Nick Cave defends controversial lyric in ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’
In the latest edition of The Red Hand Files, Nick Cave has defended the opening lyric to ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’.
The track appears on Cave’s most recent album, Wild God, with The Bad Seeds. ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’ was written as a tribute to the late Anita Lane, Cave’s former romantic partner and bandmate in The Birthday Party, who died in 2021.
At the beginning of the song, the Australian sings, “She rises in advance of her panties”. Now, he’s responded to a complaint from a fan who wrote to him to share that “the line leaves me hitting the skip button” and claimed, “I’ve never had a single line pause an album like that before”. He also responded to another fan who revealed they wondered how Cave’s wife, Susie, felt about the track.
Cave said that he’d received correspondence from many others who felt similarly and also highlighted a review of the album that singled out the lyric as the worst of his career. Nevertheless, despite the complaints, Cave passionately believes in the line, stating, “But as its creator I feel the need to defend it – not just out of some paternal urge, but because I have always thought the line was rather good. Truthfully, when I wrote the first verse of ‘O Wow O Wow‘, I was so pleased, that I took the rest of the day off!”
The Bad Seeds leader then spoke proudly about the full verse, adding, “This simple, silly, happy verse brings Anita’s playful nature to the fore. The vocal delivery echoes the clumsy first line, which is out of time and rhythm with the track, giving the verse its sweet, goofy naivety.”
Cave continued: “For me, it recalls a time when innocent love could be such. The discomfort of the ‘panties’ line is, in a way, the point – it represents a kind of freedom or unburdening, a way to exist outside the constraints of good writing or good taste or good behaviour and become something emergent and disorderly.”
The singer-songwriter also confirmed that his wife, Susie, was by his side as he wrote ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’ which had her full blessing “because she loved Anita just as Anita loved her”. He also said: “Susie understands that many of my lyrics are attempts to keep those who have passed away at the vanguard of our being, not just as vague and shadowy ghosts but as fully embodied incantations of our love.”
Cave concluded: “Understanding Anita, as I do, I know she loves this song and is happy to be occasionally awakened and called back to us. The dead are glad to be remembered. As for the contentious first line, Neil, I think she likes it a lot.”
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