flame on.
HANDS UP WHO WANTS TO DIE?
Or maybe it's an exclamation point. It parses better as a question, but as spoken - shouted? sung? summoned? - by Nick Cave at the start of "Sonny's Burning", the opening song to the Birthday Party's THE BAD SEED EP, it doesn't sound like a question. It doesn't sound like anything you want to be in the same room as.
These days, lyrics have been rendered mostly impact-free, due to the corrosive impact of irony. You could imagine some annoying emo kid singing "Hands up, who wants to die?", and it wouldn't have any impact. And dozens of metal albums every month are probably more "challenging" or "controversial" in their content.
But those albums plow a well-trod path. This is something different. Not just because it's earlier. Time has not, for me at least, drained any of its power.
The drums kick in, something that could be described as a tribal beat. A tribe you would like to avoid.
"Have you heard how Sonny's burning?"
And here - look, burning and fire are songwriting metaphors as old as the hills. "Burning For You". "Eternal Flame". Mr. Hendrix's "Fire". Et cetera. So you might not look at the title and think anything of it.
But here, in the sick way that Cave holds on to the first syllable of "burning", is the hint that there's no actual metaphor here to speak of.
Before you process this, though, the guitar and bass kick in, a sickly din, on one note, disruptive, then cutting out. As the verse goes on, the interchange between the vocal and guitars gets more overlapping, until we're drowning in the chaotic interface.
Have you heard how sonny's burning
Like some bright erotic star?
And he lights up the proceedings
And raises the temperature.
And then we get to what, for lack of a better term, is probably the chorus, which consists of the otherwise insistent drumming rhythm suddenly going apeshit on the cymbals and Cave shouting "Flame on! Flame on!"
Which is what The Human Torch used to yell before he set himself alight. Is this a conscious reference? Is this a crazy man about to set fire to somebody, a sick throwback to youth and innocence amidst the creation of a human effigy?
The character of the song - which, given that it's sung in the first person, may well be Cave himself - is, at least in the text of the song, apparently capable of it.
Someday I'll cut him down yeah uh
Now I've seen to Sonny's burning
Yeah someday I think I'll cut him down
But it can get so co-cold in here
And he gives off such an evil heat.
Flame on! flame on!
Where do you start with this? "Cut him down?" Seriously, did this dude tie up some guy, hang him from the corner of the shack, and set him on fire? Or in the opposite order?
Or maybe we're metaphorical after all? There's that erotic reference in the first verse, after all. And maybe Sonny's burning with the singer's "love" - which would mean basically he's tied up Sonny and raping him on a regular basis. Whether Sonny is dead or not may be an open question.
Whatever is going on, it is deeply unpleasant. And it gets worse. But I will leave that for you to discover, for trying to even describe the end of this song, as the music churns more or less into complete noise and Cave's guttural yelpings become even more primal, is well beyond my abilities. Whatever it is, it is horrible and I can not look away. I have been obsessed and been playing this song over and over, trying to uncover its secrets, but slightly afraid to all at once.
Anyway, this is what I was thinking about instead of going to WOMAD because I was too sick to drive six hours on my own.
Unrelatedly: Clell Tickle, Indie Marketing Guru.
Or maybe it's an exclamation point. It parses better as a question, but as spoken - shouted? sung? summoned? - by Nick Cave at the start of "Sonny's Burning", the opening song to the Birthday Party's THE BAD SEED EP, it doesn't sound like a question. It doesn't sound like anything you want to be in the same room as.
These days, lyrics have been rendered mostly impact-free, due to the corrosive impact of irony. You could imagine some annoying emo kid singing "Hands up, who wants to die?", and it wouldn't have any impact. And dozens of metal albums every month are probably more "challenging" or "controversial" in their content.
But those albums plow a well-trod path. This is something different. Not just because it's earlier. Time has not, for me at least, drained any of its power.
The drums kick in, something that could be described as a tribal beat. A tribe you would like to avoid.
"Have you heard how Sonny's burning?"
And here - look, burning and fire are songwriting metaphors as old as the hills. "Burning For You". "Eternal Flame". Mr. Hendrix's "Fire". Et cetera. So you might not look at the title and think anything of it.
But here, in the sick way that Cave holds on to the first syllable of "burning", is the hint that there's no actual metaphor here to speak of.
Before you process this, though, the guitar and bass kick in, a sickly din, on one note, disruptive, then cutting out. As the verse goes on, the interchange between the vocal and guitars gets more overlapping, until we're drowning in the chaotic interface.
Have you heard how sonny's burning
Like some bright erotic star?
