How does one write a biography for an artist as phenomenal as Nick Cave? This is the question that plagued me as I sought to write a decent biography for such an amazing and influential musical giant. The best method, which came to mind, was to write a brief overview of his musical ventures. So I present to you, a collection of mini-biographies outlining his career as one of the greatest musicians of all-time.
The Boys Next Door
Our story begins with a small Australian band, titled, “The Boys Next Door” made-up of a few disillusioned teens, singer Nick Cave, Guitarist and among other things Mick Harvey, Bassist Tracy Pew, and drummer Phil Calvert. As the Punk-Era’s wide influence began to reach even the farthest corners of the globe, the Boys Next Door realized that Punk was the best way to express their reckless and malevolent thoughts and feelings. Their performances where some what of a legend in Australia, their stage performance brimming with chaotic energy and a musical style that matched. As the fledgling band became better known amongst the Australian masses, and an independent recorded label took interest in The Boys, and later came to produce their albums.
The small Aussie band only created one album, “Door, Door.” During the recording time, Rowland S. Howard joined the flourishing band as their second guitarist, and also the writer of the album’s highlight, “Shivers.” But as their style changed, the band decided to change as well, leaving Australia in search of fame and fortune, the Boys Next Door headed for England which would lead to new opportunities and a shifting of titles to better accommodate their shifting styles and thus came the, “The Birthday Party.”
The Birthday Party
As the Aussie band arrived in Britain, they would soon come to discover that the Punk scene was slowly giving in to new ground-breaking acts and they. Along with other bands were on the road to redefining the music scene. As the streets began to hear less and less of the Anarchic stylings of Punk new styles of music of music would began to gain momentum, bands like Siouxsie and The Banshees, and The Cure will fill England with unsettling lyrics and melodies, emphasizing bleak and foreboding images of life and death. It looked like the dark streets of London would be a welcoming place for The Birthday Party.
The Birthday Party, become one of the darkest Post-Punk/Goth-Rock bands to emerge in the 80’s and lead singer Nick Cave never sounded better, with brooding soundscapes, and lamentations of lost love, overwhelming violence, and all the little unsettling things that one might associate with Goth-Rock. The darkening style of The Birthday party would often swing back and forth from bleak dirges and loud, crackling bombardments of guitar, bass, and drums.
Their first album under the new alias, was titled, “Prayer of Fire” the album was a hit, and generated a wave of new followers in both the U.K. and U.S. In an attempt to perhaps ride the popularity of their first album, the Birthday Party quickly began recording another album; however production was slowed when Bassist Tracy Pew was jailed for drunken driving. Lucky a few other musicians lent a hand to fill the spot of the incarcerated bassist, ex-Magazine band member, Barry Adamson, Harry Howard, and Chris Walsh. The album, “Junkyard” was released a year after its predecessor, “Prayers on Fire.”
Perhaps England lost its sparkle to the Birthday Party or perhaps it was just time for a scenery change for whatever reason, the band soon relocated again, this time to Germany, but not before firing drummer Phil Calvert. Once in Germany, the band began collaborating with other developing Post-Punk bands. Then, suddenly in an unexpected fashion The Birthday Party broke up in 1983. But that would not be the end of the road for Nick Cave.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
After their sudden break up, Nick Cave began a solo Career. But eventually formed The Bad Seeds which was comprised of Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party), Barry Adamson (Magazine), and Blixa Bargeld (Einsturzende Neubauten.) With The Bad Seeds, Nick continued his distraught artistry. This final incarnation of Nick Cave’s ego was probably his most successful musical venture. His first album with the Bad Seeds was released in 1984, entitled “From Her to Eternity,” a specific highlight of the album being a cover of the song, “In the Ghetto” originally by Elvis Presley. His following album “Kicking against the Pricks” would rise to number one in the U.K. independent charts, the album being a collection of covers.
Before and after his (in my opinion greatest work) next album “Tender Prey” which featured Cramps Guitarist Kid Congo Powers, Nick Cave appeared in two films “Wings of Desire” (1987) and “Ghosts...of the Civil Dead” (1989) as well as published two books, “King Ink,” (1988) “And the Ass Saw the Angel” (1989). His following album, “The Good Son” was not very well acclaimed, but its sound being on the mellow side was a unique piece of Cave work.
“Murder Ballads” his most commercially successful album was released in 1996, as its name suggests the album was a collection of songs written by Cave and his Bad Seeds about murders and their murderers. The album was of a very perverse and malevolent nature, so of course, it sold magnificently.
Five more albums would be released over the following years, “The Boatman’s Call,” “Secret Life of a Love Song,” “No More Shall We Part” and his latest work, “Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus.”
Interestingly enough, the dual-disc “Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus” contains two CDs completely different in sound and nature, the set is a fine example of the creativity and genius of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, despite the departure of Blixa Bargeld a huge creative source for the band.
Nick Cave, an enduring musical legend has created countless masterpieces, in many forms, in many different sounds. His vision has gone through incarnation after incarnation, spanning over 22 years, and after that long of a career who knows where Nick Cave will take us next.
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