Crow Jane

Crow Jane Crow Jane
Crow Jane
Horrors in her head
That her tongue dare not name
She lives alone by the river
The rolling rivers of pain
Crow Jane Crow Jane
Crow Jane Ah hah huh 
There is one shining eye on a hard-hat
The company closed down the mine
Winking on waters they came
Twenty hard-hats, twenty eyes
In her clapboard shack
Only six foot by five
They killed all her whiskey
And poured their pistols dry
Crow Jane Crow Jane
Crow Jane Ah hah huh 
Seems you've remembered
How to sleep, how to sleep
The house dogs are in your turnips
And your yard dogs are running all over the street
Crow Jane Crow Jane
Crow Jane Ah hah huh 
"O Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson
Why you close up shop so late?"
"Just fitted out a girl who looked like a bird
Measured .32, .44, .38
I asked that girl which road she was taking
Said she was walking the road of hate
But she stopped on a coal-trolley up to New Haven
Population: 48"
Crow Jane Crow Jane
Crow Jane Ah hah huh 
Your guns are drunk and smoking
They've followed you right back to your gate
Laughing all the way back from the new town
Population, now, 28
Crow Jane Crow Jane
Crow Jane Ah hah huh 

Nick Cave - Crow Jane

Nick Cave - Singer

Born in Australia in 1957 but more recently a resident of London, England, Nick Cave has for many years written emotive songs about life, love and death.

Murder, he Wrote

Cave's last album to deal almost exclusively with violence and death was 1996's Murder Ballads from which the two beautiful duets 'Henry Lee' and 'Where the Wild Roses Grow' were performed with PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue respectively. These two songs were Cave's most commercial success to date, even picking up airplay on MTV¹. The selection of fellow antipodean Kylie to play the part of Elisa Day in 'Where the Wild Roses Grow' might seem an odd one. However, the singer is required to play the part of a beautiful, innocent woman of almost child-like naivety and Kylie excels in such a role. Testament to the sway that Cave holds in the music community is that he managed to get Kylie to be 'murdered in song' by singing the lines: '...the last thing I heard was a muttered word as he stood smiling above me with a rock in his fist.'

The Secret Life of the Love Song

The two most recent Nick Cave albums, The Boatman's Call and No More Shall We Part, have focused more on the love song, but that is not to say they are happy, cheery works. In his recent lecture The Secret Life of the Love Song, Cave suggests that a love song can 'never be happy' as it must always 'embrace the potential for pain'. He states that 'the Love Song is the sound of our endeavours to be God-like' and that sound is 'the noise of sorrow itself'.

The Boatman's Call, the most personal album Cave has ever written, certainly has plenty of sorrow in its 12 musically sparse tracks. The melancholy practically drips from the CD as it is placed in the player, but it's not at all depressing. Today Cave shares along with emotional 'stablemates' such as Leonard Cohen, the ability to bare the very darkest recesses of his soul and yet to still make it an uplifting experience for the listener. Tracks such as '(Are You) The One that I've Been Looking For', 'Green Eyes' and 'West Country Girl' chart the freshly discovered waters of Cave's failed romances².

The newest album No More Shall We Part begins in much the same vein - with the simple guitar and piano of the first single 'As I Sat Sadly By Her Side' - but soon becomes more musically complex. It uses folk singer sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle to great effect, especially during the beautiful end section of 'Hallelujia'. The album even ventures back to angrier times with songs such as 'Oh My Lord'. This song really sees the Bad Seeds let rip once more while Cave has a go at the detractors who claim that he's gone a bit 'soft' of late. The album also features gems such as 'God is in the House', a wonderful sideswipe at the sterility of small town life that takes matters to ridiculous but logical conclusions with lyrics such as: '...we have a tiny little force but we need them of course for the kittens in the trees...' and '...we've bred all our kittens white so you can see them in the night...'

