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The Stop
Nick Cave (1957 - present) is an Australian singer-songwriter, novelist, actor, and screenwriter. A prominent participant in the early 1980s post-punk movement,1 he is best known as being front man for the Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, powerful stage persona and emotionally intense music, Cave’s work is influenced by numerous obsessions including ‘death, religion, love and violence.’2
Born in Warracknabeal, a town in the Australian state of Victoria, to a father who taught English and mathematics and a school librarian mother, as a young boy he grew up in rural Victoria before moving to Melbourne. In the mid-1970s, Cave and school friend Mick Harvey, guitarist Rowland Howard, bassist Tracy Pew and drummer Phil Calvert formed the Boys Next Door. After releasing a number of records, the band changed their name to the Birthday Party and relocated to London where they became known for their ‘ferocious and intense live shows,’ and lyrics infused with Old Testament imagery about sin, debauchery and damnation. The band soon had a cult following and an appearance on John Peel’s BBC radio programme3 resulted in a record contract and the release of Junkyard (1982).
In 1983 the Birthday Party broke up and Cave and Harvey moved to West Berlin and formed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, adding Magazine bassist Barry Adamson and Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist Blixa Bargeld to the mix.4 The Bad Seeds ‘combined the Birthday Party’s dark intensity with a passionate exploration of love and the pain it can bring,’ a formula which has resulted in 17 albums thus far. With the Bad Seeds, Cave developed an ‘inimitable’ style that ‘ranges across a spectrum that includes noisy, clattering, but extremely musical rock - equal parts mutant rockabilly, garage, indie, post-punk, and cabaret - as well as striking romantic balladry and broken blues, sometimes all on the same recording.’5
Personnel changes6 and personal tragedies7 have influenced Cave’s work, often darkening and deepening his thematic obsessions. In addition to his work with the Bad Seeds, side projects such as the two-album Grinderman (2007; 2010), which ‘tempered the rage of the Birthday Party with caustic, self-deprecating humour’, film scores for movies including The Proposition (2005), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Road (2009) and Hell or High Water (2016), screenplays (including The Proposition), two novels (And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989) and The Death of Bunny Munro (2009)), and an epic poem (The Sick Bag Song (2016)) ‘inspired by his tour with the Bad Seeds in 2014,’ have resulted in an output that is nothing short of remarkable - and a topic The Bus will schedule a few Stops in the future to explore.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to a fascinating - and important - documentary (20:00) about the 50-year fight two army veterans led to access healthcare for fellow service members who were exposed to radiation and resultant cancers while participating in a top-secret nuclear cleanup operation in the Marshall Islands in the 1970s. The documentary is a sad indictment about how the US government treats its veterans - but, as scary as that is, it’s nothing compared to the videos of the nuclear explosions. Worth the time - especially given current world affairs.
Nuclear Fallout: The forgotten veterans who cleaned it up and their fight for justice
The Recommendation
Today’s Recommendation is Nick Cave’s first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989). The novel is the story of Euchrid Eucrow, a mute born to an abusive, drunken mother and a father who is obsessed with dangerous traps and animal torture. Living in a valley inhabited by the fanatically religious Ukulites, the family is systematically shunned and abused - which leads to Euchrid's mental breakdown and terrible vengeance. The title is taken from the Book of Numbers (22:23)8 and many of the lyrics of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’s early albums (From Her to Eternity (1984), The Firstborn is Dead (1985) and Your Funeral … My Trial (1986)) are extensions of the novel’s storyline. It’s a beautifully written, lyrical novel which is not for the faint of heart. Don’t pick this one up unless you want to be disturbed.
From the back cover: ‘And the crows - they still wing, still wheel, only closer now - closer now - closer to me. These sly corbies are birds of death. They’ve shadowed me all mah life.’
