Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – The Kindness of Strangers

When I first heard this…I thought…damn, this is a well-written song. I don’t know much about Nick Cave but I like what I’ve heard. I’ve read where a lot of bloggers have mentioned him along with Matt and  CB. I just started to listen to some songs and this one really caught me. The way he wrote it and the way it is constructed.

In 1973, Cave joined a band with fellow classmates Phill Calvert and Mick Harvey at Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne, Australia, and covered songs by Lou Reed, Alex Harvey, and Roxy Music. They moved to London in the late seventies and changed their name to The Birthday Party. They released their self-titled debut in 1980, along with three more albums — Prayers on Fire, and Junkyard — before disbanding in 1983.

Cave, along with Harvey on drums, Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist Blixa Bargeld, former Magazine bassist Barry Adamson, and Jim G. Thirlwell initially formed a new band in London. At first, they called themselves Nick Cave and The Cavemen, a label that stuck for several months. The Cavemen turned into The Bad Seeds, referencing the final 1983 EP by The Birthday Party, Mutiny/The Bad Seed. Cave’s longtime girlfriend Anita Lane was credited as a lyricist on occasional songs. They broke up in 1983 but continued to work together off and on til the 90s.

His music won’t appeal to everyone but if you enjoy excellent written songs and twists…then give Cave a try. The song warns of the dangers of trusting strangers and that one must be cautious of seemingly innocent people, as some may have ulterior motives. The last four lines of the song are chilling:

So mothers keep your girls at home
Don’t let them journey all alone
Tell them this world is full of danger
And to shun the company of strangers

The song was on the album Murder Ballads released in 1996. In this song, poor Mary Bellows was traveling through Tennessee and ran into a man named Richard Slade. She trusted a stranger a little too much. The album, as it states, has songs about murder. It peaked at #8 in the UK, #3 on the Australian Charts, and #12 in New Zealand in 1996.

The song has a sense of hopelessness…and imminent death. The song drew me in by the first verse. It was written by Nick Cave.

Nick Cave on the album: “There were heroic women, and female murderers, and all sorts of stuff going on in that record, and songs before that. But I’m not personally a misogynist. I don’t have those inclinations, but I liked to write songs that were violent in those days.”

The Kindness of Strangers

They found Mary Bellows cuffed to the bed
With a rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head
O poor Mary Bellows
She’d grown up hungry, she’d grown up poor
She left her home in Arkansas
O poor Mary Bellows
She wanted to see the deep blue sea
She traveled across Tennessee
O poor Mary Bellows
She met a man along the way
He introduced himself as Richard Slade
O poor Mary Bellows
Poor Mary thought that she might die
When she saw the ocean for the first time
O poor Mary Bellows
She checked into a cheap little place
Richard Slade carried in her old suitcase
O poor Mary Bellows
“I’m a good girl, sir”, she said to him
I couldn’t possibly permit you in
O poor Mary Bellows
Slade tipped his hat and winked his eye
And turned away without goodbye
O poor Mary Bellows
She sat on her bed and thought of home
With the sea breeze whistling all alone
O poor Mary Bellows
In hope and loneliness she crossed the floor
And undid the latch on the front door
O poor Mary Bellows
They found her the next day cuffed to the bed
A rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head
O poor Mary Bellows
So mothers keep your girls at home
Don’t let them journey all alone
Tell them this world is full of danger
And to shun the company of strangers
O poor Mary Bellows
O poor Mary Bellows

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

57 thoughts on “Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – The Kindness of Strangers”

  1. Never really knew much about Nick Cave, other than his reputation of being Joy Division-level depressing…this track would suggest maybe that’s right! A good track from left field that’s new to me, anyway.

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  3. Magnificent ! I love this record full of serial crimes sung in a romantic tone. The duets with PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue are sublime. And then there’s this fabulous cover of “Death is not the End” on the album where we hear the voices of the late Shane MacGowan and Anita Lane (she’s the one crying on “kindness of strangers”)… Kind of a classic in my ears.

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    1. I’m just now starting to listen to him…I’m loving what I’ve heard. Sometimes I like being late to catch on…I have their entire catalog to enjoy.
      What a fantastic writer!

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      2. Listen to his first album Christian…just a piece of it. Graham featured it and it didn’t even sound like him. His voice wasn’t the deep voice you know.

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  5. Man this is a bit of a departure but you do that sort of thing. I’m a Cave fan. His music gives a lot. We touched on his send off to Shane. That’s Nick. He’s just good. Do you get a bit of a Townes vibe? I do. You’re in for lots of good listening Max. His buddy (and ours) Pau Kelly and him do a song ‘God’s Hotel’ I might have mentioned it before. Good stuff.

