“Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry” — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
This song is from the out-of-print “Henry’s Dream” album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (but you can get the digital version from Amazon’s mp3 store).
However, the real reason for this post is a brilliant alternate version of this song that I stumbled upon at the blog To Die By Your Side. Nick Cave gives the song a radical, and beautiful, reworking, and it’s just one more example of Cave as a true artist.
I found it fascinating to listen to the song’s transformation, especially, as To Die By Your Side points out, because Cave incorporates the melody from “Darker With The Day,” the closing track off the superb “No More Shall We Part” album.
Listen to the alternate version by hitting the “play” button and streaming here.
A nice description from To Die By Your Side:
This is an interesting version of ‘Papa Won’t Leave You Henry’. One that messed with my head the first time I heard it.
Not because of it’s apocalyptic lyrics depicting a nightmare trip into the murky world of brothels, murder and babies being born without brains. Nor the fact that Nick plays it solo at the piano, in stark contrast to the original version on ‘Henry’s Dream’. No, what threw me, was the fact that he plays it to the tune of another one of his songs, namely ‘Darker Was The Day’ from ‘No More Shall We Part’. And the juxtaposition is kind of confusing. It plays with your expectations. Rearranges what’s familiar. Teases and taunts you as you attempt to compute what’s wrong and what is right. Like suddenly discovering that chocolate tastes of lamb. You recognise both. Like and enjoy both. But can’t help being wrong footed by the odd combination. But the strange thing is, once you get your head around it, it works, managing to sound more reflective than the original version. Where that rages like a fresh memory, this version is more contemplative. As though looking back with the benfit of hindsight.
