Bad Seed: The Biography of Nick Cave

Obviously this book is great because it shows you inside Nick Cave's world - mostly through his Birthday Party years. It is somewhat of a tough read as it is super technical and talks about the recording process to no end. I loved the book, but it is not a formal biography. It also ends in approximately 1996 so you don't hear anything about PJ Harvey or Susie Bic. All in all - I'm glad I read it, but my friends who don't love Nick Cave won't find this an interesting read.

この商品を購入すると、タイトルとは違う品が届きます！書名も作者も全く別の本が届きました。写真の品とは同じ品の様ですが、タイトルも違えば著者も別人です。ニック・ケイヴ関連の品ではありません。ファンのかたは購入時には気を付けてください。ハードカバーの選択肢が２つありますが、もう一つの方を選んでください。ニックが表紙の写真が出てくる方が正しい商品です！

Probably only of interest to dedicated fans of Nick Cave.

Being a rather recently converted fanatic of the music of Nick Cave, I knew nothing about him and only tidbits about where he came from musically. I first read The Life and Music of Nick Cave by Maximilian Dax, but it was a very uneven bit of puffery. So, hungering for more information, I bought Bad Seed.Bad Seed is not a bad book. While Ian Johnston is not the most eloquent writer around, he is much better than Dax. Bad Seed is well organized, informative, and at times very witty. And while this volume does not contain near the number of pictures that Dax's does, the photos it does have are germane to Cave's career.Johnston's portrait of Cave's personality gives the reader a fresh understanding of what he is about. He charts Cave's growth from a brash and impetuous young rock shouter to the mature and nuanced performer he became. And I like some of the stories of some of his early riotous behavior. One that strikes me as humorous is the story of him playing at a street festival in Melbourne and his father coming unexpectedly to see him perform for the first time. Cave was rolling around in the gutter screaming into the microphone when he just happened to glimpse his father looking at him with a look of total bewilderment on his face. Picture that! Other stories of drunken revelry and drug crazed antics were equally amusing. But it is also refreshing to read how Cave took control of his life and drew back from the abyss into which so many performers fall.In addition to his music, Bad Seed provides a look at his writing, his acting, and his twin obsessions with the Bible and with the degeneracy into which one can sink. One learns too, of artists who have influenced his songwriting and style. I knew he admired Lee Hazlewood and Johnny Cash from Dax, I had no idea he liked Karen Carpenter!The only negative really is that Johnston spends too much time on Cave's early years and not nearly enough time on his life and music from Tender Prey forward.If you are eager to know about Nick Cave, Bad Seed is a good place to start.

I got this because it was really cheap and I'd remembered reading it - it's alright, does that rushing to the end thing most of these biographies do. Good to read on the bus or the train to work