Nick Cave and Kylie

[Primula]

If anybody is familiar with their duet “Where the Wild Roses Grow”, and knows a bit about this fellow: What was his fascination with Kylie exactly? I’ve read a number of interviews but he never gives a straight answer. I’m not expecting to truly know, because, well, that’s unreasonable, but there was obviously more than a duet of the musical persuasion…

Urban myths welcome. Grin

‘Primula’

[LolaCocaCola]

Welcome ~ and I love that song!

But I don’t know anything about their ‘relationship’ if indeed they even had one.

[Dryga_Yes]

I happened to catch some interview with Kylie where she talked about this song, and how she hadn’t even heard of him before they made the song.

[Primula]

http://www.nick-cave.com/interviews/interviews/interview_1995_murder_he_said.shtml

That’s what my further reading turned up–and question is still raised in my mind. Hmm…

Thanks, by the by. Had nearly given up on this thread.

‘Primula’

[fizgig]

The only connection I know of is that they’re both Australian. He was rumored, however, to have had an affair with P.J. Harvey, leading to the breakup of his marriage.

Very timely, I’m listening to his latest album as I type this.

[fizgig]

I meant to say P.J. Harvey, who he did the duet Henry Lee with.

[Alma]

I don’t know of any rumor regarding a physical relationship between them, but if you listen to Nick Cave’s Two Lectures, the first track The Secret Life Of The Love Song, he talks about Kylie a little bit. It’s easy to guess that his admiration for her comes from the incongruous character of some of her music.

He says in that section:

But within the world of modern pop music, a world that deals obstensibly with the love song, true sorrow is just not welcome. Of course there are exceptions, and occasionally a song comes along that hides behind its disposable plastic beat–a love lyric of truly devastating proportions. “Better the devil you know”, written by the hit makers Stock, Akin, and Waterman, and sung by the Australian pop sensation Kylie Minogue, is such a song. The disguising of the terror of love in a piece of mindless innocuous pop music is an intriguing concept. “Better the devil you know” is one of pop music’s most violent and distressing love lyrics.

Say you won’t leave me no more
I’ll take you back again
No more excuses, no no
Cause I’ve heard them all before
A hundred times or more
I’ll forgive and forget
If you say you’ll never go
But it’s true what they say
It’s better the devil you know
<snip>
I’ll be here every day
Waitin’ for your love to show
‘Cause it’s true what they say
It’s better the devil you know
I’ll take you back
I’ll take you back again

When Kylie Minogue sings these words there is an innocence to her voice that makes the horror of this chilling lyric all the more compelling. The idea presented within this song, dark and sinister and sad–that love relationships are by nature abusive and this abuse, be it physical or psychological, is welcomed and encouraged–shows how even the most seemingly harmless love songs has the potential to hide terrible human truths. Like Prometheus chained to his rock, so that the eagle can eat his liver night after night, Kylie becomes love’s sacrificial lamb, bleating an earnest invitation to the drooling ravenous wolf, that he may devour her time and time again, all to a groovy techno beat. “I’ll take you back, I’ll take you back again” indeed.

It’s a fantastic album if you want insight into his artistry. It’s also a little creepy, but in a very good way.

[reprise]

“creepy” is Nick Cave singing Simon and Garfunkel songs…

[BalmainBoy]

Kylie went through a goth period, when she was dating Michael Hutchence, which really was to separate her from her past as an actress on the TV soapie Neighbours, beloved of the teen set in Australia and UK - do you believe there are British tourists that specifically travel to Melbourne just to see the outsides of the houses where the series is set?

Producing a pop video of ‘floating dead body with snake slithering over it’ was another step in her recreation - grunge, then pop, then gay icon diva.

[gex_gex]

While the relationship was obviously beneficial for Kylie, it is still surprising that Nick Cave would play a part in her market repositioning.

[Primula]

Agreed, gexgex. That’s basically what drew me to read up about that. I’m marginally well-versed in Nick Cave trivia, but far from an expert and well, Kylie? I’d like to believe that he only did it because Michael Hutchence asked him to, but shrugs. Eh, whatever.

‘Primula’

[Alma]

I don’t see Nick Cave being much concerned with marketing. Just me, maybe.