The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey (all from Australia), guitarist George Vjestica (United Kingdom), keyboardist/percussionist Toby Dammit (United States) and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos (United States). The band has released sixteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours, and has been considered "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward".
The band was founded in 1983 following the demise of Cave and Harvey's former group the Birthday Party, the members of which met at a boarding school in Victoria. By the release of their fifth studio album Tender Prey in 1988, they shifted from post-punk towards an experimental alternative rock sound, later incorporating various influences throughout their career. For example, the 2008 album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! and the side-project Grinderman were strongly influenced by garage rock. Synthesizers and minimal guitar work feature prominently on Push the Sky Away (2013), recorded after Harvey's departure from the band in 2009.
The project that would later evolve into Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds began following the demise of The Birthday Party in August 1983. Both Cave and Harvey were members of the Birthday Party, along with guitarist Rowland S. Howard and bassist Tracy Pew. During the recording sessions of the Birthday Party's scheduled EPs Mutiny/The Bad Seed, internal disputes developed in the band. The difference in Cave and Howard's approach to songwriting was a major factor, as Cave explained in an interview with On The Street: "the main reason why The Birthday Party broke up was that the sort of songs that I was writing and the sort of songs that Rowland was writing were just totally at odds with each other." Following the departure of Harvey, they officially disbanded. Cave also said that "it probably would have gone on longer, but Mick has the ability to judge things much more clearly than the rest of us."[8]
Cave and guitarist Kid Congo Powers during the band's 1986 tour.
An embryonic version of what would later become Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds was formed in the Birthday Party's then-home of London in September 1983, with Cave, Harvey (acting primarily as drummer), Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist Bargeld, Magazine bassist Barry Adamson, and Jim G. Thirlwell. The band was initially formed as a backing band for Cave's intended solo project Man Or Myth?, which had been approved by the record label Mute Records. During September and October 1983, they recorded material with producer Flood,[9] although the sessions were cut short due to Cave's touring with the Immaculate Consumptive, another project formed with Thirlwell, Lydia Lunch and Marc Almond.[10] In December 1983 Cave returned to Melbourne, Australia, where he formed a temporary line-up of his backing band, due to Bargeld's absence, that included Pew and guitarist Hugo Race. The band performed their first live show at Seaview in St. Kilda on 31 December 1983.
Following a short Australian tour, and during a period when they were without management, Cave and his band returned to London. Cave, Harvey, Bargeld, Race and Adamson formed the project's first consistent line-up, while Cave's longtime girlfriend Anita Lane was credited as a lyricist on the band's debut album.[citation needed] The group, which up to this time had been nameless, adopted the moniker Nick Cave and the Cavemen, which they used for the first six months of their career. However, they were later renamed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in May 1984, in reference to the final Birthday Party EP The Bad Seed.[citation needed] They began recording sessions for their debut album in March 1984 at London's Trident Studios and these sessions, together with the abandoned Man Or Myth? sessions from September–October 1983 that were recorded at The Garden studios, formed the album From Her to Eternity, released on Mute Records in 1984.
Get Ready for Love
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Praise Him!
Get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Praise Him!
Get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Get ready!
Well, most of all nothing much
And God rides high up in the ordinary sky
Until we find ourselves at our most distracted
And the miracle that was promised
Creeps quietly by
Calling every boy and girl
Calling all around the world
Calling every boy and girl
And I'm calling 'round the world
Get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Get ready! (Praise Him!)
Get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Praise Him!
The mighty wave their hankies from the
High-windowed palace
Sending grief and joy down in supportable doses
And we search high and low without
Mercy or malice
While the gate to the Kingdom swings
Shut and closes
Calling every boy and girl
Calling all around the world
Calling every boy and girl
Calling 'round the world
Praise Him 'til you've gotten
What you're praising Him for
Praise Him 'til you've gotten
What you're praising Him for
Then praise Him a little bit more
Yeah, praise Him a little bit more
Praise Him 'til you've gotten
What you're praising Him for
Praise Him 'til you've gotten
What you're praising Him for
Praise Him a little bit more
Yeah, praise Him a little bit more
Get ready for love!
