Nick Cave, Debbie Harry Share Cover of Jeffrey Lee Pierce’s “On the Other Side”

For the fourth volume in the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project, The Task Has Overwhelmed Us, out September 29, Nick Cave and Debbie Harry have collaborated once again on a cover of the late Gun Club singer’s song “On the Other Side.”

The shared song marks the fourth time Cave and Harry have worked on a Pierce song since the beginning of the project in 2009. The duo first covered “Free to Walk” on We Are Only Riders, followed by “The Breaking Hands” from the 2012 release The Journey Is Long, and “Into the Fire” from Axels and Sockets in 2014.

The series of releases feature different interpretations of songs written by Pierce, who founded the Los Angeles rock band The Gun Club in 1979 and died in 1996 at the age of 37.

The project was conceived in 2006 by Gun Club guitarist Cypress Grove, who played with Pierce in his final years. It began after Grove found an unmarked cassette containing bedroom rehearsals from their 1992 album Ramblin’ Jeffrey Lee and Cypress Grove with Willie Love. Grove called the found recordings “very vague but good enough to work from.” He added, “So I had the idea of asking people who worked with Jeffrey, were friends with him, or who simply admired his work to help me complete the songs.”

Soon, more songs emerged. Gene Temesy, who started the Gun Club fan club in 1984 and helped posthumously release Pierce’s 1998 autobiography, Go Tell the Mountain: Stories and Lyrics of Jeffrey Lee Pierce, joined the project along with writer-DJ-musician Phast Phreddie Patterson, and Pierce’s sister Jacqui, who uncovered more unfinished songs by her brother.

“The source material for some of the songs was so vague that it could be interpreted in many ways,” said Grove. “There was no definitive or original version. It was like trying to restore a painting where much of the material was missing.”

Linked to Harry early on, Pierce also served as the president of the Blondie fan club in the late ’70s. He was also close to Cave and the Bad Seeds, and performed with the band on several occasions. His final TV appearance was with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on Later… with Jools Holland on May 14, 1994.

In addition to Harry and Cave, who also appears on another track with Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis, the fourth volume also includes contributions by Grove, the late Mark Lanegan, Lydia Lunch, Dave Gahan, and The Coathangers. Director Jim Jarmusch, Alejandro Escovedo, Mark Stewart, Hugo Race, Duke Garwood, and Scottish designer Pam Hogg, among others, also assist with the project.

The Task Has Overwhelmed Us Track List:

1. “Mother Of Earth” (Dave Gahan)
2. ” La La Los Angeles” (The Coathangers)
3. “Yellow Eyes” (Jeffrey Lee Pierce, feat. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis)
4. “Debbie By The Christmas Tree” (The Amber Lights)
5. “Go Tell The Mountain” (Mark Lanegan, feat. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis)
6. “Going Down The Red River” (Jim Jones and the Righteous Mind)
7. “The Stranger In Our Town” (Peter Hayes, Leah Shapiro & Humanist)
8. “Secret Fires” (Suzie Stapleton, feat. Duke Garwood)
9. “Tiger Girl” (Hugo Race”
10. “On The Other Side” (Nick Cave & Debbie Harry)
11. “Idiot Waltz” (Cypress Grove)
12. “Tiger Girl” (The Amber Lights)
13. “From Death To Texas” (Alejandro Escovedo)
14. “Vodou” (Mark Stewart)
15. “Time Drains Away” (Lydia Lunch, Jozef van Wissem, Jim Jarmusch)
16. “Lucky Jim” (Chris Eckman & Chantal Acda)
17. “I Was Ashamed” (Pam Hogg, feat. Warren Ellis & Youth)
18. “Bad America” (Sendelica, feat. Wonder & Dynamax Roberts)

Photo: David Wolff-Patrick/Redferns