Comments on: Friday Song Lyric: Nick Cave

By: ‘Into My Arms, O Lord’ | All Things Seen and Unseen

‘Into My Arms, O Lord’ | All Things Seen and Unseen — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 13:15:36 +0000

[…] I just came across a beautiful post from Sean Carroll at Cosmic Variance: the lyrics and video of a great song by Nick Cave. […]

By: Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer Ouellette — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:57:57 +0000

For the record, “Songbird” bores me to tears. I vastly prefer the Cave piece…

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:26:06 +0000

Jimbo, I’ll have to respectfully disagree. And choosing Fleetwood Mac as a favorable comparison to Nick Cave isn’t helping your case any.

More substantively: sure, Cave isn’t an especially talented singer, nor a great pianist. But he’s a very good songwriter, an excellent performer, and a consistently intelligent, imaginative, and provocative lyricist. Into My Arms is a spare lyric, but in a very few straightforward words he manages to subtly pinpoint an expression of sympathy with the emotional weight of his lover’s religious beliefs, without accepting their metaphysical prerequisites. That’s the kind of nuance which was unavailable to Christine McVie at the height of her powers.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:52:59 +0000

Sean,
Usually your diverse tastes which you share with the public here, are impeccable, and I really dig your GR book, your blogging, & share your philo of sci.atheism….
But, I’m also a musician, and a songwriter, for several decades now, and I can tell you that song has gotta be THE musical `bottom of the barrel’…The guy cannot sing, the lyrix are unsophisticated philosophical whining, devoid of wit, moxie, or hipness…Now if you want a piano-accompanied love song for your girl, play her Christine McVie’s `SongBird’ from the FleetwoodMac DVD `The Dance’, and she’ll melt in your arms…Trust me.

By: Julianne

Julianne — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:30:31 +0000

My bad — I had decided it was on “From Her to Eternity” for some reason. Hadn’t listened to either album in far too long.

Sadly, my encyclopedic knowledge of music has apparently been replaced by all the lyrics for “Wheels on the Bus”.

By: Rien

Rien — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:54:35 +0000

I thought it was for PJ Harvey…

By: James

James — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:24:53 +0000

I’m fairly sure this song was NOT written for Anita Lane. They were an item in the 80s and this song dates from ‘95-’96. I had always assumed he wrote it for the lovely Susie Bick (since they were married around that time).

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 02:57:47 +0000

I think I liked Nick Cave more back when he sang about stuff like anally raping Billy in Stagger Lee.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 02:11:11 +0000

That would be me, yep. No time to enjoy the town, I’m afraid; I’m just zipping in to do my thing in between talks at NSF and Caltech. Glamorous jet-setting lifestyle, &c.

By: mollishka

mollishka — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 23:52:55 +0000

… Interesting … the lyrics seem to be just very sweet, but the video is just so sad ….