"I stuck a six-inch gold blade in the head of a girl," Nick Cave snarled in 1981, fronting the band of punk-blues miscreants known as the Birthday Party. From the very beginning, and throughout most of his still-ongoing career, women and violence were inextricably linked in the obsessive world of seedy glamour he created.
With a stew of influences that included Johnny Cash, the Stooges, and the Bible, Cave embarked on a solo career in 1984, soon after the self-immolation of his old band. Though the screeching guitars of the Birthday Party days were mostly gone, Cave's fascination with violence - particularly involving women - was still readily apparent. His first record with his new band, the Bad Seeds, contained the haunting, call-and-response "Well of Misery," in which Cave describes a "little floating girl" in the titular well; the tale seems to be a continuation of a story begun in the Birthday Party's "Deep in the Woods," in which the murder of the girl is described in more detail.
More Murder and Misery
Later songs also seemed to fixate on women as targets of violent obsession, and sometimes murder. In this Cave was likely following in the tradition of the blues and country themes that he explored with great relish throughout most of his career. Women come to harm in any number of his songs, including "Song of Joy," "Lovely Creature," "Where the Wild Roses Grow," "Knoxville Girl," "The Willow Garden," and covers of John Lee Hooker's "I'm Gonna Kill That Woman" and Tim Rose's "Long Time Man," among many others.
Misogynist?
Accusations of misogyny have often been aimed at Cave; though it's easy to see why, the charge is, perhaps, somewhat misguided. For one thing, it ignores the fact that many of Cave's songs contain grievous violence toward men as well - "Jangling Jack" has its hapless protagonist gunned down on a barstool, and the epic "O'Malley's Bar" gleefully describes a unisex massacre in which one man has his skull split open with a brick and another has his bowels blown out. In addition, a few of the murders in Cave's canon are actually committed by women: "Crow Jane" kills indiscriminately in a mining town, Lottie of "The Curse of Millhaven" is a fifteen-year-old psychopath, and in a version of the traditional "Henry Lee," sweetly crooning Polly Harvey stabs Cave to death for preferring another girl to her. Critics should also not ignore the glittering thread of gallows humor that runs through all of Cave's work; some of his lyrics, while grisly, are clearly meant to be funny and over the top.
Finally, it should be noted that a great deal of Cave's songs, particularly in recent years, have described a view of women that borders on the worshipful; hymnlike arrangements and lyrics shot through with palpable longing and sadness have become something of a new hallmark. It could be debated that perhaps the darker obsessions of his earlier work were merely the flip side of this underlying intensity toward women, a passion that can bring great joy or great sorrow, but can occasionally spill over into brutality. If that is the case, then perhaps the Nick Cave of today has bested his former demons; then again, perhaps the violence is still present, bubbling under the surface and ready to emerge at a moment's notice.
Additional Sources:
Hanson, Amy (2005). Kicking Against The Pricks: An Armchair Guide to Nick Cave. Helter Skelter Publishing. ISBN 978-1900924962
Dean, Jeremy (1995). Hellfire: Life According To Nick Cave. DUNHAM BUSH INC. ASIN: B000SNOY6K
