A Short History of Nick Cave: New Wave and The Boys Next Door

Nick Cave and Roland Howard were songwriting partners in a band called The Boys Next Door. The new wave band was formed from the ashes of Crime And The City Solution in Melbourne, Australia in 1976. They were influenced by the indie pioneers Radio Birdman and experimental post-punk band the Pop Group as well as the Australian band Laughing Clowns. Their live shows were inspired by the Stooges and the Doors. The rest of the band comprised of multi-talented Mick Harvey, bassist Tracy Pew and drummer Phil Calvert. After a short time The Boys Next Door moved to London and changed their name to the Birthday Party.

The Birthday Party recorded their debut album on a trip back to Australia in 1980. They soon moved back to London again after their enthusiastic onstage behavior had led to being banned from various venues. They fitted in visits to scenester cities like Berlin and produced music that was almost without constraint and was almost always over the top. Live the Birthday Party were, at first, fast, direct, confrontational and brutal. Some of their early recordings managed to capture the essence of their live sound via a Stooges blueprint for rock structure and lots of feedback. Horns and organ were thrown into the mix, over which Nick Cave wailed and threatened, screamed and sermonized.

The Birthday Party began falling apart in 1983 though. The inevitable rock trappings had taken their toll and Cave had a new relationship with Einsturzende Neubauten's Blixa Bargeld. They released two EP's, 'The Bad Seed' and 'Mutiny', which were not as claustrophobic or chaotic as previous outings. They provide evidence of Cave's development as a lyricist. His words were becoming more structured and leant heavily on classical imagery. Although this period may have been the birth of The Bad Seeds as a band many of the songs are still obviously the Birthday Party. There's a lot of punk attitude, pounding drums and dark humor to be heard.

The first Bad Seeds recording was made in 1984 with 'From Her To Eternity'. It features a more experimental approach to music and Cave's emotional rollercoaster vocals. The record is also notable for the title track where Cave sing 'then ya know that lil girl would just have to go'. This ambiguous line was the first of many songs which hinted at murder and culminated in Nick Cave's 1996 album 'Murder Ballads'. The albums in between feature many murders, or death by slow decay, or whole town's perishing, or similar mythically based acts of puritanism, revenge, temptation and moral bankruptcy. They add up to some of the most vividly drawn images in all of rock's long and distinguished history.

Nick Cave's best recordings came later in his career. His songs becoming more rounded and his arrangements more suited to his poetic verses. More recent tracks lean heavily on the singer's personality and are based around his own piano or organ playing, with the Bad Seeds augmenting the songs with texture and color, so as to sure up the lyrical subject matter. The 1998 album 'The Boatman's Call' was almost a Cave solo album. It is still intense but includes some out and out love songs like 'Into My Arms'. The album followed a collaboration with PJ Harvey and suggests his muse in titles like 'Black Hair' and 'West Country Girl'. The music is more sparse than previous albums and the focus is based around the lyrics.

2001's 'No More Shall We Part' has Cave resembling Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry and Neil Diamond in equal measure, but he still manages to retain his own personality throughout. The songs have complicated arrangements, partly down to the work of the Dirty Three's Mick Turner and Warren Ellis. All this creates the perfect backdrop for Cave's increasingly accomplished lyrical dynamics. It features the song 'God Is In The House' and if you have never really listened to Nick Cave and had to choose just one track then this should be it. It is superbly realized and a lyrical masterpiece. It's warming to think that the music world still has room for maverick artists like Cave, someone who is so obviously a unique talent and a lyrical giant amongst many, many opportunists.