Nick Cave Has Few Peers

Seriously, how does Nick Cave consistently produce such great works of art? For nearly forty years, he has created beautiful and challenging pieces. Even his weaker works are better than most artist’s best. Nick Cave’s artistic output will stand the test of time.

This decade alone would qualify Nick Cave as an all-time great. Push Away the Sky, Skeleton Tree, and Ghosteen are breathtaking. Cave went through the trauma of losing a son during the recording of Skeleton Tree. The songs were written. But the recording and mixing portray the haunting that was in Cave’s soul at the time.

The new Ghosteen is absolutely beautiful, probably the most beautiful of Cave and the Bad Seeds career. In his Red Hand Files – and more on that later – he writes how the Bad Seeds know when not to play. While he was talking about The Boatman’s Call in that piece, it applies here. These songs are Cave’s most minimalist pieces yet. The music gives the lyrics and Cave’s ever expressive voice room to explore his grief, and more importantly, his love.

If Cave were to only be judged by his music output, he would have few peers. This is especially true if you consider his work in soundtracks. He and longtime collaborator both in and out of The Bad Seeds, Warren Ellis, have a way of communicating that is beyond what most of us mortals can do. If you watch the film, Once More with Feeling, you see this at work. Their work on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford stayed with me a lot longer than the film actually did.

Beyond Music

A couple of years back, we had a long flight. In the airport bookstore, Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro was staring at me. I had never heard of it, but I purchased it based on its author alone. Its main character, a sex addict whose wife just committed suicide, descends into madness while on a road trip with a nine-year-old son. It’s not a novel I would recommend to almost anyone except Nick Cave fans because it’s not for the faint of heart. But it was an intoxicating read. I couldn’t put the thing down. I don’t often say this: I need to reread this book.

Yet, the pieces that I keep coming back to is Cave’s Red Hand Files. At its core, the Red Hand Files is an ask me anything but with thoughtful, elegant answers. Here, Nick seems completely vulnerable and wholly himself. He often takes separate questions and pulls them together in a thread. It’s prose as poetry.

Furthermore, it’s art. I genuinely believe that it will stand the test of time. When I read these letters, I feel the same way when I read Camus or other great philosophers – I examine my own place in this world and in this universe. I don’t think Cave is purposely writing philosophical treatises, but he is representing such an authentic self in these writings, that they will last.

Nick Cave and Me

Now, if you have never listened to a Nick Cave album or read any of his writings, be warned he is not easy listening. He demands a lot from the listener. His music is often dark and explores themes most people do not want to thread. One of his best songs is about a man about to be placed in the electric chair.

Yet, he can be tender as well. We chose one of his greatest songs (and one of his favorites according to Wikipedia – it has a link but it’s not in English) as our wedding song. “Into Your Arms” is not your typical wedding song. It starts off with a declaration of not believing in an interventionist god. It’s just an honest song about being in love with someone so much you think that there is something higher than us in the universe.

Nick Cave has also helped me out with a dark time. In 2014, I was having random pains in my joints. This was the kind of pain that made you think you had to go to the ER. It took about six months to get diagnosed and started on medications for my disease (Palindromic Rheumatism). With chronic pain comes depression. The title track of Push the Sky Away has Cave singing:

I got a feeling I just can't shake
 I got a feeling that just won't go away
 You've got to just keep on pushing it
 Keep on pushing it
 Push the sky away

This became a mantra for me. Push the sky away. Part of me wonders if he ever found himself singing it himself after the trauma of losing his child.

Speaking of trauma, in the film companion to Skeleton Tree, Once More with Feeling, he talks about trauma and the rubber band effect that comes with said trauma. No matter how far we can get away from such an event, it only takes a word, a smell, a breeze, a flip of the calendar to snap us right back. When I saw Once More with Feeling in the theater, I openly wept think of a lost love one that was taken violently away from us. This idea is so real to those of us that have been in that situation.

Nick Cave Artistic Output

That’s what is impressive about Nick Cave. He understands humanity better than most songwriters. Therefore, he writes about humanity. All of it. The murderers, the authors, the painters, the drunks, the whores, the romantics, the sinners, and the saved. He is not afraid to explore darkness and light. Artists need to be fearless. And Nick Cave’s artistic output proves that even when he is scared, he is never terrified.

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