The Daily Rumpus
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From Stephen Elliott
Happy Mother’s Day. And a big hug to Dawn Cave, the mother who gave us the King of The Bad Seeds.
Thank you, Dawn, and thank you, Calliope. Calli-a-who?
Calliope was the mother of the greatest musician of all time, Orpheus.
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“The Ship Song” can induce emotions of love, lust and affection. It’s a sexy and soft ballad. If you listen to the song and no one is around to kiss or fondle, there is no shame in showing your affection to a soft pillow.
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Have you ever been harassed by a bully? Someone who comes up to you on the school playground. And all you’re trying to do is eat your ice cream cone in peace.
So the bully comes up to you and first asks why you’re wearing a fitted suit and have your hair slicked back.
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What do you do when you think a girl is hot and you really want to get with her? You write her a song.
Nick Cave did that for PJ Harvey and “West Country Girl” was released on “The Boatman’s Call” in 1997.
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Deanna was a girl from Melbourne, Australia. She meant so much to Nick she got her own song on the 1988 album, “Tender Prey.” If you have ever seen The Bad Seeds live in the last 25 years there is a very good chance “Deanna” was on the set list.
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Grinderman announced their breakup about a year ago. But guess what Bad Seeders? Grinderman is performing two sets at Coachella in the coming days.
Let’s revisit the first single from Grinderman 2, “Heathen Child.” At the core of this humorous song is a message…In the end, we are all alone on this giant explosion that we inhabit called Earth.
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Around the year of our Lord 1984, there were fans of The Birthday Party wandering aimless through the streets. Their post-punk gods vanished. But, just like a dude named Jesus, there would soon come a resurrection, into a different body of sorts.
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Jack the Ripper killed women in real life. He is known as Jack the Ripper, and was never caught for his violent crimes.
Nick Cave kills people in his music. He is known as the greatest singer in the world, and is in a band called The Bad Seeds.
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It was a dark and stormy night in April 1936. The city of Tupelo, Mississippi was ravaged by a tornado that killed more than 230 people. It is ranked as the fourth deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
Tupelo is also the birthplace of Elvis Presley.
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When the the relationship is over, when your heart is cracked open and leaking blood on your pinstripe suit, when you’re out of cash and you need something to numb the pain of a break up, tell that wretched dude at the bar to buy you a drink.
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Sometimes things get murky in our brains. The depression takes hold. It’s more than melancholy, it’s to the point of absolute despair.
“Abattoir Blues” is the title track on the double album released with “Lyre of Orpheus” by The Bad Seeds in 2004.
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One night in January 1995, you may have been alive and lucky enough to have tuned your TV to “Great Performances” a special featuring the music of Kurt Weill.
It was the coolest of the cool performing Kurt’s music including Elvis Costello, William S.
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It was 1994. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds were performing The Fillmore in San Francisco. I was crushed against the stage and Blixa Bargeld strummed his guitar in front of me. Midway through The Bad Seeds set I summoned the courage to yell,
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Goth girls everywhere will soon breathe a collective sigh of relief causing a variance in the Earth’s orbit.
We have been waiting since 2008 for a new Bad Seeds record and we are so very close. “Push The Sky Away”, the 15th release by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds is available next week.
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We’re stuck in a world where bad shit happens all the time. Nick Cave, our Nature Boy, watches the news with his dad and sees “ordinary slaughter” and “routine atrocity.” Dad tells Nature Boy not to look away, be strong and bold because beauty will save the world.
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Today we learn a valuable lesson. If you have a girlfriend, but you are in love with another girl and you tell your girlfriend that this other girl is way hotter than she is, do not stick around when she starts to make out with you.
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Leave it to Nick to create a love song amidst the horrors of judgment day.
When God strikes vengeance on us for our sins at Armageddon, Nick isn’t looking for survival, he’s looking for the woman he loves for that one last moment.
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Who is Lucy? Nick’s ex-girlfriend? A ballerina? Whoever she was, we all have our Lucy. The woman who died too young. If you don’t have a Lucy yet, be assured, Lucy will come into your life. Perhaps a few times.
When The Bad Seeds busted out with a live version of “Lucy” on their last tour, it shattered me.
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We have embraced the love songs and feelings of the heart…this week it’s time to get our hands dirty. No more snuggles, let’s shed some blood.
“The Curse Of Millhaven” was originally written for P J Harvey to sing. She opted for a duet with Nick called “Henry Lee.”
I can’t fathom anyone but Mr.
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The last time I interviewed Nick I told him how much I loved “Palaces of Montezuma” from the new record.
“You like that one?” he said with a smile. “It almost didn’t make it on the record.”
“You’re kidding!”
“My wife said she’d divorce me if we didn’t put it on there.”
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Whenever I need a boot to my ass to work on writing or other projects, “There She Goes, My Beautiful World” is my soundtrack.
It’s better motivation than a Tony Robbins seminar and there’s no need to walk on burning coals or shade your eyes from the glare of his perfect white teeth.
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There’s a soundtrack for when I’m about to fall in love with a girl. That precious gap of time between getting to know each other physically and mentally before diving in the pool of vulnerability and embracing love and commitment.
Laying in bed, talking, cuddling, kissing, ravishing.
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Clocking in at 14 minutes, 43 seconds is “Babe, I’m On Fire.”
The video is so much fun. I would have worked for free as a PA on that shoot just to watch the mayhem in person.
For most of the song is Nick calling out characters who say, “Babe, I’m on fire.” Like mom and dad and grandpa.
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Monday! Monday! Monday! “We No Who U R” is available today from “Push The Sky Away”, the 15th record by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds scheduled to release February 18, 2013.
Be There! (add echo effect)
Let’s talk about Grinderman 2 (2010) and the amazing tour that followed the release.
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There is a soundtrack that plays in my head when I’m in love with a lady and “Sad Dark Eyes” is a part of that DJ set of my mind.
I was always a DJ in my mind from the time I was a child… it was my way of bringing my thoughts to something beautiful in bad family and environment situations.
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When we die, “The Carny” will be our soundtrack. Us humans, who have been jonesing for beliefs and answers about the afterlife in this existence…. We will enter a red tent and DJ will drop the needle on the second track from “Your Funeral, My Trial.”
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Nick Cave scared the crap out of me.
The year was 1992 and I was used to grunge and punk rock and loved the bodies hurling into each other. There were bands like The Dwarves who would get naked, bleed, and fight the audience.
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I have dedicated “Into My Arms” to every woman I have fallen in love with. They were only able to rent this song while they had my heart.
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Some men on their 50th birthday buy a convertible, grow a mustache, shag a yoga instructor and enter what society calls a midlife crisis.
Nick Cave had the greatest midlife crisis ever, which included growing a mustache straight out of a ’70s porn film.
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Do you ever have one of those days where you just need to cry your eyes out?
There’s no better soundtrack for your sobs than “The Weeping Song.”
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