“Mat Snow is a music journalist who once invited Nick Cave and his girlfriend Anita to live with him in Brighton for a while. Some time after they moved out, he became the author of an NME review that suggested Cave's second solo album wasn't quite as exciting as his first. Outraged, Nick wrote Scum, a tubercular hound of a song, hacking bile at his former housemate, and released it on a flexidisc. 

Scabrous lyrical highlights abound, including, "He reminded me of some evil gnome / Shaking hands was like shaking a hot, fat, oily bone," and the self-explanatory, "You gave me a bad review / maybe you think that it's all just water under the bridge / Well my UNfriend, I'm the type that holds a grudge." 

Recounting his story to the Guardian, Mat was philosophical to the point of actual glee: "I'd rather be memorialised as the spotlit object of a genius's scorn than a dusty discographical footnote. My wife to be was a big Nick Cave fan - Scum is 'our song'."