Soundtracked

Where The Wild Roses Grow

** Image ID #2070351 Unavailable **
This week's theme: Guilty Pleasures

Ok...so I'm not the type of guy who gets celebrity crushes, nor am I one to listen to songs because "the singer is hot" (one of my best friends, who shall remain nameless, has long been an Emo fan but has a near-unhealthy Britney Spears obsession). But...if I were to make an exception for either point listed in the previous sentence, I'm pretty sure it would have to be for Kylie Minogue.

And it all started in the late 80's, when she was just a One Hit Wonder pop star in America with her cover of "The Loco-motion"  , which also coincided with my crash into full-blown puberty. Of course at the time I had no idea she was a big star of whatever magnitude in Australia...I just knew that she was beautiful, and smiley, and fun, and cute with the big curly hair, and I wanted dat caboose backed up into me. Hey, I was like 12. What did I know about ladies?

Like most things associated with me from that point in my life, I'd eventually forgotten about her. Sure, her version of "The Loco-motion" had replaced Grand Funk Railroad's at most weddings and social events where dancing was acceptable and encouraged, but I'd outgrown the notion that she would someday become my wife...mainly because she was now nearly anonymous to me, but mostly because women stopped wearing their hair teased up big with loopy spiral curls.

Then something weird happened in my adult life. She released a song that became popular in the US, the so obviously titled "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" (which for the longest time I only knew as the "Na Na Na" song because who needs words when you're watching Kylie Minogue's face while she dances?). And then she came up in random conversation among coworkers, one of whom had mentioned she had done a song with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and that it was nothing like dance-pop.

A couple days later he slipped me a copy of Murder Ballads  , which was the musical equivalent of having my preteen mind blown after doing some research and discovering that Kylie Minogue was, in fact, associated with not one, but two songs on that record (the other being the cover of Bob Dylan's "Death Is Not The End", which has shown up once or twice in previous blog entries). It was my first taste of any Nick Cave music, which wasn't really close stylistically to anything from the time it was released or of my own preferences, but lyrically it was dark yet romantic (which makes sense, because it's called Murder Ballads, duh). I took to the album well.

And if I would've been a Nick Cave fan prior to that, and you would've told me he was planning a duet with an international pop star, I probably would've laughed before chokeslamming your stupid ideas back into middle school where they belonged. But as far as these types of collaborations go, it's perfect. Cave's deep voice meshes with the surprisingly lush yet light tones of Minogue's, and the story told in the lyrics is beautifully sad (sort of in the difference between how young boys and young girls fall in love). I absolutely enjoy this song; whereas many of the other songs on Murder Ballads are more blunt with the death and violence, here it is more implied; it's not a schoolyard tale of a beatdown, or a barroom brawl, but it's more like something out of a romance novel for the emotionally- and existence-challenged.

"And the last thing I heard was a muttered word, as he knelt above me with a rock in his fist."
"As I kissed her goodbye, I said, 'All beauty must die' and lent down and planted a rose between her teeth."
Lyrics.  

Oh, and Kylie Minogue is still so super hot, just so you know  ...even though I'm wondering if Cave's gold sparkly shirt isn't trying to give her a run for her charm.