My trembling subsided in his sure embrace

[rachelmanija]

In honor of Anne Stuart's homicidal heroes and helpless heroines, I give you Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue's Where the Wild Roses Grow. This sort of thing goes down so much easier with violins.

Also, Nick Cave performing it live, with Blixa Bargeld filling in for Kylie Minogue (and apparently reading the lyrics off the CD insert.) Amusingly subversive of the gender roles in the song; I had a lot of problems getting it to play all the way to the end, but I am pretty sure they kiss at the end, even though I couldn't get past the gift of the rose.

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Hey, did you never post the conclusion of the trial, or did I just miss it?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I went away without my notes, and then I forgot! I should do that.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I cannot fathom how I escaped learning that song as a kid. Is it a recent song that reproduces the look and feel of a trad. murder ballad?

Given the kind of music your basic Celt seems to favour, I cannot imagine how it is we didn't dwindle out of existance thousands of years ago.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

It's not much like traditional ballads.

It's not just Celts who go in for gloomy, bloody lyrics. Lowland Scots did also. And people on both sides of the Scottish Border had ballads rather less cheerful than anything from Celts. Instead of the Country Music steretypical "My wife left me, my dog died," it's "My wife poisoned me, my dog stabbed me in the back."

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

It's a recent song. The album, Murder Ballads, also has a couple trad ballads, like "Henry Lee" and an obscene version of "Stagger Lee" that was supposedly circulating in a prison.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I did a poll a while back on the most angst-worthy traditional ballads: http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/343615.html

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he stood smiling above me with a rock in his fist

On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow
And she lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief
As I kissed her goodbye, I said, "All beauty must die"
And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth

From one of umpteen sources online which print the lyrics.

[seajules]

I do so love that song. The original video for it is lovely too, in a rather disturbed and disturbing way, and makes a great music video triple feature with Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and Toadies' "Possum Kingdom." Warrant's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a slightly different take on the whole concept, and not quite as strong a song, I don't think. Still interesting, though.

Why, yes, I am rather fond of narratives about dead bodies in water. Why do you ask? And speak not to me of Richard Marx's pathetic riff on the motif. Oy.

[cyberpilate.livejournal.com]

When I was younger, I thought the video for Last Dance with Mary Jane by Tom Petty was awesome. That's why I'm so attached to the Wild Rose video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmsfRnz1qaE), I think. =)

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

We just about died when we saw Blixa Bargeld's hardware ads on TV.