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1[[quoteright:308:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/NickCavebw.jpg]]
2
3->''"And the mercy seat is burning\
4And I think my head is glowing\
5And in a way I'm hoping\
6To be done with all this weighing up of truth.\
7An eye for an eye\
8And a tooth for a tooth\
9And I've got nothing left to lose\
10And I'm not afraid to die."''
11-->-- "The Mercy Seat"
12
13Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is a musician from the North East of Victoria, UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, known primarily as a singer-songwriter but also for his work in poetry, literature, screenwriting, composition and acting.
14
15Cave's songs range from gentle love songs to angsty songs of pain to full-on [[MurderBallad murder ballads]]; he wrote a whole album of the lattermost. He's also known for deeply held, though unconventional, religious views; his songs and novels are rife with Christian symbolism, though he has denied in interviews that he believes in a personal or interventionist God, and his song "Into My Arms" even specifically opens with the lyric "I don't believe in an interventionist God".
16
17Cave started out in Music/TheBirthdayParty, a rather weird PostPunk band who would become a big influence on GothRock. In the middle of TheEighties, he went on to found Nick Cave and the Cavemen, who fairly quickly re-named themselves to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In later years, he would form a third band, Grinderman, which -- very unusually for him -- plays rather [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth straightforward rock music]].
18
19In addition to music, Cave is also the author of the novels ''Literature/AndTheAssSawTheAngel'' and ''The Death of Bunny Munro,'' as well as the scripts for ''Film/TheProposition'' and ''Film/{{Lawless}}'', for which he and bandmate Warren Ellis (not ''that'' Creator/WarrenEllis) also composed the soundtracks. He has additionally acted on occasion, most notably in ''Film/WingsOfDesire'' (where he appears AsHimself in concert) and ''Film/TheAssassinationOfJesseJamesByTheCowardRobertFord'' (where he appears as a musician, playing the folk song "UsefulNotes/JesseJames"), which he and Ellis again scored. The film version of ''Film/TheRoad'' was scored by him and Ellis.
20
21In 2023, Cave was part of the Australian delegation to the coronation of King Charles III, marking his gradual transformation from wild young man into a notable Australian artist.
22
23Compare Music/TomWaits, who has a somewhat similar style, and who is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Seeds#Volume_two confirmed]] to be an influence on Cave.
24----
25
26!!Discography:
27!!!with The Birthday Party
28* ''Door, Door'' (1979) only album released under The Boys Next Door name
29* ''Hee Haw'' EP (1979)
30* ''The Birthday Party'' (1980)
31* ''Prayers on Fire'' (1981)
32* ''Drunk on the Pope's Blood/The Agony Is the Ecstacy'' EP (1982) with Lydia Lunch
33* ''Junkyard'' (1982)
34!!!with Nick Cave & The Back Seeds
35* ''From Her to Eternity'' (1984)
36* ''The Firstborn Is Dead'' (1985)
37* ''Kicking Against the Pricks'' (1986)
38* ''Your Funeral... My Trial'' (1986)
39* ''Tender Prey'' (1988)
40* ''The Good Son'' (1990)
41* ''Henry's Dream'' (1992)
42* ''Music/LetLoveIn'' (1994)
43* ''Music/MurderBallads'' (1996)
44* ''The Boatman's Call'' (1997)
45* ''No More Shall We Part'' (2001)
46* ''Nocturama'' (2003)
47* ''Abattoir Blues[=/=]The Lyre of Orpheus'' (2004)
48* ''Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!'' (2008)
49* ''Push the Sky Away'' (2013)
50* ''Skeleton Tree'' (2016)
51* ''Ghosteen'' (2019)
52* ''Wild God'' (2024)
53!!!with Grinderman
54* ''Grinderman'' (2007)
55* ''Grinderman 2'' (2010)
56!!!with Warren Ellis
57* ''Carnage'' (2021)
58----
59
60!! He provides examples of:
61
62* AlbumTitleDrop: "Sugar Sugar Sugar" from ''Tender Prey'' has a Title Drop towards the end. "You better pray baby tender prey".
