Nick Cave has defended one of his lyrics written in tribute to Anita Lane, which featured on his latest album with The Bad Seeds.
Lane was a former partner of Cave and bandmate in both The Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party. She died back in 2021, aged 61.
Cave has gone on to pay tribute to her countless times in the years since, and his latest album ‘Wild God’ also saw him pen a song in her memory titled ‘O Wow O Wow’. The track saw him recall his time with Lane and included a message the late musician left on his answering machine.
One of the lyrics featured, however, led to some listeners feeling divided as he sings: “She rises in advance of her panties”. Now, taking to his website The Red Hand Files, Cave has defended the line and explained why he wanted to include it in the song.
The conversation arose as two people wrote in on the site. One described hearing the lyric as a “wtf moment that genuinely threw me” and left him “hitting the skip button”, while the other asked what his wife Susie thinks about him recalling his fond memories with an ex.
“You may be encouraged to know that several other people have written to The Red Hand Files expressing similar discomfort at the first line of ‘O Wow O Wow’,” Cave responded, adding that an online publication recently described it as “the worst line Nick Cave has ever written”.
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“But as its creator I feel the need to defend it – not just out of some paternal urge, but because I have always thought the line was rather good. Truthfully, when I wrote the first verse of ‘O Wow O Wow‘, I was so pleased, that I took the rest of the day off,” he said, going on to recall the writing process.
“The opening verse is a recollection of my younger days with Anita – in this instance, she rises naked from our shared bed – Whereupon I declare the devotional nature of that holy spectacle [and] Anita responds with her full and famous smile,” Cave explained. “This simple, silly, happy verse brings Anita’s playful nature to the fore.”
“The vocal delivery echoes the clumsy first line, which is out of time and rhythm with the track, giving the verse its sweet, goofy naivety. For me, it recalls a time when innocent love could be such,” he added, making a nod to the “uncomfortable” nature.
“The discomfort of the “panties” line is, in a way, the point – it represents a kind of freedom or unburdening, a way to exist outside the constraints of good writing or good taste or good behaviour and become something emergent and disorderly.
“All this happiness leads to the final verse, where we see that Anita has passed away. She is watched over by her friends, who are spirits too, braiding violets through her hair and all agreeing, ‘How wonderful she was’.”
Addressing the latter question, Cave explained that Susie was with him during the writing process, and appreciated him using the song to keep the memory of Lane alive.
“As I played the song on the piano at home, Susie commented on its tender beauty. I told her it was for Anita, and Susie smiled because she loved Anita just as Anita loved her,” he wrote. “The song is not just an honouring of Anita by The Bad Seeds but also by Susie, who sat by my side as I wrote it.
“Susie understands that many of my lyrics are attempts to keep those who have passed away at the vanguard of our being, not just as vague and shadowy ghosts but as fully embodied incantations of our love.”
Concluding, Cave explained what it was like to play the track live and see the response from the audience. “I can see on the faces of the audience a communal conjuring of Anita’s spirit – and through her, all our various departed, placing them at the forefront of our collective adulation.
“Understanding Anita, as I do, I know she loves this song and is happy to be occasionally awakened and called back to us. The dead are glad to be remembered. As for the contentious first line, Neil, I think she likes it a lot.”
Following news of Lane’s death in 2021, Cave took to his website to write a moving tribute to his former partner and ex-bandmate.
“Everyone wanted to work with her but it was like trying to trap lightning in a bottle. Mick Harvey managed to coral her into the recording studio, but these precious offerings are a fraction of what she was. She was the smartest and most talented of all of us, by far,” he wrote.
Calling Lane his “best friend,” he added: “[She] loved her children more than anything. They were her pride and joy. It was both easy and terrifying to love her. Leaves a big, crying space.”
Last September he also paid tribute to her during his ‘Wild God’ tour. Speaking while on stage in Berlin, he described her as a “deeply inspiring character” and “a bright flame that all of us dark drug addicted characters would circle around.”
Lane was a pivotal member of The Birthday Party, co-writing their tracks ‘A Dead Song’, ‘Dead Joe’ and ‘Kiss Me Black’.
Following the band’s split in the early ‘80s, she went on to co-write iconic Bad Seeds songs ‘From Her To Eternity’ and ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ with her then-boyfriend Cave. Lane released a number of solo albums, including 1993’s ‘Dirty Pearl’ and 2001 album ‘Sex O’Clock’.
’Wild God’ was given a four-star review by NME, which read: “Bad Seeds records are infamously loaded with gothic doom and gloom. Of course, this ain’t a poptastic LOLfest, and still coloured with the many shades of a life so challenging and weathered.
“But never has Cave been so freewheelin’ than on the giddy ‘Frogs’, ‘Jumping for love and the opening sky above’ as ‘Kris Kristofferson walks by kicking a can in a shirt he hasn’t washed for years’. With a lust for life, the once-dark prince is letting the light in.”
Before the release, Nick Cave spoke to NME about his outlook on life, and opened up about how he thinks social media contributes towards the pessimistic outlook of younger generations.
“I think social media is a huge problem and is having a huge demoralising effect on society. Young people are losing faith in the world in general and what the world has to offer them. That’s a major problem,” he said.
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