Third Album on Vinyl LP.
Kicking Against the Pricks is the third album released by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. First released in 1986, the album is a collection of cover versions. The title refers to a passage from the King James Version of the Bible. The phrase refers to the futility of an ox kicking in irritation at the sharpened wooden rod, called a prick or goad, used by his driver when tilling soil.
The album marked the Bad Seeds debut of drummer Thomas Wydler, expanding the Bad Seeds lineup to Cave, Wydler, Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, and Barry Adamson. Cave would later downplay the importance of the record, but said it helped the band develop musically. "It allowed us to discover different elements, to actually make and perform a variety of different sorts of music successfully. I think that helped subsequent records tremendously."
Remarking on the song selection, Cave said, "They were all done for different reasons. Basically a list of songs were made and we tried to play them. We tried songs by The Loved Ones and The Saints and all sorts of people that never got on the record. Some songs were tributes, like the Tom Jones song; other songs we didn't think the song was ever done particularly well in the first place. Some songs had just kind of haunted my childhood, like 'The Carnival Is Over,' which I always loved."
...an astonishingly good all-covers album...
Features
- Vinyl LP
- 2009 Remastered Version
- Made in the EU
Selections
Side A:
- Muddy Water
- I'm Gonna Kill That Woman
- Sleeping Annaleah
- Long Black Veil
- Hey Joe
- The Singer
Side B:
- All Tomorrow's Parties
- By the Time I Get to Phoenix
- The Hammer Song
- Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
- Jesus Met the Woman at the Well
- The Carnival Is Over