This sort of ridiculous lyric is not unusual in Cave's work and especially not on this particular album. It's the lyrical cartwheels he turns with his oh-so-easy mix of sublime, mundane, ridiculous, dramatic, tragic and comic imagery that makes his music so moving.

Nick Cave has produced 11 studio albums during his time with the Bad Seeds and has written one novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel. A complete collection of his lyrics from 1978 to 2001 has just been published. More information is available at www.nickcave.net.

---

¹ Though one gets the impression that Cave himself has never been entirely comfortable with the notion of MTV.
² The latter undoubtedly being about former Cave collaborator and lady who's no stranger to the art of melancholy herself, PJ Harvey.

 

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The Ship Song

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around
Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around
We talk about it all night long
We define our moral ground
But when I crawl into your arms
Everything comes tumbling down
Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around
Your face has fallen sad now
For you know the time is nigh
When i must remove your wings
And you, you must try to fly
Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around
Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around

 

 

 

hroughout his solo career, Nick Cave has belonged to the illustrious three: himself, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, three of the only outsider singer-songwriters to make a substantial, relatively mainstream living off of their art. True originals, Cave, Waits and Cohen create worlds of tenderness and torture, and when you put on one of their records, they own you. They create rich, deep, album-length worlds in which their skills as musicians are challenged only by their poetry and singular voices. Cave’s last album, 2001’s No More Shall We Part, put him above both Waits’ and Cohen’s recent output; a masterpiece of warmth and patience crafted by a man at the height of his creative powers. With that album -- that career highlight -- not two years old, the inconsistent, surprisingly tepid Nocturama comes as a blistering shock and heartbreaking disappointment. The illustrious three Cave seems to be running with these days is himself, Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen, a trio of greats wasting their energy and genius on material that is completely beneath them.Earle and Springsteen can blame 9/11 for their recent duds. Cave has no such excuse.

Nocturama’s ten songs are mostly ballads, a song form Cave has a proven mastery of, and yet all but one of those ballads is wholly ineffective. The music is sparse and simple, forcing focus upon the lyrics, which, for the first time are riddled with clichés. “Wonderful Life” opens the album with a total lack of fireworks. No dynamics with which to excite, no lead instruments with which to captivate, and an unsure vocal performance that finds Cave mumbling with a total lack of confidence, a strange affliction that plagues the first few songs on the album. The music is tasteful as always, but dry. Cave’s Bad Seeds are a wonderful, well-honed band -- they can make darkness impenetrable and beauty indescribable -- but when asked to play ordinary material, that ordinariness is pounded home with every note.

 

       “Ordinary” is a compliment for many of these songs. “He Wants You” is safe and tired, the tale of a sailor adrift on the ocean that is as plain and predictable as the tender piano that nudges it along. “Right Out of Your Hand” is another song harmed by cliché, but its fabulous vocal harmonies and touching violin (courtesy of Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis) come close to redeeming it. “There is a Town” is the only solemn track that provides a spark, a slow, trudging tale of deflated dreams and homesickness in which longing is captured by the violin, wandering by the piano and truth by the guitar. Unfortunately, “Town” is bookended by “Still In Love” and “Rock of Gibraltar”, two very disappointing, whitewashed tales of dead love that deserve to be better. “Still In Love” begins darkly but is quickly bleached by middle of the road refrains and choruses; “Rock of Gibraltar” is a throwaway. 

Nocturama’s non-ballads don’t help the album. One is terrible, one is alright, one is fifteen minutes long. “Bring it On” is as bad as its title would suggest: AOR-ready pony-tail rock and easily one of the most bafflingly bad songs any talented artist has ever recorded. Sounding out of touch, old and polished to a garish sheen, “Bring it On” sounds like the reunion of some forgotten 70s AM radio band. “Dead Man In My Bed” is furious in comparison, but only slightly better. Keyboards blare, guitars clang and Cave delivers some great lines about ambivalence and dehydrating love, but the music, loud as it is, lacks depth and all lyrical mystery is destroyed by the smoothly harmonized “we’ve got to get it all together” refrain near the song’s end.