63* AntiLoveSong: A number of songs by both Music/TheBirthdayParty and the ''Bad Seeds,'' including "Where the Wild Roses Grow," "Do You Love Me?" parts 1 and 2 and "UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper." The love songs on ''The Boatman's Call'' are a bit too stark and minimalist to be considered "silly" love songs and would easily qualify.
64** One album of his, a recorded lecture titled: "The Secret Life of the Love Song," features him musing on how many alleged songs of love are actually songs of hate. He proceeds to illustrate a genuine love song he found among the dross of pop by playing Music/KylieMinogue's "Better The Devil You Know"; him, a piano, and a Stock-Aitken-Waterman pop ditty makes for a ''profoundly'' disturbing combination, since - for once - you pay attention to the lyrics.
65* ArtistAndTheBand: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
66* AsTheGoodBookSays: ''Kicking Against the Pricks'' takes its title from Acts 26:14
67--> And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking to me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
68* AxCrazy: From the Birthday Party there's the subject of "Hamlet (Pow Pow Pow)" who is a gun-happy sociopath bearing a crucifix. ''Music/MurderBallads'' by the Bad Seeds has at least ''six'' songs featuring outright homicidal maniacs. In particular [[spoiler: Lottie from "The Curse of Milhaven" is practically rabid with psychopathic murderous rage.]], as well as the protagonist of "Stagger Lee", who is not only a murderous psychopath, but also a sadistic rapist who [[DepravedBisexual doesn't discriminate based on gender]].
69** Surprisingly averted in "Jack The Ripper." In spite of its namesake, the song has nothing to do with [[UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper the infamous murderer]].
70* BlackWidow: In "Henry Lee" the titular character runs afoul of a rather jealous one.
71* BookEnds: ''Music/LetLoveIn'' ends with a reprisal of the first song "Do You Love Me?". The former song describes an abusive relationship with a woman, the latter [[spoiler: [[FreudianExcuse the character's molestation as a child]]. ]]
72* CallBack: The first song on the album ''Music/MurderBallads'', "Song of Joy" (About a man telling the story of how his wife and daughters were murdered by a serial killer) has two back to the previous album ''Let Love In''. The first is the speaker using the phrase "All things move towards their end", which is a phrase used similarly in the song "Do You Love Me?". Another during his description of the murder scene, where the killer has used blood to write the words "His RedRightHand" on the wall. This is cited as a reference to Creator/JohnMilton's ''Literature/ParadiseLost'', but is also a reference to the song Red Right Hand.
73* ConceptAlbum: ''Henry's Dream'', ''Music/MurderBallads'', ''Dig Lazarus Dig!!!'', ''The Lyre of Orpheus'', and ''Ghosteen''.
74* CoverAlbum: ''Kicking Against the Pricks,'' which ranges from MOR pop to gospel and blues, and from famous to obscure.
75* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The Lyre Of Orpheus. ''The well went down very deep/ Very deep went down the well.''
76* DepravedBisexual: Stagger Lee in "Stagger Lee" from ''Music/MurderBallads'', who forces the husband of the woman he commits adultery with to give him a blowjob, then shoots him.
77* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The cover of ''Ghosteen''.
78* DistinctDoubleAlbum:
79** ''Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus.'' The former CD was harder-edged and the latter was notably softer and more melancholy.
80** The first disc of ''Ghosteen'' is eight short songs, while its second disc is two long songs linked by a spoken word piece. The album premiere referred to the discs as respectively being "the children and their parents".
