Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
August 17th, 2008
I was in a hotel room recently, having a glass of wine, where I had the good fortune to see on BBC 4 a whole series of clips going back 20 years or more, featuring Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. What a terrific performer and genuinely rare talent. A man who has soul right through to his fingertips and sings from his boots upwards - his whole being a series of paroxysms as he exorcises, precipitates and distils his emotive songs. It is so great and mesmerising to see a real artist at work, alone in the universe as he performs.
For my own part, the gigs have been going so well and dare I say it we do have a little bit of a following at those venues where we regularly appear. What is also really gratifying for me is that it is my own numbers that are now getting the greatest response in my set. More and more of my spot is taken over by my own penned material as the classic blues numbers are receding into the background. I am working on a new CD which will comprise all my own numbers: Walking’ down the Street, Blues in the Bottle, Killing the Blues, Raced down to the River and so on. Incidentally, Raced down to the River is one of my first gospel songs: ‘raced down to the river…just to purge my soul…Lord let that icy water…cleanse me and make me whole…….and so on. It is a bottleneck number that has gone down really well.
Of course, anyone can write a song - but not many can write a good song (and I’m not saying I can - but I hope so). For me, a good song is one that others can remember and find themselves singing. This has happened recently. Good songs just seem to be plucked from thin air as they arrive - you can’t contrive it. They are either there of not. For me the melody is the most important - the words become surface signifiers, tokens or pointers towards the emotional state of a song - just like symbols in a dream. This is what makes Nick Cave an original: a dreamer and visionary who can implant his soul into the fabric of the song.
Incidentally, if anyone is interested in how soul can be embedded in the creative process, please read my latest book: Ritual and the Creative Process: The Psychoanalysis of Trance-Formation, now available in electronic format.
Just one more thing, one or two people have asked about the gig guide - well of course you should just click on the gig guide icon on my website. It has just been updated. Cheers for now - and hope to see you on the road again….