| Kicking Against the Pricks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | ||||
| Released | 18 August 1986 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 49:28 | |||
| Label | Mute Records | |||
| Producer | Flood, Tony Cohen | |||
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Rolling Stone | [2] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.2/10)[3] |
| Piero Scaruffi | [4] |
Kicking Against the Pricks is the third album released by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. First released in 1986, the album is a collection of cover versions. The title refers to a passage from the Bible (Acts 9:5 and 26:14), the first of which reads "And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." The phrase refers to the futility of an ox kicking in irritation at the sharpened wooden rod, called a prick or goad, used by his driver when tilling soil.
The album marked the Bad Seeds debut of drummer Thomas Wydler, expanding the Bad Seeds line-up to Cave, Wydler, Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld and Barry Adamson.
The strings were arranged by Mick Harvey and played by the Berliner Kaffeehausmusik Ensemble. "The Hammer Song" is not to be confused with the song of the same name from the 1990 Bad Seeds album The Good Son.
The album was remastered and reissued on April 27, 2009 as a collector's edition CD/DVD set. The CD features the original 12-song vinyl LP's track listing, while "Black Betty" and "Running Scared" are featured as bonus audio tracks on the accompanying DVD.
Recordings of seven of these songs, performed by the "original" artists, were later issued on the Original Seeds compilation CDs.
Contents |
Some of the songs were re-titled, possibly through error, and one was miscredited as follows:
1. "Muddy Water" by Phil Rosenthal. Previously recorded by The Seldom Scene, and Johnny Cash. On the Cave LP the song is credited to John Bundrick, who wrote a song of the same title, recorded by the band Free.
3. "Sleeping Annaleah" is the song "Weeping Annaleah", previously recorded by Tom Jones.[5]
6. "The Singer" is the song "The Folk Singer", previously recorded by Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, and Burl Ives.
7. "Black Betty" is actually three songs recorded by Leadbelly as a medley: "Looky Looky Yonder/Black Betty/Yellow Women's Doorbells".
13. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" is credited as "Traditional, Arranged The Alabama Singers". While this song was recorded by The Alabama Singers, it follows the arrangement of an earlier recording by The Pilgrim Travellers, which is credited as "Traditional, Arranged J. W. Alexander".