81* DuetBonding: Led to his relationship with [[Music/PJHarvey Polly Jean Harvey]].[[note]]Granted, this was more a case of "filming-the-video-for-the-duet bonding" as their vocals were recorded continents apart and then spliced together for the final recording, but it still applies.[[/note]]
82* EarnYourHappyEnding: The dark, grief-stricken album ''Skeleton Tree'' ends with the TitleTrack, an uplifting ballad that closes with the words "It's alright now".
83* EnfantTerrible: ''The Curse of Millhaven'', ''And The Ass Saw the Angel''
84* EpicRocking: The nearly 15-minute long "O'Malley's Bar" from ''Music/MurderBallads''.
85** And the 14-minute "Babe, I'm On Fire."
86** And the uncut 30-minute version of Music/LeonardCohen's "Tower Of Song."
87** The second disc of ''Ghosteen'' includes the TitleTrack (12:11) and "Hollywood" (14:12).
88** Nick Cave loves this trope, with plenty of songs ending in around the seven to nine minute mark: Saint Huck (7:22), A Box for Black Paul (9:42), Tupelo (7:18), Knockin' on Joe (7:38), The Carny (8:02), The Mercy Seat (7:19), O'Malley's Bar (14:28), Hallelujah (7:48), Oh My Lord (7:30), Babe, I'm on Fire (14:45), More News from Nowhere (7:58), Higgs Boson Blues (7:51). Plenty of tracks that breach the five and six minute mark as well.
89* EvenEvilHasStandards: Lottie from ''The Curse of Millhaven'' may be a [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking serial killer, arsonist and disrespectful to the court]], but she "never crucified little Biko [[note]]the school teacher's terrier[[/note]], that was two junior high school psychos”.
90* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The album ''[[MurderBallad Murder Ballads]]'' is composed entirely of tales about killers.[[note]]This is using the original definition of a ballad, which is "a song that tells a story."[[/note]]
91* ForeheadOfDoom
92* GenreMashup: Combines American folk music with gothic post-punk and, later, blues-influenced rock and roll. His output in TheNewTens has made a hard turn into ambient and electronic music.
93* GothRock: They're a tricky aversion. The Bad Seeds' music is gothic in terms of using imagery inspired by the time period of the "gothic revival" in America, due to Cave's fascination with American history, the old west and the deep south. The genre of gothic ''music'' was heavily influenced by both Music/TheBirthdayParty and the Bad Seeds even though they existed before the term "goth" had any foothold as a subculture. The result is that the Bad Seeds get incorrectly attached to the gothic rock genre along with bands that identify as "goth bands" in spite of the fact they literally ''do'' play what you would call "gothic revival-influenced rock."
94* GriefSong: "A Box For Black Paul" which fans have speculated references the breakup of The '''B'''irthday '''P'''arty.
95** Although not autobiographical ''Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?'' from ''The Boatman's Call' is an extremely moving song about the death of a child.
96** ''Skeleton Tree'' transformed in the middle of recording into an entire Grief Album after Nick's teenage son Arthur died in a rock-climbing accident. ''Ghosteen'', inspired from the beginning by the accident, is this as well.
97* GrievousBottleyHarm: Cave once punched a thrown pint glass, breaking it, and kept on playing without any sign of pain. Of course, that did happen at the Hacienda.
98* IconicOutfit: Nick's suit. Notably absent in the video for "More News From Nowhere"
99* InTheStyleOf: Most notably his rather bizarre cover of Music/LeonardCohen's ''Avalanche.''
100** The Birthday Party is Nick & Friends putting their own twist on Music/TheStooges.
101* LetsDuet: Many, including Music/PJHarvey, Music/KylieMinogue, [[Music/EinsturzendeNeubauten Blixa Bargeld]], [[Music/ThePogues Shane [=MacGowan=]]] and Chris Bailey. Cave also sang with Alan Vega of Suicide during a special live performance of Grinderman; at another Grinderman show, he was joined by Music/HenryRollins and [[Music/DeadKennedys Jello Biafra]].
