The song Nick Cave called one of the most “seismic events” of his life
The endlessly fascinating Nick Cave rose to prominence in the late 1970s as part of The Birthday Party, while gaining a reputation for being one of the wildest figures in punk: a junkie and a man possessed each time he stepped onto the stage.
Decades later, he has settled into something closer to a sage-like role. Clean from addiction and marked by profound grief, his presence feels less wild and frantic, and more measured and reflective. He remains compelling because of his contradictions. He will revisit old beliefs, unsettle the punk world by attending the King’s coronation, or speak openly about his faith. Most of all, he fascinates because he has become so candid, something few would have predicted in his earlier years.
Before, Cave was the type of person you’d never even want to fall into conversation with after hearing his raging, violent songs; now, he’s in near constant communication with his fans as he invites them to ask him questions on his Red Hand Files, and answers them openly and vulnerably. Sometimes the questions stray far from his career, with people asking the artist for advice on life, love, grief, which finds Cave routinely reflecting on his decades of work, letting fans into his artistic world and considering his music with a bit of distance and a more critical eye.
That’s why this selection of the song that impacts him so much feels like such an interesting one. It’s not a hit, not a well-known track that still gets performed to rousing effect at his gigs, instead, Cave is still blown away by one of his side-project songs, discussing his enduring love for Grinderman’s ‘Super Heathen Child’, the deluxe version of ‘Heathen Child’, as they redid their 2010 track, evolving it into something bigger with Robert Fripp involved.
Grinderman as a whole is an era and a project that still intrigues Cave. Breaking away from the Bad Seeds for a moment, it was a side band that he, Warren Ellis and two other Bad Seed members, Martyn P Casey and Jim Sclavunos, launched away from the rest of the pack. Formed as “a way to escape the weight of The Bad Seeds”, it came at a moment where the pressure seemed to be getting to them and they needed to do something fun and more low-stakes, so the band was it.
It wasn’t, as many suspected, Cave retreading the past. “Many music critics thought that Grinderman was a return to the sound of The Birthday Party, but I never understood that. From my own perspective within the band, Grinderman was much more influenced by the British progressive rock of my youth than anything else,” he said, and Fripp, with his band King Crimson, was a major part of that.
So to have Fripp play on this extended track was a huge deal for him, and continues to be today. “‘Super Heathen Child’ continues to have an extraordinary hold over me, and contains within it a deep emotional pull because it is attached directly to my adolescence,” he said.
It holds a unique position as a bridge between his past self and his present one, thrilling both of them as when a fever dream “becomes a reality; all that deep concentrated listening I did when I was a teenager manifesting itself over 40 years later in a Fripp solo that just blows the mind”.
All culminating in one track, and one day in the studio, Cave maintains that out of everything from his long and enduring career, that moment stands out, stating, “Recording with Robert Fripp remains one of the seismic events of my life”.
