The Mortal Prophets on the five songs that inspired ‘Hell or High Water’
In Nick Cave’s debut novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, he invites you into a swamp town where shotgun shacks line feted thoroughfares, and even the tupelo trees are crooked. That same murky sense of haunted harmonicas and disquieting sparsity forms the eerie atmosphere of the latest The Mortal Prophets single, ‘Hell or High Water’.
The track is taken from John Beckmann’s latest EP as The Mortal Prophets, Sleeping in My Bed. With it, he welcomes the likes of Jon Cobert and Danny Flam alongside an assorted roster of other esteemed musicians who cook up a world of myth and mystery. ‘Hell or High Water’ stands as a solid signifier for the wretched swell of infused blues therein.
But rather than diving into the musicology, the strength of ‘Hell or High Water’ is that you have to treat it more in terms of a story. Although the instrumentation might be decidedly notable, it is images of the sort of woodland you’ve seen on films set in Wyoming and characters that occupy the pages of The Ballad of the Sad Café that spring to mind more so than keys or tempos.
This point is apparent from the nature of how Beckmann finds influences affect his work. “Some musicians and producers like to start with a reference song, but to be completely honest, I don’t, I don’t even like the idea,” he tells us.
“Music for me just happens, the music and the lyrics come quickly or they don’t come,” he continues. “The muses have to give forth their gifts, the artist is the humble receiver. These are some songs that were perhaps lurking deep in our reptilian minds when William D. Lucey and I made ‘Hell Or High Water’.”
It was only after the stark strains of the song took shape that the band began to release what songs “may or may not have influenced” the murderous, bastard tune. Thankfully, they were fans of all of them. So, even if the selection below might not have actually borne Beckmann’s latest, they still stand as some of his favourite tracks.
Five songs that inspired ‘Hell of High Water’:
- ‘Death Letter Blues’ – Son House (1965)
- ‘Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop’ – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (1970)
- ‘My Name is Mud’ – Primus (1993)
- ‘Dog Door’ – Sparklehorse (2001)
- ‘Crazy’ – Spiritualized (2022)
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