Falling in love is a putrid, vile mind space filled with demons. It’s also an angel glowing in white light luring you into her. Let’s explore love, Bad Seeder style.
One quick announcement, Nick Cave Monday ends at #52, so there are eight Nick Cave Mondays left to enjoy.
The record was “Let Love In.” Nick Cave was living in Sao Paulo, Brazil with his lover Viviane.
Nick put a lot of himself into the lyrics on the 1994 record. He called the release a bare-faced document of the way he feels.
Here is the music video for “Do You Love Me” filmed in Sao Paulo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eus-MRxYyCA
The aesthetic of the video is perfection. And did you catch the clip of Nick dressing like a lady towards the end? He said that the transvestites were highly insulted and called him bitch, etc. ….with his sly Nick grin.
The love is sinister. Even possibly violent:
“Here she comes blocking the sun / Blood running down the inside of her legs.”
…and later…
“I made every effort not to abuse her / Crazy bracelets on her wrists and her ankles.”
Is she being held captive? Abused?
My favorite line: “I found God and all his devils inside her.”
Nick, our dark maestro into the narrative of love. It gets even murkier in “Do You Love Me? (Part 2)” from the same album. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Check out The Bad Seeds performing “Do You Love Me?” live:
“And I kissed away a thousand tears, My lady of the various sorrows.”
Another live version:
Can’t stop, yes Nick we love you:
The Bad Seeds in Ljubljana:
As promised, let’s move to “Do You Love Me (Part 2)”:
That’s some dark shit. The narrative is now from the point of view of someone getting molested. Nick’s idea of the song was to make it unnerving and he certainly accomplishes that….with quite the melodic accompaniment.
Here’s the song from the record:
The lesson we learn is that love is a twisted and intense emotion that we’re all going to dive into, usually a few times in our lives, and it never gets easier. We’re Bad Seeders, when love comes around, dive in….when it goes to shit you’ll have something to write about.
“The clock of my boyhood was wound down and stopped /
And my handsome little body oddly propped /
And my trousers right down to my ankles / It’s onward and upward and I’m off to find love /
Do you love me? If you do, I’m thankful.”
Thanks for reading, and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.
