Hee-Haw [EXPLICIT LYRICS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

The Birthday Party

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 16, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 1988
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics, Original recording remastered
• Label: Buddha
• ASIN: B00004T0N8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #61,967 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Mr. Clarinet

2. Happy Birthday

3. Hats on Wrong

4. Guilt Parade

5. Friend Catcher

6. Waving My Arms

7. Catman

8. Riddle House

9. Catholic Skin

10. Red Clock

11. Faint Heart

12. Death by Drowning

13. Hair Shirt

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dark, evil and catchy, March 4, 2002

By	Philippe Landry (Louisiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

i love this album for it's raw simplicity(i find i've been saying that a lot on here...i think it's my style...anywho ;-)...). the songs on Hew Haw(culled partly from when the Party was the Boys Next Door, and the rest from the first Party album) are very catchy, very...uh...gothic, indeed, and very punk. it's like the Banshees and Bauhaus' first albums...very jaggedly, staggering dark dirges and full-on Stooges-type jams set to a gloomy minor key. Cave's vocals and lyricism is(was at the time) abstract and benign, but most of the songs are metaphoric: clarinets, birthday parties, clocks, hats, etc. the names and content may seem forced and somewhat silly, but they grow on you quickly as a whole, creating a very cryptic pop sound. there is lots of atmosphere on this album...achingly sustained distortion painting scenes that linger, creep, rattle and ramble. my favs are probably "The Friend Catcher", "Death By Drowning", "The Red Clock" and "Riddle House", but i usually listen to the album as a whole, so i guess everything is pretty great. don't get this album if you are looking for a "Nick Cave album"...this was before Nick Cave found Nick Cave; just think of it as a great debut for a great post punk group.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Early Nick May Not Be Much of a Party to Some, April 23, 2001

By	D. Jobe - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

And so here it is, (minus the Boys Next Door's 1978 'Door Door' album) for all practical purposes the beginning of Nick Cave's enigmatic, three decade long career. It's hard to imagine, listening to this 40 some odd minutes of noise and vile, that the very same person would be, twenty-two odd years later, mentioned in the same breath as Bob Dylan and easily considered the "Dark Laureate" successor to Leonard Cohen. As you may gather, just because it is first does NOT make it the place most will want to start. Once you're more familiar with Cave, however, it puts many puzzle pieces into place.

Not really an album proper, this release (originally co-credited to the Boys Next Door AND the Birthday Party) gathers a Boys Next Door ep and single, and two Birthday Party singles recorded in late 1979 and early 1980. What's the difference between the two bands you might ask? Almost nothing. The band personnel (and it is one of the great post-punk lineups) is the same, though the biggest difference is the move in early 1980 to London where the name change occurs and the latter singles are released. It's those last singles that you encounter first on the cd, and that's fair enough. Here the band collects its messy Swell Maps/Fall/No Wave inspired clatter into a genuinely catchy sound. "The Friend Catcher" and "Mr. Clarinet" (both as lyrically obtuse as they sound) are bonafied art-punk classics. The final Boys Next Door single ("Happy Birthday"/"Riddle House" not credited in the liner notes!)is just behind these two, finding our Aussie expatriates learning their craft well. At the end of it all, we are, uh, "graced" with the 'Hee-Haw' ep in its chaotic entirety. A good history lesson I suppose, but mostly lots of Rowland S. Howard's feedback with little of the hooks he'd soon have down, and Cave taking that shriek of his just a little too far, too often. Not bad,necessarily and perhaps best served as the soundtrack to late night car repossessing.

Overall, an interesting introduction to one of the major songwriters of the last twenty years and a painfully good time to those who like their music heavy on the LOUD.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Stuff, April 21, 2006

By	Jonathan Dedward "In your face like a can of ... (Nowheresville, Slothwestern North America) - See all my reviews

This album is a collection of songs from from the very early days of the Birthday Party, many of which were recorded as the band "The Boys Next Door," (circa 1979) but this is definitely some good stuff. Songs like "the Friend Catcher" and "The Hair Shirt" definitely reflect the band's later darker direction. It doesn't end there; "A Catholic Skin," is a pounding rhythm-based jam, (read: deep, bass centered groove) as is the final track "The Hair Shirt,". For those looking for some great Post-Punk music this is an exceptional beginning. The Birthday Party were an intense group by design, and as an introduction into later, more chaotic works this re-release functions extremely well. Death rock owes much to these guys and I, for one, love them. Those who appreciate Nick Cave should get a lot out of this. Follow this album with the Mutiny/Bad Seed EP. The Birthday Party were immensely important, whether or not you like their insane songs. Listen. Learn and judge for yourself, no one else can say anymore than that.