Praise Him!
Get ready for love!
Get ready!
I searched the seven seas and I looked
Under the carpet
I browsed through the brochures
That govern the skies
Then I was just hanging around
Doing nothing I looked up to see
His face burned in the retina of your eyes
Calling every boy and girl
Calling all around the world
Calling every boy and girl
Calling 'round the world
Get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Yeah praise Him! (Get ready, get ready)
Yeah get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Praise Him! (Praise him)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' song "Get Ready For Love" is a philosophical rumination on the nature of God, love, and the human experience. The song begins with a call to "get ready for love" and to "praise him," with the "him" presumably referring to God. Cave then observes that "nothing much ever really happens," and that God seems distant and inaccessible, "riding high up in the ordinary sky." It is only when we are distracted that the "miracle that was promised" creeps quietly by. The song then takes on a more apocalyptic tone, with the mighty waving their hankies from high-windowed palaces and sending joy and grief down in supportable doses. The gate to the Kingdom swings shut and closes, leaving us to search high and low without mercy or malice. Throughout it all, the call to "get ready for love" and to "praise him" continues, an exhortation to keep faith even in the face of despair and uncertainty.
Line by Line Meaning
Get ready for love!
Prepare for love to come into your life.
Praise Him!
Acknowledge and give thanks to God.
Get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Get ready for love to come into your life by preparing yourself both mentally and physically.
Well, most of all nothing much
Ever really happens
And God rides high up in the ordinary sky
Until we find ourselves at our most distracted
And the miracle that was promised
Creeps quietly by
Most of our lives are uneventful and God remains in the background. However, we often miss the miracles that happen right under our noses because we're too distracted.
Calling every boy and girl
Calling all around the world
Calling every boy and girl
And I'm calling 'round the world
Urging everyone in the world, regardless of gender, to be open to love and to be ready for it.
The mighty wave their hankies from the
High-windowed palace
Sending grief and joy down in supportable doses
And we search high and low without
Mercy or malice
While the gate to the Kingdom swings
Shut and closes
While the powerful elite wave from their luxurious homes, the rest of us experience life's ups and downs. We search for happiness tirelessly but may never find it if we don't approach it with kindness and compassion. Meanwhile, heaven's gate may shut right before our eyes.
Praise Him 'til you've gotten
What you're praising Him for
Continue giving thanks to God until you receive what you're asking for.
Then praise Him a little bit more
Yeah, praise Him a little bit more
Express gratitude to God beyond what is necessary or expected.
I searched the seven seas and I looked
Under the carpet
I browsed through the brochures
That govern the skies
Then I was just hanging around
Doing nothing I looked up to see
His face burned in the retina of your eyes
Despite searching far and wide for signs of God, sometimes they can be found in the most unexpected places, like in someone else's eyes.
Get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Yeah praise Him! (Get ready, get ready)
Yeah get ready for love! (Get ready, get ready)
Praise Him! (Praise Him)
Reinforcing the importance of being mentally and emotionally prepared for love while continuing to express gratitude to God.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Mute Song Limited
Written by: James A Sclavunos, Martyn Casey, Nicholas Edward Cave, Warren Ellis
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Rik Parmentier
For me, this one is still one of his very very best - it's just awesome. [How more awesome can someone get to be?]
Blackwing Valley
So glad I saw this concert around 2005. When the Bad Seeds still played fast and loud. Conway Savage and Mick Harvey. Killer back up singers.
Velox404
They open gig with this beauty just yesterday xD
TheVideo Commenter
@Velox404 just yesterday also :)
CzarryT
The bad seeds continue to be one of the most energetic and immense live acts i've ever seen (source: saw them in 2018 and then again in 2022).
Sveta Vvv
Back-vocal girls it's super ! Superpowers
Blinky
My younger sister and her husband took me to see this lineup at Festival Hall for my 40th in 2000,utterly brilliant
katfan57
those are the most amazing backup singers I've ever seen anywhere onto that's what it I can hang with Nick Cave andnot miss a beat !! they are the best
Daniel Warren
So glad I got to see this live. 😍
Rupert Bruce
Outstanding all round!