Nick Cave admits he likes “the fact that some songs are controversial enough to be outlawed”.
The ‘Mercy Seat”‘ singer has responded to news Sir Tom Jones’ classic ‘Delilah’ has been banned from being sung at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium due to its lyrics about a woman being killed by her jealous husband, and revealed he doesn’t actually like the song in the first place.
Responding in a Q and A on his Red Hand Files website, he said: “I understand there is a principle here, but on some level I like the fact that some songs are controversial enough to be outlawed.
“It fills me with a kind of professional pride to be a part of the sometimes contentious business of songwriting. It’s cool. I like it.
“I just wish it was a more worthy song to be awarded that greatest of honours, indeed that supreme privilege, of being banned.”
While Nick had praised for the ‘Sex Bomb’ hitmaker, he insisted he isn’t a fan of ‘Delilah’
He wrote: “I just don’t like it. I mean, I like Tom Jones. I sang a duet with him (‘Green, Green Grass of Home’ – a far superior murder balled) at a charity event a few years ago, and I like his version of ‘Weeping Annaleah’ which The Bad Seeds recorded on our ‘Kicking Against the P*****’ album.”
Nick – who released his own album ‘Murder Ballads’ in 1996 – acknowledged that the song won an Ivor Novello songwriting award in 1968, but insisted it still “just sort of sucks”.
He quipped: “As someone who knows a thing or two about murder ballads, for my taste, it’s all too waltzy and strident and hammy and mariachi and triumphant.
“And the words are ugly – ‘I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more.’
“Really? Most damning of all, even The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time, couldn’t do anything with it, although there is a wonderfully perverse attempt on the Old Grey Whistle Test.
“The inimitable Australian comic, Norman Gunston, lest we forget, also did a very funny parody of it back in the late seventies, which at the very least made you laugh.”