album // Henry's Dream
I made a critical error with Henry's Dream - I listened to this after I'd bought Live Seeds, and so when I hear the songs on this album, I am always anticipating the twists which often grace Cave's live interpretations. That said, Henry's Dream is the album that I have listened to most within Cave's body of work.
I once read a review of an early Muddy Waters album, in which the reviewer likened the primitive electric blues to Muddy 'plugging his guitar strings directly into the mains' and 'producing the sound of electricity'. I didn't really understand it at the time, but listening to Henry's Dream, I think I understand it now - this is a set of accomplished tracks bursting with a dark energy, broadly tamed but still unruly. The way the guitars are ferociously strummed on the opener 'Papa Won't Leave You Henry' or 'Brother My Cup Is Empty', I would expect Mick and Blixa to be lacerated and burnt after playing these songs. Some of the mood is created by producer, David Briggs (with co-production by Nick and Mick), the style being close up to each instrument, and the more apocalyptic tracks here are satisfyingly loud, graced with a noisy edge as instruments collide with one another. The band here consists of Mick Harvey (rhythm guitar, organ, vibes, percussion drums and additional piano), Blixa Bargeld (guitar), Conway Savage (piano, Fender Rhodes), Martyn P Casey (bass) and Thomas Wydler (drums).
Cave has, like his idols Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen, become a strong storyteller over the years, and I think that's what attracts me to his music. That and his capacity for using words that don't fit comfortably into regular lyric writing. For example, the main character in 'I Had A Dream, Joe' is apparently wearing a 'seersucker suit' - now tell me how often that appears in songs? Cave has also perfected the 'pissed man in a pub with a story to tell' persona to a degree of perfection, and 'Brother My Cup Is Empty' is by far his finest hour as said character.
All of Cave's work thrives on blending contradictions, and Henry's Dream is no exception. Here we have the gathering rage and bluster ('Papa Won't Leave You Henry'), the maudlin ('Christina The Astonishing') and the most powerfully emotional love song I have yet to hear with 'Straight To You'. 'Straight To You', for me, has it all - mystery, significance, acceptance, helplessness. It is a watershed in Cave's emotional writing, moving and painfully beautiful, while far from straightforward or conventional.
On a different tack altogether, 'When I First Came To Town' is one of the most passionately sad pieces I have heard. The story of a once great man shamed and shunned by those who once respected and honored him. Conway Savage contributes backing vocals here, his lilting, folky voice contrasting perfectly Cave's throaty rumble. At times the pair evoke the stylistic contrasts of Lou Reed and John Cale on the Velvets' 'Lady Godiva's Operation'.
Women, in Cave's world are the consistent great tormentor, his weakness, right through the years starting way back in The Birthday Party. Except that here the theme is most prominent, whether in the 'don't make me go home to her sober' desperation of 'Brother...', the tormented 'Jack The Ripper' or in the murderous jealousy which informs 'John Flinn's Wife', leading to a huge brawl which Cave documents effortlessly.