102* LonelyPianoPiece: Cave's multiple stints of depression and drug use came out in the form of stripped down and sorrowful piano pieces, especially on ''The Boatman's Call'' and ''No More Shall We Part.''
103* LooksLikeCesare: Did so in the Birthday Party and early Bad Seeds.
104* LoveHurts: A frequent theme of his lyrics. He has stated that the topics of his songs are always about "Love, death or God."
105* LyricalDissonance
106* MagicMusic: The effects of "The Lyre of Orpheus".
107* MinimalisticCoverArt: ''Skeleton Tree'' simply has the band and album names in stark green text on a completely black background.
108* MoneySong: "Easy Money" off of ''Abbatoir Blues,'' although he certainly doesn't sound like he's running the Ritz in it.
109* MultinationalTeam: The Bad Seeds have had Australian, American, Swiss, German and British personnel pass through their ranks over the years.
110* MusicalAssassin: The carnage wrought in "The Lyre of Orpheus"
111* NewSoundAlbum / [[SurprisinglyGentleSong Surprisingly Gentle Album]]: Happened several times with the Bad Seeds.
112** ''The Good Son'' was a [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks shockingly]] gentle follow-up to the intense ''Tender Prey.''
113** Then it happened again with both ''The Boatman's Call'' and ''No More Shall We Part'' following a year after the moody and dark ''Murder Ballads.'' ''The Boatman's Call'' was much better received than ''The Good Son,'' perhaps because it was less of a shock the second time to hear the Bad Seeds do an album full of sorrowful songs and LonelyPianoPiece tracks.
114** Then it happened a ''third time'' with ''Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!'' sounding more like the rock & roll of Grinderman than anything else they'd done previously.
115** And happened again with ''Skeleton Tree'', which is more electronic and baroque than previous albums.
116** ''Ghosteen'' maintains the style of the previous album, but more on the ambient and ethereal side.
117* OdeToIntoxication: The Birthday Party's own "Mutiny In Heaven" is a manic ode to heroin abuse. Several songs off of ''No More Shall We Part'' allude to Cave's time in detox such as "Oh My Lord".
118* OmnicidalManiac: Lottie from "The Curse Of Millhaven" has shades of this: "All God's children, they all got to die."
119* OverlyLongGag: The last chorus of "The Mercy Seat" repeats ''fourteen times'' before getting to the [[LyricSwap punchline]].
120* RageAgainstTheHeavens: "We Call Upon the Author" lists many of the horrible things that go on in our world, with the chorus of "[[RageAgainstTheAuthor We call upon the author to explain!]]". As God is the "author" of our reality...
121* RapeAndRevenge: The subject of "Crow Jane" in ''Music/MurderBallads'' is a victim of this and goes out on a rampage to commit revenge on her wrongdoers.
122* RecordProducer: The Bad Seeds tend to produce most of their own albums, but one producer in particular David Briggs stands out for Cave being so unhappy with how he produced ''Henry's Dream'' that the Bad Seeds recorded an entire live album featuring most of the same songs done their way just to compensate.
123* RevolvingDoorBand: Members have changed almost yearly, album-to-album. As of 2017 only Cave is the remaining original member of their lineup when they recorded ''From Her To Eternity.''
124* RhymingWithItself: "Bright Horses" rhymes "hand" with "hand".
125* {{Rockumentary}}: Two in quick succession: ''20,000 Days On Earth'' (2014) and ''One More Time With Feeling'' (2016).
126* SceneryDissonance: "Where the Wild Roses Grow" is a murder ballad set in a very pretty environment. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDpnjE1LUvE The video]] is a nice supplement.
127** The colourful and fairy-like cover for ''Ghosteen'' contrasts sharply with the [[TearJerker Tear Jerking]] lyrics.
128* SharpDressedMan: Cave usually wears black suits.
129** His friend Music/HenryRollins noted in his book ''Get In The Van'' that Cave in the early 90s tended to subvert this trope by always wearing the ''same'' black suit, so that he looked cool from a distance, but [[ThePigpen when you got up close...]]
