so i'm minding my own business and then th—
i'm supposed to be normal about this??
I stepped into an avalanche
It covered up my soul
When I am not this hunchback that you see
I sleep beneath the golden hill
You, who wish to conquer pain
You, must learn, learn to serve me well
i'm just taking down the garbage, you know, and i've been listening to a podcast of two guys systematically go through the nick cave discography, you know, i figured it would be fun and a nice frame for me to listen to some of the albums i'm less familiar with, an—
You strike my side by accident
As you go down to your goal
This cripple here that you clothe and feed
Is neither starved nor cold
He does not ask for your company
Not at the centre, the centre of the world
"from her to eternity" sure feels different, "raw but polished" as they describe it, yeah that makes sense. ok, garbage bags ready, elevator coming.
And I am on a pedestal
You did not raise me there
Your laws do not compel me now
To kneel grotesque and bare
I, myself, am the pedestal
For this ugly hump at which you stare
You who wish to conquer pain
You must learn what makes me kind
The crumbs of love that you offer me
Are the crumbs I’ve left behind
Your pain is no credential here
It’s just a shadow of my wound
I have begun to ask for you
I, who have no greed
I have begun to long for you
I, who have no need
You say you’ve gone away from me
But I can feel you when you breathe
they're making an interesting point about obsession, about how it's a very obsessive song in a way, and how it colors everyth—
Do not dress in those rags for me
I know you are not poor
And do not love me quite so fiercely now
When you know that you are not sure
It is your turn, my beloved one
It is your flesh that I wear
hold on what did you just say
go back. repeat that please.
Sean: "The crumbs of love you offer me are the crumbs I left behind." It's just this… It's this, fuck you. Like, you're trying to give me something. You found me down here. You don't know who I am. I'm you. I'm the future if you keep pursuing this. And fuck you for everything that you've found so far because I already found it.
S: You're a shadow. You're a shadow of what I am. It's your turn. And that's the transference. "It's your flesh I wear." It's the transference at the end that this, whatever you're finding at the end, this, you know, deformed entity that you found on your pursuit. They're not there to help you. They're not there to, you know, assist you, not be by your side or guide you. They're there to become you at the end. And whatever body they're wearing at that time is not their body. They don't have a body. They're formless. And that's the creepiest part at the end when, you know, it's your turn. "It's your flesh that I wear." You're submitting yourself to this idea so far beyond actual humanity that you just become something entirely else. You become something twisted and deformed and yourself become buried under, again, your chosen avalanche and that. […] Andrew, what do you think?
A: Yeah, I, as someone who tends to prefer the ambiguity and, you know, non-referential nature of sort of that reading, I think it is important to kind of look at it in a religious context, because I think there is some evidence of that in the text. [...] You know, "I sleep beneath the golden hill". This is something that I kind of caught, and I've seen people discussing it and picking up on this online. That seems to be a possible reference to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. You know, it's a holy place, the golden roof. To me, the most important thing about that line is that it possibly places the speaker as the sort of the voice of God, the embodiment of God or a God. You know, "you who wish to conquer pain, you must learn to serve me well". That feels like not the most malicious thing in this song, but it does feel like sort of an order from or a declarative statement from God.
S: Well, a lot of Christianity is the pursuit of conquering pain, right? Afterlife, you know, the great deal of pain that Christ went through to solve the pain of the world or to absolve the pain of the world.
A: Yeah, and knowing, you know, obviously less [Leonard] Cohen than Cave, but knowing Cave and Cohen's sort of tendencies, you know, they do have a penchant for reference and definitely religious iconography and reference.
and i'm just supposed to live like this now?
you come to me like this, and it's—
They're not there to help you. They're not there to, you know, assist you, not be by your side or guide you. They're there to become you at the end. And whatever body they're wearing at that time is not their body. They don't have a body. They're formless.
you *fuck*. come here and talk to me like a person. none of this semaphoric bullshit where you just ambush me and hit me across the face with that staff, i don't even care how many snakes it had this time, come back here and—