# O'Malley's Bar|Nick Cave|Bloody Brilliant **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494 "2006-04-27T18:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/21 "2006-04-28T08:36:47Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] Second the PJ Harvey and Pogues recommendations. In the same vein, check out other projects by members (or former members) of the Bad Seeds. Mick Harvey does great soundtrack work, as does Barry Adamson (_Gas, Food, Lodging_ being one I like, but also did David Lynch stuff.) Harvey was also great with\*\* Crime and the City Solution\*\*, and of course Blixa Bargeld’s **Einsturzende Neubauten** , while nothing like the Bad Seeds stuff, is great in its own right. [/QUOTE] Barry Adamson has a spookily excellent CD, **The Murky World Of Barry Adamson** : stridently diseased big-band jazz laced with nasty samples of found dialogue, as well as covers like “The Man With The Golden Arm”. Great stuff, but not for late-night listening alone. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/22 "2006-04-28T16:09:11Z")
To sort of tie this wonderful thread into the interesting “Mack the Knife” thread also going on, check out this very interesting rendition of Nick doing “Mack the Knife”: ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nJerLbGbvjc/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/nJerLbGbvjc?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/23 "2006-04-28T21:27:23Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur Catta] Am I the only one who thinks the ‘narrator’ of the “Song of Joy” might’ve had something to do with Joy and the girls’ demise? He quotes John Milton a bit much, doesn’t he? And the intensity of the last lines… “Do you, sir, have a room? Are you beckonin’ me in?” Well, it’s giving me chills just thinking of it. 😉 [/QUOTE] I’ve thought that as well… OR that the Narrator is telling the story to the actual killer. He’s finally tracked him down and is about to have his revenge. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/24 "2006-04-28T22:52:12Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] I’ve thought that as well… OR that the Narrator is telling the story to the actual killer. He’s finally tracked him down and is about to have his revenge. [/QUOTE] No, it’s clear that the narrator is the killer. His ironic alibi should be enough of a clue: “I was visiting a sick friend.” This is _the_ cliche phony alibi. Even if you took that at face value, he wraps up his tale with “The sun to me is dark/ and silent as the moon / do you, sir, have a room?” The killer’s signature is John Milton quotes, and the narrator has feigned ignorance of the quote from _Paradise Lost_, only to immediately follow it up with a quote from [_Samson Agonistes_](http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/samson.html): > [@](#): > > O first created Beam, and thou great Word, > Let there be light, and light was over all; > Why am I thus bereav’d thy prime decree? > The Sun to me is dark > And silent as the Moon, > When she deserts the night > Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/25 "2006-04-28T23:12:04Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Mudd] No, it’s clear that the narrator is the killer. His ironic alibi should be enough of a clue: “I was visiting a sick friend.” This is _the_ cliche phony alibi. Even if you took that at face value, he wraps up his tale with “The sun to me is dark/ and silent as the moon / do you, sir, have a room?” The killer’s signature is John Milton quotes, and the narrator has feigned ignorance of the quote from _Paradise Lost_, only to immediately follow it up with a quote from [_Samson Agonistes_](http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/samson.html): [/QUOTE] Ahhh.. okay, didnt know the signifigance of the sun and moon line. I liked the idea that the narrator driven mad by the murder of his family has wandered the country and has finally found the man who killed them.. who himself is now a family man. A “sick friend” is a cliche alibi but if you take it that the narrator was actually a doctor its not preposterious. A far more telling reveal is the “lunatic eyes” line. I could see an innocent man filling in details about the murders but not that tid bit. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/26 "2006-04-29T00:10:29Z")
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive] Actually the line is “I’ll crawl over fifty good pussies just to get to one fat boy’s arsehole. I’m Stagger Lee.” [/QUOTE] Close enough. I’ve not actually listened to the song in years, and never bothered to rip it into iTunes. I suspect (and am surprised that no one has mentioned) that most Nick Cave listeners might also listen to Leonard Cohen on occasion, although the kinship is more distant than some of the other connections mentioned. If you’re unfamiliar w/ Mr. Cohen’s work, I’d suggest one of his live albums; the instrumentation on his studio work tends to be a bit sketchy, and might put a new listener off (it did for me, for many years, when I first picked up “I’m Your Man”). And I’m pleased to hear that I’m not nuts anent “Song of Joy.” When I pointed it out to my friends, they took the sick friend alibi at face value, and seemed shocked when I pointed out that he might just maybe be fibbing a little. Finally, to end this rather scattershot post: I’ve not heard any of Cave’s stuff since No More Shall We Part; has it been worth picking up? I love NMSWP, Murder Ballads, and Henry; The Boatman’s Call, on the other hand, fell rather flat for me. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/27 "2006-04-29T00:35:16Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur Catta] Finally, to end this rather scattershot post: I’ve not heard any of Cave’s stuff since No More Shall We Part; has it been worth picking up? I love NMSWP, Murder Ballads, and Henry; The Boatman’s Call, on the other hand, fell rather flat for me. [/QUOTE] Don’t bother with _Nocturama_. The _Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus_ double album is okay, though is does have a “more of the same” feel to it. I haven’t heard _The Proposition_, so can’t comment on it. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/28 "2006-04-29T04:07:59Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur Catta] I suspect (and am surprised that no one has mentioned) that most Nick Cave listeners might also listen to Leonard Cohen on occasion, although the kinship is more distant than some of the other connections mentioned. If you’re unfamiliar w/ Mr. Cohen’s work, I’d suggest one of his live albums; the instrumentation on his studio work tends to be a bit sketchy, and might put a new listener off (it did for me, for many years, when I first picked up “I’m Your Man”). [/QUOTE] Nick has said in an interview that the ‘Songs of Love And Hate’ album was the first record that when he was younger really hit him hard, and the influence of it is massive (even aside from him covering a few LC songs). That’s one record everyone into Nick should listen to. Lesser known, and probably hard to get these days, is the EP that Conway Savage of the Bad Seeds recorded around the time that he joined the band, with some members of the Seeds. Based on that record, I was spreading a rumour years ago that Nick got him into his own band to get rid of his #1 potential competition :D. Conway can also be heard singing on the b side ‘Willow Garden’. Lastly, tangentially related to The Bad Seeds, is Simon Bonney, who was the singer with Crime and The City Solution. His two solo records from the early nineties are classics of the Aussie Americana genre, and well worth searching for. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494/29 "2006-04-29T12:37:46Z")
[QUOTE=NailBunny] To sort of tie this wonderful thread into the interesting “Mack the Knife” thread also going on, check out this very interesting rendition of Nick doing “Mack the Knife”: ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nJerLbGbvjc/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/nJerLbGbvjc?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque [/QUOTE] Nice catch. Shame about the grotty quality, though: as I said in the other thread, that doco really needs a DVD release. Dunno why it hasn’t been done: with a lineup like Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, PJ Harvey, Lou Reed, David Johansen _and_ William S. Burroughs, there’s gotta be a market for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omalleys-bar-nick-cave-bloody-brilliant/354494.md?page=1)