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Australian
musical force Nick Cave
grew up in rural
Victoria.
Although Cave loved the epic
landscape, he hated the
attitudes of small-town
Australia.
It was the early 70s and he was
influenced by David Bowie and
Lou Reed and Iggy Pop -
songwriters, performers, heroes
of pop's avant garde. |
In 1983 when Cave
learned that Bowie would be
producing the next Psychedelic
Furs album (it never happened),
his reaction was
"Is he? Well, I am totally
jealous". |
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Early on
in his career, Nick Cave
performed some interesting
selections of David Bowie songs.
According to records on a Cave
web site, his first known
performance of the song Andy
Warhol occurred on March
3, 1978.
The last known performance was
on Nov 21, 1978 at Melbourne’s
Tiger Lounge where he also
performed China Girl
in what is his only known live
performance of the song.
During a sound check for a Bad
Seeds gig in Lille on 3/10/93,
Cave did a cover of Lust
For Life. From the same
classic Bowie produced Iggy Pop
album, he has also covered The
Passenger. |
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In
the mid 1980s, Nick Cave moved
to Berlin and whilst there
recorded at Hansa Studios like
David Bowie before him.
In Berlin, Cave released four
albums with his band the Bad
Seeds:
- The
Firstborn Is Dead (1985);
-
Kicking Against the Pricks
(1986);
-
Your Funeral, My Trial (1986);
and
-
Tender Prey (1988)
In
2022, Cave's long term
collaborator Warren Ellis
talked a bit about the
appeal of Bowie's Low
album relative to their own
work:
"Whatever you think of
the sound of The Bad
Seeds now, for me, it’s
so important that it
just doesn’t sound the
same, that it’s moved
on.
I always
remember when I heard
‘Low’ by David Bowie.
I thought ‘What is this
fucking record?’
Now, any record I have
problems with, entering
into, are records I keep
going back to, to find
out what they are."
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In
2013, Nick Cave was asked
about the brand new David
Bowie song:
Have you heard David
Bowie’s new single? He
released it on his
website.
What a wonderful song!
I see Berlin
before my eyes – the city
West Berlin that doesn’t
exist anymore.
It only took
all those names of places
he sang, and my whole
blurry time in Berlin
passed before my inner eye
again.
The KaDeWe!
The Potsdamer Platz! The
Dschungel!
What a
lyrical, beautiful song!
It’s simply wonderful that
he came back again.
What also
pleases me is the warmth
with which the people
welcomed him back, after
he’s been absent for so
long.
I didn’t
really understand the last
albums he made before his
long pause anymore.
So I was all
the more excited about the
new song.
It means
something to me again.
It touches me
deeply. I mean, David
Bowie’s not merely a
performer. He was part of
our childhood. In my eyes,
Bowie stands for a certain
kind of immortality.
Because he was always
there?
David Bowie was my idol.
I owned all
his early albums and the
three Berlin records of
course.
I loved his
music. I don’t want
someone like David Bowie
to die.
A song that
appears out of the blue,
and at his 66th birthday
no less, just leaves me
thoroughly happy.
When you hear
the voice of a person that
you love, it’s like a
tender touch. And the fact
that this voice did, of
all things, sing about my
city – that blew me away.
Have you ever met David
Bowie personally?
No. But I’ve once been
addressed by Bob Dylan,
that will have to suffice.
He probably mistook me for
Nicholas Cage… or Jarvis
Cocker.
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In
a 2019 Guardian interview,
Nick Cave explained in
reference to David Bowie's
final years - where he was
facing mortality and reaching
out to connect with fans:
“In his first life, he did
what many of us do and put
himself forward as an
individual … then later he
looked for something
communal and collective.
It’s what happens to us
all … I think we’re united
by suffering.”
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