  

All that remains is “Babe I’m On Fire”, all fifteen minutes and 39 stanzas of it. Propelled by a great bassline, “Babe” is relentless, invigorated/invigorating, jittery post-punk filled with blistering guitar noise and Cave’s trademark flailing, but to play it for fifteen minutes is near ridiculous. The lyrics are incredible -- clever, all encompassing and imaginative, with a scope and grasp of rhyme that is nothing if not perfect -- but they would be just as good without the music. Take the lyrics away, however, and you’re left with some pretty meaningless, repetitive fury. More ambitious and exciting than anything else on Nocturama, “Babe” is still difficult to adore.

While not ruinously bad and not enough to destroy his legacy, Nocturama certainly calls into question Nick Cave’s future. There is flatness where once there was majesty; there is garbage where once there was gold. Until his next album is released, Cave will reside in limbo, where only he can decide which triumvirate he belongs to.

Reviewed by: Clay Jarvis
Reviewed on: 2003-09-01

All abouth Nick Cave (click!)

The Curse Of Millhaven

Album - Murder Ballads I live in a town called Millhaven And it's small and it's mean and it's cold But if you come around just as the sun goes down You can watch the whole town turn to gold It's around about then that I used to go a-roaming Singing La la la la La la la lie All God's children they all gotta die My name is Loretta but I prefer Lottie I'm closing in on my fifteenth year And if you think you have seen a pair of eyes more green Then you sure didn't see them around here My hair is yellow and I'm always a-combing La la la la La la la lie Mama often told me we all got to die You must have heard about The Curse Of Millhaven How last Christmas Bill Blake's little boy didn't come home They found him next week in One Mile Creek His head bashed in and his pockets full of stones Well, just imagine all the wailing and moaning La la la la La la la lie Even little Billy Blake's boy, he had to die Then Professor O'Rye from Millhaven High Found nailed to his door his prize-winning terrier Then next day the old fool brought little Biko to school And we all had to watch as he buried her His eulogy to Biko had all the tears a-flowing La la la la La la la lie Even God's little creatures, they have to die Our little town fell into a state of shock A lot of people were saying things that made little sense Then the next thing you know the head of Handyman Joe Was found in the fountain of the Mayor's residence Foul play can really get a small town going La la la la La la la lie Even God's children all have to die Then, in a cruel twist of fate, old Mrs Colgate Was stabbed but the job was not complete The last thing she said before the cops pronounced her dead Was, 'My killer is Loretta and she lives across the street!' Twenty cops burst through my door without even phoning La la la la La la la lie The young ones, the old ones, they all gotta die Yes, it is I, Lottie. The Curse Of Millhaven I've struck horror in the heart of this town Like my eyes ain't green and my hair ain't yellow It's more like the other way around I gotta pretty little mouth underneath all the foaming La la la la La la la lie Sooner or later we all gotta die Since I was no bigger than a weavil they've been saying I was evil That if 'bad' was a boot that I'd fit it That I'm a wicked young lady, but I've been trying hard lately O fuck it! I'm a monster! I admit it! It makes me so mad my blood really starts a-going La la la la La la la lie Mama always told me that we all gotta die Yeah, I drowned the Blakey kid, stabbed Mrs. Colgate, I admit Did the handyman with his circular saw in his garden shed But I never crucified little Biko, that was two junior high school psychos Stinky Bohoon and his friend with the pumpkin-sized head I'll sing to the lot, now you got me going La la la la La la la lie All God's children have all gotta die There were all the others, all our sisters and brothers You assumed were accidents, best forgotten Recall the children who broke through the ice on Lake Tahoo Everyone assumed the 'Warning' signs had followed them to the bottom Well, they're underneath the house where I do quite a bit of stowing La la la la La la la lie Even twenty little children, they had to die And the fire of '91 that razed the Bella Vista slum There was the biggest shit-fight this country's ever seen Insurance companies ruined, land lords getting sued All cause of wee girl with a can of gasoline Those flames really roared when the wind started blowing La la la la La la la lie Rich man, poor man, all got to die Well I confessed to all these crimes and they put me on trial I was laughing when they took me away Off to the asylum in an old black Mariah It ain't home, but you know, it's fucking better than jail It ain't such bad old place to have a home in La la la la La la la lie All God's children they all gotta die Now I got shrinks that will not rest with their endless Rorschach tests I keep telling them they're out to get me They ask me if I feel remorse and I answer, 'Why of course! There is so much more I could have done if they'd let me!' So it's Rorschach and Prozac and everything is groovy Singing La la la la La la la lie All God's children they all have to die La la la la La la la lie I'm happy as a lark and everything is fine Singing La la la la La la la lie Yeah, everything is groovy and everything is fine Singing La la la la La la la lie All God's children they gotta die

