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.
The Sorrowful Wife
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Our friends awarded her courage with gifts
Now as the nights grow longer and the season shifts
I look to my sorrowful wife
Who is quietly tending her flowers
Who is quietly tending her
The water is high on the beckoning river
And the cry of the birds sends a terrible shiver
Through me and my sorrowful wife
Who is shifting the furniture around
Who is shifting the furniture around
Now we sit beneath the knotted Yew
And the bluebells bob up around our shoes
The task of remembering the telltale clues
Goes to my sorrowful wife
Who is counting the days on her fingers
Who is counting the days on her
Come on and help me baby
Come on now
Come on and help me baby
I was blind
The grass here grows long and high
Twists right up to the sky
White clouds roll on by
Come on now and help me babe
I was blind
I was a fool babe
I was blind
A loose wind last night blew down
Black trees bent to the ground
Their blossoms made such a sound
That I could not even hear myself think babe
I was blind
I was a fool babe
I was a blind fool, babe
I was a fool babe
I was blind babe
I was a fool babe
I was a blind fool, babe
I was a fool
Blind babe
Blind babe
Blind babe
The Sorrowful Wife by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is a haunting and melancholic song that tells the story of a man looking to his wife to help him through a difficult time. The opening lines describe their wedding day, which happened to coincide with a solar eclipse. The couple's friends applauded the wife's bravery, but from the very beginning of the song there is a sense of foreboding and unease that is palpable. As the seasons shift and the nights grow longer, the wife becomes increasingly withdrawn and sad. She buries herself in her gardening, moving furniture around the house, and counting the days on her fingers. The husband, in turn, becomes more and more aware of his own shortcomings and failures. He made a promise to his wife that he couldn't keep, and the cry of birds in the background sends a shiver down his spine.
The chorus of the song is a call-and-response between the husband and wife, with the former admitting his blindness and foolishness, and asking the latter for help. The final verse is perhaps the most striking, with the husband describing a loose wind blowing down black trees and causing the blossoms to make such a sound that he couldn't even hear himself think. The repetition of "I was a fool, babe" and "blind babe" underscores the sense of regret and pain that runs throughout the entire song.
Overall, The Sorrowful Wife is a deeply evocative and poignant work that captures the essence of human relationships, both the joy and the heartbreak.
Line by Line Meaning
I married my wife on the day of the eclipse
On the day of the eclipse, I married my wife
Our friends awarded her courage with gifts
Our friends gave my wife gifts to award her courage
Now as the nights grow longer and the season shifts
As the nights grow longer and the season changes
I look to my sorrowful wife
I see my wife who is full of sorrow
Who is quietly tending her flowers
My wife is taking care of her flowers quietly
The water is high on the beckoning river
The river is high and inviting
I made her a promise I could not deliver
I promised her something I couldn't fulfill
And the cry of the birds sends a terrible shiver
The bird's cry sends a terrible shiver down my spine
Through me and my sorrowful wife
We both feel this way
Who is shifting the furniture around
My wife is moving the furniture around
Now we sit beneath the knotted Yew
We are sitting under a knotted Yew tree
And the bluebells bob up around our shoes
Bluebells are blooming around us and at our feet
The task of remembering the telltale clues
My wife is responsible for recalling important information
Goes to my sorrowful wife
My wife is the one responsible
Who is counting the days on her fingers
She is counting the number of days on her fingers
Come on and help me baby
Please help me
I was blind
I didn't see clearly
The grass here grows long and high
The grass here is long and tall
Twists right up to the sky
It twists and grows tall
White clouds roll on by
The white clouds keep moving
A loose wind last night blew down
Last night, the wind was strong and knocked things down
Black trees bent to the ground
The trees were bent over by the wind
Their blossoms made such a sound
The trees made a sound with their blossoms falling
That I could not even hear myself think babe
It was so loud that I couldn't even think
I was a fool babe
I made a mistake
Blind babe
I couldn't see what was happening
Blind babe
I was blind
Blind babe
I couldn't see
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Nicholas Cave
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind