The Good Son (album)

The Good Son
Studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Released April 17, 1990
Recorded by Victor Van Vugt at Sao Paulo, October 1989, mixed by Flood, Gareth Jones at Berlin, November–December, 1989
Genre Chamber folk, Blues rock
Length 45:12
Label Mute
Producer The Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds chronology
Tender Prey
(1988)Tender Prey1988		 The Good Son
(1990)		 Henry's Dream
(1992)Henry's Dream1992
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Drowned in Sound9/10[2]
Entertainment WeeklyB[3]
Los Angeles Times[4]
Orlando Sentinel[5]
Paste7.8/10[6]
Q[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[8]

The Good Son is the sixth album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 1990 (see 1990 in music).

After two dark and harrowing albums with Your Funeral... My Trial (1986) and Tender Prey (1988), The Good Son was a substantial departure with a lighter and generally more uplifting sound. The change of mood was greatly inspired by singer Nick Cave falling in love with Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro, and an apparently salutary spell in rehab which purged much of the despair and squalor reflected in the previous two albums. Cave later said, "I guess The Good Son is some kind of reflection of the way I felt early on in Brazil. I was quite happy there. I was in love and the first year or two was good. The problem I found was ... in order to survive you have to adopt their attitudes towards everything, which are kind of blinkered."[9]

Singles and release history

The Good Son was preceded by the release of "The Ship Song" single. A different version of "The Weeping Song" was later released as a single, with a different mix from the album version.

The closing track "Lucy" was resurrected in 1993 as a B-side of "What a Wonderful World", a collaboration of the Bad Seeds and the Pogues' Shane MacGowan.

The album was remastered and reissued on March 29, 2010 as a collector's edition CD/DVD set.

Track listing

All songs written by Cave unless otherwise stated.

  1. "Foi Na Cruz" – 5:39
  2. "The Good Son" – 6:01
  3. "Sorrow's Child" – 4:36
  4. "The Weeping Song" – 4:21
  5. "The Ship Song" – 5:14
  6. "The Hammer Song" – 4:16
  7. "Lament" – 4:51
  8. "The Witness Song" – 5:57
  9. "Lucy" – 4:17 (words: Cave. Music: Cave, Bargeld, Roland Wolf)

Song details

"Foi Na Cruz" is based partly upon the traditional Brazilian Protestant hymn of the same title. The title translates roughly as "It Happened on the cross".

"The Good Son" - the opening chant is based loosely upon the African-American traditional song "Another Man Done Gone". A recording of this traditional song, by Odetta, later appeared on Original Seeds Vol. 1, a compilation of material that influenced Cave. The Biblical story of Cain and Abel is an obvious influence on the song, which describes a "a tiller and he has a tiller's hand" like Cain, a farmer who feuds with and kills his brother. The lyrics also appear to have been influenced, at least in part, by the Cormac McCarthy novel Child of God (1968) with references to a "malign star" and laying down "queer plans" appearing in both, as well as common themes of dislocation and rejection.

"The Witness Song" is based loosely upon the traditional American gospel song "Who Will be a Witness?".

The single mix of "The Weeping Song" is a different mix than the one found on the album.

Four of the songs on the album were left with their working titles ("The Ship Song", "The Weeping Song", "The Hammer Song", "The Witness Song").

The instrumental b-side "Cocks 'n' Asses" was retitled "The B-side Song" for the USA release.

Singles

Personnel

Bad Seeds

with:

String Section

References

  1. ↑ Raggett, Ned. "The Good Son – Nick Cave / Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  2. ↑ Bliss, Abi (9 April 2010). "Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Good Son (remastered)". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Sandow, Greg (4 May 1990). "The Good Son". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  4. ↑ McKenna, Christine (3 June 1990). "Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, 'The Good Son,' Enigma/Mute.". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Gettelman, Parry (17 August 1990). "Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  6. ↑ Vrabel, Jeff (1 June 2010). "Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Tender Prey, The Good Son, Henry's Dream Reviews". Paste. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  7. ↑ "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: The Good Son". Q. 1990.
  8. ↑ Sisario, Ben (2004). "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 151–52. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  9. ↑ Dwyer, Michael (July 1998). "Album by Album with Nick Cave". Rolling Stone Australia. No. 550. Sydney, NSW: Tilmond Pty Ltd. p. 41.
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