 More Lyrics (click!)

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Stories and Highlights from 1983

• Nick Cave's musical career spans from post-punk to blues-rock.

• The Boys Next Door formed in 1975 and later become The Birthday Party. They were, Cave, Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard, Tracy Pew and Phil Calvert. They blasted their way into London and had a bundle of albums and EPs that defined the plastic pop of the early Eighties.

• The Secret History of Australian Independent Music 1977-1991, recalls a gig in 1980 "… Nick Cave came out with the word HELL scrawled across his bare chest. At the party after the show, bodies were draped around the room, stoned and exhausted".

• The Birthday Party broke-up in 1983 and Cave went to LA for a short while, it was here that he wrote the film script 'Ghosts...Of The Civil Dead' which was later made into a feature film directed by John Hillcoat and Evan English.

• In 1983 he assembled the first line-up of The Bad Seeds with Mick Harvey from Birthday Party days.

• In Berlin he started work on his debut novel, 'And The Ass Saw The Angel'.

• 'The First Born Is Dead' was released in 1985. It spawned the epic single 'Tupelo', based on John Lee Hooker's song of the same name.

• The 1986 incarnation of The Bad Seeds provided a selection of poignant covers on the 'Kicking Against The Pricks' album. It featured The Velvet Underground's, 'All Tomorrow's Parties' and Gene Pitney's 'Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart'.

• 'Tender Prey' and 'The Mercy Seat' were released as a whopping big single in the same year Cave's first book 'King Ink' was published.

• Cave moved to Sao Paolo and created 1990's LP 'The Good Son'.

• In 1990, Cave's book, 'And The Ass Saw The Angel' was published and received Time Out's Book Of The Year award.

• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds toured Australia as part of the 1993 Big Day Out.

• In 1994, Tony Cohen produced the album, 'Let Love In'. Tony had worked with Cave in The Birthday Party days.

• The album 'Murder Ballads' was released featuring Kylie Minogue and PJ Harvey on the singles 'Where The Wild Roses Grow' and 'Henry Lee' in 1996. The Bad Seeds hit the mainstream. The track with Kylie reached No.2 on the national charts.

• 'King Ink II' was published in 1996.

• The Bad Seeds' 1997 album was their tenth studio album. It was called, 'The Boatman's Call'.

• Cave curated and directed the Meltdown Festival on London's Southbank with a line up of artists including Lee Hazlewood and Nina Simone.

• He recited and performed his essay on 'The Secret Life of The Love Song' and wrote a deliberation on the Gospel According to St. Mark.

• Cave was a guest of Hal Wilner in a night dedicated to the music of archivist Harry Smith held in New York.

• In 2000, Johnny Cash covered The Bad Seed's 'The Mercy Seat' on his album 'American III: Solitary Man'.

• In April 2001, The Bad Seeds released their eleventh studio album 'No More Shall We Part', recorded in London's Abbey Road Studios.

• The Bad Seeds line-up for this recording consisted of Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, Thomas Wydler, Martyn Casey, Conway Savage, Jim Sclavunos, Warren Ellis, and Anna and Kate McGarrigle.