And he lights up the proceedings
And raises the temperature.
And then we get to what, for lack of a better term, is probably the chorus, which consists of the otherwise insistent drumming rhythm suddenly going apeshit on the cymbals and Cave shouting "Flame on! Flame on!"
Which is what The Human Torch used to yell before he set himself alight. Is this a conscious reference? Is this a crazy man about to set fire to somebody, a sick throwback to youth and innocence amidst the creation of a human effigy?
The character of the song - which, given that it's sung in the first person, may well be Cave himself - is, at least in the text of the song, apparently capable of it.
Someday I'll cut him down yeah uh
Now I've seen to Sonny's burning
Yeah someday I think I'll cut him down
But it can get so co-cold in here
And he gives off such an evil heat.
Flame on! flame on!
Where do you start with this? "Cut him down?" Seriously, did this dude tie up some guy, hang him from the corner of the shack, and set him on fire? Or in the opposite order?
Or maybe we're metaphorical after all? There's that erotic reference in the first verse, after all. And maybe Sonny's burning with the singer's "love" - which would mean basically he's tied up Sonny and raping him on a regular basis. Whether Sonny is dead or not may be an open question.
Whatever is going on, it is deeply unpleasant. And it gets worse. But I will leave that for you to discover, for trying to even describe the end of this song, as the music churns more or less into complete noise and Cave's guttural yelpings become even more primal, is well beyond my abilities. Whatever it is, it is horrible and I can not look away. I have been obsessed and been playing this song over and over, trying to uncover its secrets, but slightly afraid to all at once.
Anyway, this is what I was thinking about instead of going to WOMAD because I was too sick to drive six hours on my own.
Unrelatedly: Clell Tickle, Indie Marketing Guru.
9 Comments:
The Birthday Party always sounded to me like it was more a documentary of some really strange and desperate events. They really made most other music sound like narrative fiction by comparison.
Hmm. I was at that Tapes n Tapes show at the beginning of the Clell Tickle video and I don't remember him introducing them. Maybe I missed the beginning. Or maybe I just forgot it.
Question: Why do they bleep words during that introduction, but not when Rob Riggle says "motherfucker?" And come to think of it, why don't they bleep "cock" during that introduction?
You write a compelling review DD. If I didn't already own this one, I'd be sure to. I think I've acquired three albums after reading your posts.
Speaking of narrative fiction and documentary, that Clell Tickle mockumentary reminds me of a Hari Kunzru short story I just read, Raj,Bohemian. And just to throw a thought out to the commentarians, I've been building an opinion over the past few years that there is more truth in fictional writing than nonfiction.
Hope you're feeling better. Damn!
Carlos - Nice work saying more about The Birthday Party in two lines than I said in twelve paragraphs. You're right - even though obviously Nick Cave wasn't tying up young people and setting them on fire, it's almost impossible to read the song as fiction, due to the sheer committedness of the performance.
Justin - maybe that was from a soundcheck or something? No idea on the bleeping.
Wednesday - Which three albums? FWIW, I bought that Etran Finatawa record at very least on the back of your praise of it.
Also, one of Godard's famous statements - all documentary is fiction and vice-versa - seems apropos here.
Tell me more about Hari Kunzru, I've never heard of him.
I remember that Godard quote - I think we might have ventured down this road before.
Um let's see - one was Seam, but I have yet to really get into that purchase. One was the Fall which I'd heard before. Your praise and my friend Al Scum's came simultaneously and I picked up more of their stuff and it started influencing my playing too (which reminds me, I meant to ask if you ever listened to the Swell Maps?). And I dig Health, my kind of band except bad timing since I started down other musical roads about that time so I haven't given it much of a listen.
You can guess where I read that Hari Kunzru story, the New Yorker. The only magazine other than Bust (because Tricia gets it) and Mother Jones that I have a chance to read.
The story is about jobless cool kids of indo-asian decent in Manhattan who "monify their social networks."
Doug, I will always be grateful to you for introducing me to Beirut.
I can testify to his intro of Tapes 'n Tapes. You musta been late, JC.
Kilian, I've played Swell Maps once or twice and they've never left an impression. I just discovered an MP3 called "Rundown Tube" on my laptop and it seems like a pretty glorious noise. Must investigate further.
Carlos, you reminded me that I've been meaning to pick up some Violeta Parra. Any suggestions on where to start with her daunting discography?
dd, 'Ultimas Composiciones' is my favorite. If you get it and you want translations of any of the lyrics, let me know, i have over the years working on translating this record into english.
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