Nick Cave – Idiot Prayer
Updated: Nov 16, 2020
Nick Cave alone at Alexandra Palace
A friend brought Nick Cave to my attention year’s ago. Cave’s swoon-inducing lyrics, melancholic delivery and tragically romantic aesthetic made him an immediate favourite. If ever I want to be swept away by dark scented hair tumbling over pale shoulders and the most gloriously evocative love stories, well … I turn to Nick Cave. Sitting through a performance is like having your soul seduced right out of your body to run bare-foot and wild in some lush gothic field under a pagan moon.. (Cave’s 'non-interventionist God' is definitely not a Christian one:)
I explained all this to my young companion ... that this tall, thin, dark-suited man was a little like the Leonard Cohen of my generation – haunting lyrics delivered by a unique voice that has you swooning off into places we have all been in our dreams and touched on in our realities. On afterthought, I possibly should have added that Cave's lyrics might also be of the flamenco guitarist's tradition; where the smitten musician sings of his unrequited love, while the object of that passion swirls and spins just beyond his reach. Cave seems to always be waiting for his lover to enter his arms or lamenting that she has slipped from his embrace forever.
See Idiot Prayer, now playing in select cinemas world-wide for a short time only.
*Heartbreakingly, in 2015 Nick Cave's son jumped from a cliff after taking LSD. When you play the above trailer for Idiot Prayer this may give you insight.