questions on the nature of human sorrow.

The title of 'Cocks 'n' Asses' is a wilfully puerile pun; the song is replete with samples of cockerels clucking and hee-hawing donkeys. It has the unenviable distinction of being earmarked by fans as one of, if not the, worst Nick Cave B-sides. A shame, as it's not really quite like anything else in the Bad Seeds' repertoire; a mostly instrumental drum-machine lead track sounding like a catchier Throbbing Gristle. The song seems to be improvised, built up around an industrial-lite programmed beat courtesy of producer/engineer Victor Van Vugt. Cave adds some hypnotically rhythmical piano, both doom-laden and bouncy and this continues throughout, making for a pretty odd vibe. He also mumbles and murmurs in spectral fashion. Layers of samples and guitar are built up gradually by Mick Harvey and some string synths get thrown in for good measure. The whole thing trips along for a few minutes and then ends in a blast of rapturous applause. I think it would be fair to say that the song doesn't really go anywhere and do anything much, which I suppose is a pitfall of improvised music, but while it's on I find it an enjoyable and creepy little song. Not every Nick Cave track has to be an epic exploration of the darker side of the human condition!

'Cocks 'n' Asses' was included on the 2005 compilation B-Sides and Rarities.