” The Mercy Seat ” è una canzone scritta da Nick Cave e Mick Harvey, eseguita da Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds nell’album “Tender Prey”. La canzone è stata ripresa da altri, tra cui Johnny Cash e Camille O’Sullivan. La rivista Rolling Stone la annovera tra le 1.001 canzoni più importanti di tutti i tempi.
La canzone racconta la storia di un uomo che sta per essere ucciso sulla sedia elettrica. Il “mercy seat” si riferisce sia al trono di Dio nei cieli, che l’uomo sente che presto vedrà, sia alla sedia elettrica. Il brano è pieno di allusioni alla cristianità e al Vecchio Testamento, dal Levitico passando dall’Arca dell’Alleanza.
La canzone contiene il seguente ritornello, che torna ossessivamente per quindici volte, con variazioni:
And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I’m yearning
To be done with all this measuring of truth.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
And I’m not afraid to die.
I critici hanno notato la confluenza di temi del Vecchio e del Nuovo Testamento, soprattutto nella giustapposizione ‘”occhio per occhio” con la comparsa di un misericordioso “straniero cencioso,” Cristo. Ma il rapporto tra la legge e il perdono sembra destinato a rimanere irrisolto.
Cave poi disse: “Prima ero in grado di scrivere cose come, ‘Non ho paura di morire’. E i ragazzi vengono da me e dicono, ‘Hey, quello ha significato molto per me’. Ma non mi sento più così. Non mi sento arrogante verso la morte come una volta. Mi sveglio nel panico sentendo che la morte si avvicina.”
Johnny Cash ha reinterpretato la canzone nel suo album “American III: Solitary Man” (2000). Cash ha sentito di dover rilanciare la canzone dopo aver visto la notizia di diverse esecuzioni in Texas: “Bisognerebbe prestare maggiore attenzione alla pena capitale“, ha detto. “Se un uomo è stato dentro 25 anni, forse dovremmo riconsiderare se sia diventato un buon essere umano e se vogliamo ancora ucciderlo”.
It began when they come took me from my home
And put me in Dead Row,
Of which I am nearly wholly innocent, you know.
And I’ll say it again
I..am..not..afraid..to..die.
I began to warm and chill
To objects and their fields,
A ragged cup, a twisted mop
The face of Jesus in my soup
Those sinister dinner meals
The meal trolley’s wicked wheels
A hooked bone rising from my food
All things either good or ungood.
And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I’m yearning
To be done with all this measuring of truth.
An eye for an eye
A tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
And I’m not afraid to die.
Interpret signs and catalogue
A blackened tooth, a scarlet fog.
The walls are bad. Black. Bottom kind.
They are sick breath at my hind
They are sick breath at my hind
They are sick breath at my hind
They are sick breath gathering at my hind
I hear stories from the chamber
How Christ was born into a manger
And like some ragged stranger
Died upon the cross
And might I say it seems so fitting in its way
He was a carpenter by trade
Or at least that’s what I’m told
Like my good hand I
tatooed E.V.I.L. across it’s brother’s fist
That filthy five! They did nothing to challenge or resist.
In Heaven His throne is made of gold
The ark of his Testament is stowed
A throne from which I’m told
All history does unfold.
Down here it’s made of wood and wire
And my body is on fire
And God is never far away.
Into the mercy seat I climb
My head is shaved, my head is wired
And like a moth that tries
To enter the bright eye
I go shuffling out of life
Just to hide in death awhile
And anyway I never lied.
My kill-hand is called E.V.I.L.
Wears a wedding band that’s G.O.O.D.
`Tis a long-suffering shackle
Collaring all that rebel blood.
And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I’m yearning
To be done with all this measuring of truth.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
And I’m not afraid to die.
And the mercy seat is burning
And I think my head is glowing
And in a way I’m hoping
To be done with all this weighing up of truth.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And I’ve got nothing left to lose
And I’m not afraid to die.
And the mercy seat is glowing
And I think my head is smoking
And in a way I’m hoping
To be done with all this looks of disbelief.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway there was no proof
Nor a motive why.
And the mercy seat is smoking
And I think my head is melting
And in a way I’m helping
To be done with all this twisted of the truth.
A lie for a lie
And a truth for a truth
And I’ve got nothing left to lose
And I’m not afraid to die.
And the mercy seat is melting
And I think my blood is boiling
And in a way I’m spoiling
All the fun with all this truth and consequence.
An eye for an eye
And a truth for a truth
And anyway I told the truth
And I’m not afraid to die.
And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I’m yearning
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
A life for a life
And a truth for a truth
And anyway there was no proof
But I’m not afraid to tell a lie.
And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I’m yearning
To be done with all this measuring of truth.
An eye for an eye
And a truth for a truth
And anyway I told the truth
But I’m afraid I told a lie.
