The lyric Nick Cave cites as his greatest songwriting inspiration
Duality runs through the centre of Nick Cave‘s songwriting, it’s the only way you see both sides. “Do you want to know how to write a song?“ he asks. “Songwriting is about counterpoint. Counterpoint is the key. Putting two disparate images beside each other and seeing which way the sparks fly. Like letting a small child in the same room as, I don’t know, a Mongolian psychopath or something, and just sitting back and seeing what happens. Then you send in a clown, say, on a tricycle and again you wait and you watch. And if that doesn’t do it, you shoot the clown.”
It’s a colourful image that typifies the cinematic nature of Cave’s work. However, perhaps the following quote comes closer to defining the true duality of his work: “Despite what people might think, I’m not interested in being dark all the time. I’m actually searching for some kind of light, and I’m always very happy when I can achieve that.” Nevertheless, it is interesting that there is an admission that darkness is part of the pursuit all the same.
This has made Cave’s songwriting a more encapsulating look at the human comedy of life. For sure, grotesque caricatures with crimson appendages might parade around the bulk of it, but these are mere comic metaphors for the underbelly of society which he views with mercy and empathy, gaining greater understanding in the search for light.
Thus, it seems typically considered of Cave that when an HMV campaign asked him to pick the lyric that serves as his inspiration, he cited the following from Van Morrison’s 174 track ‘Who Was That Masked Man’ from his album Veedon Fleece: “And no matter what they tell you, there’s good and evil in everyone.“
In a wider sense, Van Morrison has always been a favourite of Cave’s with ‘T.B. Sheets’ also being one of the songs that he holds dearest. Morrison’s sense of profundity is also palpable in Cave’s work. There is a desire to reach a sense of exultancy and translate a feeling that escapes the humdrum of society’s sedate veneer. To do this in a meaningful way, at their best, they have loaded their work with light and dark / good and evil.
As Cave has recently proclaimed in his Red Hand Files: “Mercy is a value that should be at the heart of any functioning and tolerant society. Mercy ultimately acknowledges that we are all imperfect and, in doing so, allows us the oxygen to breathe — to feel protected within a society, through our mutual fallibility. Without mercy a society loses its soul, and devours itself.“
In other words: “And no matter what they tell you, there’s good and evil in everyone.“