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    1. I do get some of Townes and also Tom Waits…the pace part just as much as the voice. CB the writing is what I was so impressed by. Another artist to listen to and this guy is a real artist….not a pop singer.
      I’ll check that out CB thanks as always. When you mentioned him last week I knew I had to finally really check him out.

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  6. This album is a dark dark gem.
    Fun9?) true story. My young just-going-through-a-Goth-influence teen daughter was on a car trip, off with a car crammed with her team mates to a sporting event a few hundred miles away. After listening to radio crap for an hour someone said ‘anyone got a CD we can play to while away the miles?’ Out from her black bag came ‘Murder Ballads.’ God knows what reception most of the songs, especially ‘Stagger Lee’ got.
    I think, after he lost his son, the song ‘Skeleton Tree’ makes his way of accepting life and death plain. A great song wrought from the worst kind of pain.

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    2. When I saw Stagger Lee…I thought it was THAT Stagger Lee until I listened to it….oh no…this is not your dad’s Stagger Lee.
      Obbverse…I never realized how great of a…wordsmith…I’ll use that phrase he is.
      I would have loved to see the reception of that album on that trip!

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      1. Luckily they weren’t no Church sports team. From what my delicate Rose told me, it was met with stunned silence. And top missquote another song ‘They all moved away from me on the bench seat…’

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  7. Kind of a spin on Townes VanZandt’s Tecumseh Valley. There is a lot of darkness visited upon and enacted by women, it’s not a pleasant reality but songs like this get a dialogue going on it. Cave is a talented musician. He did the soundtrack to the Australian film, “The Proposition,” that I reviewed awhile back on one of the movie drafts. I also love this tune he does that is also the theme song for a series I love, “Peaky Blinders.”

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    1. Oh I’ve heard this before! I dont’ know where or when…maybe your site. I like it.
      Well I hope it was everything I told you it was…I’m blown away at the lyrics. I think of Townes and Tom Waits.

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    1. It’s not quite in ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ territory Lisa. ‘The Curse Of Millhaven’ is crazy good, literally.
      (Seriously, merry Christmas Lisa, I’m out of commission for a wee while now )

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      2. Just finished listening to it while playing solitaire games. After learning that 2 of his sons passed away, it’s no wonder he had some rage/grief/emotions to vent. Pretty shocking and graphic lyrics. The long one at the bar was darkly funny but not really in light of all of the mass murders that are going on around us. I could almost imagine that’s the kind of thing someone would be thinking as they are mowing people down 😦 The Curse of Millhaven had a grim narrative and again has me wondering how many have done such things to get taken out of society because it’s just too difficult. Stagger Lee was a little too vulgar for my liking. It’s an interesting album to listen to once. Leonard Cohen comes to mind. Not anything I’d thing would be healthy to memorize the lyrics to by listening on repeat. Long comment, but you asked 🙂

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      3. Stagger Lee was the real popular one off of the album. I couldn’t believe it charted so high in the UK! Not exactly a party album. I told CB…I always thought Warren Zevon was dark…but he had nothing on Cave.
        Oh yea I appreciate it…I’ve covered about half of it so far. It’s a very interesting concept of doing an album…which it is a concept album.
        After hearing Manson pull out “murder” from an innocent song about a fair ground ride…”Helter Skelter” nothing surprises me.
        What I’ve learned though…is that depressing subject or not…the man can write.

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  9. The one song I know from the album is the duet with Kylie, ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’… I should listen to the whole thing. Two other Cave songs I can recommend are his cover of ‘The Carnival Is Over’ and ‘There She Goes My Beautiful World’.

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  10. I’m humbled by the mention Max. I am still not across a lot of Nick’s discography including today’s song which I liked especially where he sings ‘Bellows’ each time. Your readership’s opinion of Nick’s material was interesting.

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    1. No problem Matt…This guy is so interesting. It was WAY more popular of a post than I ever thought it would be because of the content…I love that people liked it.

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      3. That’s strange you mention that. I got 89 views for my post on Nick Cave’s ‘Bright Horses’ the day your post came out. I normally get upward to 10. But some of those might have been from you? ‘Bright Horses’ usually tops my daily viewed posts.

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      4. I don’t think it was me Matt…I linked Jubilee Street…which they might have found it from there I don’t know.

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    1. His writing is what impressed me. I read about the Murder Ballads album…I wondered if I would like it…but I do quite a bit. It really surprised me on how many people liked this. I do of course but I didn’t expect the turnout I got.

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