Outcast, mute, a lone twin cut from a drunk mother in a shack full of junk, Euchrid Eucrow of Ukulore inhabits a nightmarish Southern valley of preachers and prophets, incest and ignorance. When the God-fearing folk of the town declare a foundling child to be chosen by the Almighty, Euchrid is disturbed. He sees her very differently, and his conviction, and increasing isolation and insanity, may have terrible consequences for them both …
Compelling and astonishing in its baroque richness, Nick Cave’s acclaimed first novel is a fantastic journey into the twisted world of Deep Southern Gothic tragedy.
Look for And the Ass Saw the Angel at an independent new or used bookstore (or, hey, the library) near you!
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is a selection of five Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tracks: ‘Slowly Goes the Night’ (Tender Prey, 1988), ‘I Let Love In’ (Let Love In, 1994), ‘Little Janey’s Gone, 2001), ‘Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry …’ (Live Seeds, 1993) and ‘Jubilee Street’ (Push Away the Sky, 2013). Enjoy!9
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’s ‘I Let Love In’ - the narrator is warning against falling in love:
‘Far worse to be love's lover than the lover that love has scorned.’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next Stop …
Coming out of 1970s punk rock, post-punk is characterised as being a genre of ‘thoughtful artists who write politically informed music without concern over fitting one specific sound.’ Still possessing punk’s individualistic attitude and belief in completely being oneself, post-punk saw a more artistic, aesthetically-developed attitude towards the music.
I am a big, big Nick Cave fan and have been since 1996. It was my second year teaching high school English, and I was given - despite not needing one in any way - a teaching assistant. A Senior who had completed all of his credits but had to find some class to attend, Joe became my assistant and he was very, very cool. One day he loaned me his copy of Let Love In, and I’ve not looked back since. Sources for today’s Stop include: Nick Cave (Allmusic), Nick Cave (Britannica) and Mordue, Mark. Boy On Fire. London: Allen & Unwin, 2021.
John Peel was a BBC radio presenter who frequently presented and promoted on his show unknown, up-and-coming musicians - many of whom became famous.
Einstürzende Neubauten, a very influential German industrial rock group, was formed in West Berlin in 1980. There will be more about them in a future Stop.
The band’s biggest commercial hit is ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’, a duet with Australian singer Kylie Minogue from the album Murder Ballads (1996).
Bargeld left the Bad Seeds in 2003 and Harvey in 2009. Adamson has come and gone and returned to the fold, Howard died in 2009 and pianist Conway Savage died in 2018, but the arrival of multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis in 1994 has proven the most fruitful collaborative change.
Cave’s 15-year-old son Arthur died falling from a cliff in Brighton in 2015, and his son Jethro died in 2022 aged 31.
Itself an interesting read. In this non-Sunday School Bible story, Balaam - who beats his donkey mercilessly - receives a terrible vengeance for his misdeeds from an angel that only the donkey sees.
This was the hardest list of songs I’ve had to do so far. A very difficult choice, as there is a rich, rich catalogue of outstanding music. Nevertheless, after much deliberation - hopefully my (few) Nick Cave friends will forgive me for leaving their tracks out - here they are, all great tracks: ‘Slowly Goes the Night’ is the best louche nightclub crooner’s tune, from the opening to the ending, with the great line in the middle about how the moon is flayed until it becomes the knife; ‘I Let Love In’ is the Nick Cave track that first caught my attention; ‘Little Janey’s Gone’ is a B-track gospel-tinged track with a lovely, decadent twist; ‘Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry …’ is probably my favourite Cave track ever - and certainly one of my favourite live tracks: Bargeld’s guitar adds dimensions to this violent, demented tale that are nothing short of exquisite; and ‘Jubilee Street’ combines imagery and pathos in a way few songs ever can or do.
I went many years without listening to Nick Cave. While on a Tom Waits binge, Cave's music kept making appearances on the playlist. And suddenly a new obsession was born.
Thanks for covering this.
I’ll have to watch that documentary! My dad was in the Navy and participated in Operation Greenhouse which tested nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands in the late 40s-to early 50s. He would always tell stories about watching the mushroom clouds and how they’d have to wash the ships down with seawater after each blast to rid it of radioactive dust.