130* SillyLoveSongs: Unsurprisingly few as most songs about love by the Bad Seeds are actually {{Anti Love Song}}s. "Love Letter" and "Babe, You Turn Me On" are a couple of the silly variety.
131* SmokingIsCool
132* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Push the Sky Away'', ''Skeleton Tree'' and ''Ghosteen'' make up a Spiritual Trilogy of albums.
133* SpokenWordInMusic: His vocal delivery sometimes verges on this, especially on the song "Jesus Alone" on ''Skeleton Tree''.
134** "Fireflies", off ''Ghosteen'', plays the trope completely straight.
135* SomethingBlues:
136** ''Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus'' album.
137** The Grinderman song "No Pussy Blues".
138** ''Grinderman 2'' has "Bellringer Blues".
139** "Higgs Boson Blues" on ''Push The Sky Away''.
140* TheSomethingSong:
141** "The Weeping Song," "The Ship Song," "The Train Song," "The Hammer Song," "The Witness Song."
142** The B-Side to "Loverman" is "The B-Side Song."
143** He also covered a different "Hammer Song" by Alex Harvey.
144** ''Ghosteen'' opens with "Spinning Song".
145* SopranoAndGravel: He's done duets with Music/PJHarvey ("Henry Lee", from ''Music/MurderBallads''), Anita Lane ("I love you... Nor Do I"), and Music/KylieMinogue ("Where the Wild Roses Grow", from ''Music/MurderBallads'').
146** Inverted in his duets with [[Music/ThePogues Shane MacGowan]] and Chris Bailey.
147* SouthernGothicSatan: The song "Red Right Hand" with the Bad Seeds from their album ''Music/LetLoveIn'' could be said to be one of these. This character arrives in a storm and gives people their hearts' desires, but only as the prelude to some unspecified sinister plot. Slightly averted in that whatever misfortune comes to the people that deal with him, it's probably less a karmic punishment for their own misdeeds, and more just whatever it is that The Man wants to make happen.
148-->On a gathering storm comes
149-->A tall handsome man
150-->In a dusty black coat with
151-->A red right hand
152
153-->''You're one microscopic cog
154-->In his catastrophic plan
155-->Designed and directed
156-->By his red right hand''
157* SpellingSong: "Loverman", from ''Music/LetLoveIn''.
158* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Blixa Bargeld shares lead vocals with Nick on "The Weeping Song." Conway Savage sings lead on B-side "The Willow Garden."
159* TakeThat: The liner notes for ''Kicking Against the Pricks'' list the studios at which the album was recorded and mixed.
160--> Time and money wasted at Richmond Recorders, Melbourne.
161* TakeThatCritics: "Scum."
162* ThisIsASong: "This is a weeping song, a song in which to weep."
163* UnreliableNarrator: The subject of "Song Of Joy" off of ''Music/MurderBallads.''
164* VillainSong / TheVillainSucksSong: In "Up Jumped The Devil" the narrator literally states "he was doomed to play the villain's part" as he describes his fleeing to Mexico from justice and the devil himself. Cave also covered "Mack the Knife" for a Music/KurtWeill tribute album, which is a classic case of the latter trope. Then there's "Stagger Lee" which is probably one of the most brutal songs ever written.
165* VitriolicBestBuds: Cave and Music/HenryRollins. Rollins once related how he had learned of the first Grinderman gig while in Lebanon, flown directly to California to see it, and accosted Cave and the band backstage, telling them how he'd got there and that it had better be good. Cave's response according to Rollins was: "Henry, you're a fucking psychotic."
166* WordSaladLyrics: To varying degrees.
167** "Mama eat the pygmy, the pygmy eat the monkey, the monkey has a gift that he is sending back to you" from "Higgs Boson Blues" is a good recent example.
168

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