Revisit the video for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song ‘Jubilee Street’
Australian musician Nick Cave began his career in The Boys Next Door, a post-punk outfit that eventually changed their name to The Birthday Party. Known for their dark sound, the band were highly influential in the formation of gothic rock, establishing Cave as an unforgettable frontman. His striking appearance was the perfect companion to the music, appearing vampire-like with his wild, black hair.
In 1982, the band lost momentum due to creative differences and personal issues experienced by several members. Cave told 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 [S. Howard] was writing were just totally at odds with each other.”
However, Cave and several other members of The Birthday Party regrouped to form Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, releasing their debut album, From Her to Eternity, in 1984. The record opened with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Avalanche’, only with a snarling, gothic spin. The album saw Cave lean towards more complex writing, something he would soon become renowned for.
The Bad Seeds steadily released records throughout the 1980s before releasing one of their most iconic songs, ‘Red Right Hand’ in 1994. Three years later, the Bad Seeds departed from their heavier sound for The Boatman’s Call, which was piano-based. Since then, the band have continued refining their sound to create some of the most profound and complexly-written songs of the 21st century.
One of the Bad Seeds’ most excellent records is Push The Sky Away, released in 2013. In a press release, Cave said, “If I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then Push The Sky Away is the ghost-baby in the incubator, and Warren’s loops are its tiny, trembling heart-beat.”
Track number four on Push The Sky Away is ‘Jubilee Street’, a beautiful track driven by Warren Ellis’ melancholic guitar. Cave uses a story-telling structure to depict a bleak scene where the speaker visits a prostitute named Bea. While he understands her situation (“Well, a girl’s gotta make ends meet”), he knows he “ought to practice what I preach”. The well-dressed narrator frees himself from the “ten-ton catastrophe” by the song’s end, singing, “I am alone now, I am beyond recriminations”. Whether he kills the prostitute or himself is open to interpretation; regardless, it’s a sublime song demonstrating Cave’s ability to paint a vivid picture within a few verses.
Cave teamed up with director John Hillcoat, whom he had collaborated with numerous times before, to create a music video for the song. Most notably, Cave co-wrote the screenplays for Hillcoat’s films Lawless and The Proposition, although Hillcoat also directed Cave in music videos like ‘Nick the Stripper’ by The Birthday Party.
The NSFW video features Ray Winstone as the male protagonist who visits a significantly younger prostitute, sporting a heavy look of guilt on his face. Cave roams the streets as he sings, standing by the characters as if invisible, observing the seedy goings on of Jubilee Street. The video features a few explicit shots, like a breast entering Winstone’s mouth. It’s certainly a memorable video, perfectly accompanying the sadness of the song.
Watch the video below.
