Cover Me Monday #11: People Just Ain't No Good

PJANG was a comic I wrote, maybe about 15 or so years ago, and the title - while meant to sound like a classic piece of comic book onomatopoeia - stood for People Just Ain't No Good.

This title was stolen from the song of (virtually) the same name from my favourite Nick Cave album, The Boatman's Call. Actually, if I ever got round to doing a Top Ten Nick Cave Songs, People Ain't No Good (he adds the Just when he sings it) would probably be Number One.



Because I'm always late to every party, I only really discovered the song... and in due course, a great love of Nick Cave... through the cover recorded back in 2003 for what is probably my favourite Lloyd Cole album, Music In A Foreign Language. (Is it better than Rattlesnakes...? Eek.) I think I was mildly into Nick Cave before then - I'd had a copy of his Greatest Hits since it came out in 1998 - but People Ain't No Good wasn't included in that collection, and Lloyd's cover brought me back to it... and soon led me much further down that dark avenue.

The thing about this song is that while it's obviously a Nick Cave song, its lyrics are also very Lloyd Cole. Particularly the verse below...

The sun would stream on the sheets

Awoken by the morning bird

We'd buy the Sunday newspapers

And never read a single word

It's obvious why Lloyd chose to cover it. He could have written those words himself.

As to why I chose to call my comic People Just Ain't No Good... well, as Stan Lee used to say: 'Nuff Said.

It ain't that in their hearts they're bad

They can comfort you, some even try

They nurse you when you're ill of health

They bury you when you go and die

It ain't that in their hearts they're bad

They'd stick by you if they could

But that's just bullshit baby

People just ain't no good

Apologies to any People reading this. I don't mean you, obviously.