Several songs into Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’s performance in Kraków last night, I began to understand why Islam is often understood to prohibit the use of musical instruments.
I have seen him live like 30 years ago in Israel and forever fell in love
Did you read his latest book, recorded as conversation/intervew ? He tells how he wanted to be a painter/artist and how images are the first inspiration for his works (and many other things)
It made so much sense, sort if helped me to appreciate him even more
Jubilee Street, as it builds and builds and builds, never fails to move me to tears! There is something so cathartic about the entire band’s performance!
Great piece, when I think about the "performance" beit in a concert hall or at Church, it takes me back to an Art show at the the Tate (I think) called "American Sublime" which catalogued the early Landscape artists who created these magnificent portrayals of the New World.
Just as these painters created a sense of a place that was almost beyond comprehension, wuth sweeping plains, towering cliffs and framed by an ethereal light, so do you get that sense with the music.
We recently saw Cave's old colleague, Blixa Bargeld, and his band Einstuerzende Neubaten, within the first few bars there was an intense feeling of "being there" between the band's craft snd the willingness to open up to it. My next reaction was that I wanted my family with me in this experience, to share and to be in the moment.
We have since bought 4 seats for the Saturday Nick Cave show in London and we're looking forward to something special for their first ever concert.
Thank you Alistair! I think the only thing that would have made the concert better is if Bargeld had been there to sing "The Weeping Song" with Cave. But it was fantastic and I hope you and your family have a great time.
It took me years to realise that it was a duet, I've just started listening to the "Good Son" again, it's underrated and was the first Bad Seeds' album I'd bought.
He’s one of my top 2 live performances I think. Prince is the other. Both have the power to take on the form of the Great God Dionysus for a few hours.
The silk bit makes perfect sense in context because while silk might be expensive today, it was *ruinously* expensive in Muhammad's time, and also symbolic of the pan-Eurasian trade network stretching from Rome to China that was gradually collapsing. Silk was a symbol of the old order, of pagan empires, of everything both the emerging Islamic society and Dark Age Christian societies hated. The early 7th century was a time of religious fanaticism and moral panic at a level that is nearly incomprehensible today, nearly everybody in western Eurasia belonged to one of dozens of violently moralistic religions vying for supremacy. Islam, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy were just the three that ultimately won; there were many others and all of them were, by our standards, fucking nuts.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the comic book writer Kieron Gillen? His comics Phonogram and The Wicked + The Divine take the idea of music as magic and/or religion literally. Lots of similar themes explored!
Thanks!
I have seen him live like 30 years ago in Israel and forever fell in love
Did you read his latest book, recorded as conversation/intervew ? He tells how he wanted to be a painter/artist and how images are the first inspiration for his works (and many other things)
It made so much sense, sort if helped me to appreciate him even more
I didn't! I should. But I can well believe that about images. His music has a filmic quality even when it isn't on a soundtrack.
Jubilee Street, as it builds and builds and builds, never fails to move me to tears! There is something so cathartic about the entire band’s performance!
True!
Great piece, when I think about the "performance" beit in a concert hall or at Church, it takes me back to an Art show at the the Tate (I think) called "American Sublime" which catalogued the early Landscape artists who created these magnificent portrayals of the New World.
Just as these painters created a sense of a place that was almost beyond comprehension, wuth sweeping plains, towering cliffs and framed by an ethereal light, so do you get that sense with the music.
We recently saw Cave's old colleague, Blixa Bargeld, and his band Einstuerzende Neubaten, within the first few bars there was an intense feeling of "being there" between the band's craft snd the willingness to open up to it. My next reaction was that I wanted my family with me in this experience, to share and to be in the moment.
We have since bought 4 seats for the Saturday Nick Cave show in London and we're looking forward to something special for their first ever concert.
Thank you Alistair! I think the only thing that would have made the concert better is if Bargeld had been there to sing "The Weeping Song" with Cave. But it was fantastic and I hope you and your family have a great time.
It took me years to realise that it was a duet, I've just started listening to the "Good Son" again, it's underrated and was the first Bad Seeds' album I'd bought.
The Ship Song is still my personal favourite.
Hah! If I hadn't seen the video I might not have known that today
https://youtu.be/AZKyMt8sbfk?si=cdwnD9j1ENK0pP8o
I missed the Late Show this particular night, always thought that Kirsty and Tracie presided over a national treasure.
He’s one of my top 2 live performances I think. Prince is the other. Both have the power to take on the form of the Great God Dionysus for a few hours.
The silk bit makes perfect sense in context because while silk might be expensive today, it was *ruinously* expensive in Muhammad's time, and also symbolic of the pan-Eurasian trade network stretching from Rome to China that was gradually collapsing. Silk was a symbol of the old order, of pagan empires, of everything both the emerging Islamic society and Dark Age Christian societies hated. The early 7th century was a time of religious fanaticism and moral panic at a level that is nearly incomprehensible today, nearly everybody in western Eurasia belonged to one of dozens of violently moralistic religions vying for supremacy. Islam, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy were just the three that ultimately won; there were many others and all of them were, by our standards, fucking nuts.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the comic book writer Kieron Gillen? His comics Phonogram and The Wicked + The Divine take the idea of music as magic and/or religion literally. Lots of similar themes explored!
I'm not! Thanks for the recommendation