In Praise of Saint Nick

It’s no secret to those of you who know me how much I love Nick Cave- an important influence and a vital source of creative inspiration. His music, films, writing, indeed his entire persona is a dark and essential blueprint for a life lived with savage sweetness on the other side of the tracks.

He is cantankerous but compassionate, a tender mystic, and a punk devil-pimp who hates press interviews and has no patience for small talk. Saint Nick is a black and true religion that millions, including me, follow. I turn to his wounded spirituality and glowing gospel when conventional wisdom fails, which is every day.

I’ve had the good fortune of seeing Nick Cave in concert many times and meeting him on a couple of occasions. He gave me his last cigarette at Sundance while scowling at my audacity, and later, despite his famous reticence, we spoke about music, and of all things, clothes. I was one of a handful of people who listened to him perform five of his most haunting tunes on piano.

When an artist is so important to your life, you suffer when he does. Nick Cave lost his 15 year-old son last year when he fell of a cliff apparently after taking acid for the first time. I can only imagine what that feels like and I too bled for him in song. He was recording his latest album “Skeleton Tree” when the tragedy happened and decided to film “One More Time With Feeling”, an accompanying documentary, to avoid discussing with press the devastating context for this redemptive new music. The film has great reviews but the music is mournful and brilliant- a masterclass in sublimation of sorrow through art.

Watch the video for “Jesus Alone” below and experience an artist in full and painful bloom.

"You’re a young man waking
Covered in blood that is not yours
You’re a woman in a yellow dress
Surrounded by a charm of hummingbirds
You’re a young girl full of forbidden energy
Flickering in the gloom
You’re a drug addict lying on your back
In a Tijuana hotel room

With my voice
I am calling you"