On June 3rd 1985, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released their second studio album The Firstborn Is Dead.
Many veteran post-punk artists have dabbled with Americana with disastrous results, but disaster was the point of of the album whose title was taken from the fact that Elvis Aaron Presley had been paired with a stillborn twin at his birth. The disaster mentioned above is written in lyrics of the song Tupelo, which is loosely based on the John Lee Hooker song of the same title—about a flood in Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis.
The album also features a cover of the Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash song “Wanted Man”, which Cash debuted live at San Quentin Prison on February 24th, 1969.
The Firstborn Is Dead was recorded at the famous Hansa Studios in Berlin. This session also marked the beginning of Nick Cave’s several year residency in Berlin (inspired to move there by Mark Reeder, and Blixa Bargeld.)
Tracklist:
Toronto shoegaze outfit Rituals first stirred to life in 2009, a quiet experiment in Adam Seward’s small, dim room, where…
Filled with fire Come to me Suspended with so much pleasure No matter how scared we may be To live…
Be a starlight once more that guides me in the dead of night and when your fire weakens I shall…
Sarcophagus golden carcass Sarcophagus rigor mortis Drenched in cataclysm and curled in dystopian dread, Qual—William Maybelline’s fierce alter ego—seizes the…
Skin sloughed off Exposed rot Sickness spied Wet, weak eyes Lacerated soul Psychodermatology is a medical field that studies the…
Loving something you shouldn’t is like clutching a live wire—painful, charged, and impossible to release. You know it’s wrong, yet…