Punk Rock Singers

"I never did feel like a star. I was always uptight about something and uncomfortable and not very good. I felt weighed down by it, the pressure. It's terrible I should have enjoyed it but I didn't; I was thinking about what we should do all the time, I wasn't able to run with it."

"I did loads of stupid things, like the way I used to argue with EMI Records. I just look back to the time now and wonder how I would have reacted to some prick coming into my office shouting and kicking things."

"The only way to change things is to shoot men who arrange things."

"Old clothes do not make a tortured artist."

"I went to an art exhibition recently, and the guy had a quote of mine from that song there — "The only way to change things is to shoot men who arrange things." I wouldn't agree with shooting people at all. I was just anti-love. I feel differently now. But, you know. It's OK. That's how it was then, and it's good."

"We pride ourselves on trying to put on the best show we can and we're not afraid to say that we happen to be the best live band in the world"

"Give me something to do to kill some time Take me to that place that I call home Take away the strains of being lonely Take me to the tracks at Christie Road."

"The people that you grew up and braved the trials of high school with will always hold a special place. Through all the BS of high school you hope that your friends had the time of their life, and that's what the song is talking about"

"Another turnin' point, a fork stuck in the road Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go So make the best of this test, and don't ask why It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time It's somethin' unpredictable, but in the end is right I hope you had the time of your life"

"A guy walks up to me and asks 'What's Punk?'. So I kick over a garbage can and say 'That's punk!'. So he kicks over the garbage can and says 'That's Punk?', and I say 'No that's trendy!'"

"Although I've never been an atheist, there are periods when I struggled with the whole thing. As someone who uses words, you need to able to justify your belief with language, I'd have arguments and the atheist always won because he'd go back to logic. Belief in God is illogical, it's absurd. There's no debate. I feel it intuitively, it comes from the heart, a magical place. But I still I fluctuate from day to day. Sometimes I feel very close to the notion of God, other times I don't. I used to see that as a failure. Now I see it as a strength, especially compared to the more fanatical notions of what God is. I think doubt is an essential part of belief."

"On 30 March 1983 The Birthday Party played Los Angeles. Me and all the guys from Black Flag went to see them do two sets at a small place called The Roxy, and they were thoroughly godhead. They were one of the all-time premier live bands. .... I see Nick about once a year, which is about as much as I see anybody I don't work with. But that means when I do run into him it's really great to see him. He's an excellent human and I love him a lot and that's the bottom line, he's one of my favourite people, and I think he's a tremendous artist. He has a great band, too. The Bad Seeds are a band I will travel a great distance to see whenever possible. What Nick goes after is so incredibly interesting every time, because it's always different. He always takes chances. The art comes before the commerce. As far as the music business goes, he's one of the good guys. He's the real thing."

"I listen to his records and go to his concerts. That's the greatest compliment I can pay an artist."

"Outside the world of politics, one person in the world of the arts I would mention as an influence is Nick Cave, another person who has been around since the late 1970s. He has developed and changed remarkably, whilst remaining true to his vision. He has been a great help to me as well, without his knowing it."

"He taught me to never veer too far from who I am, but to go further, try different things, and never lose sight of myself at the core."

"I heard Nick Cave for the first time on an independent radio station in Australia, and the way he uses words is breathtaking. And it’s very melodic at the same time, very anthem-like. He also wrote a book called And the Ass Saw the Angel, from the perspective of a fetus in a womb. He’s really arrogant, but he can afford to be."

"Nick Cave's making a lot of money, which is braindeath. I mean, going on tour with the same band for 20 years and playing the same songs–I don't care how you twist them, or torture the songs, you know? If it takes to be a posturing grandpa Wayne Newton-sounding bad Vegas-balladeer to get rich, I don't give a shit. I think this is lame. You know, he was one of the great poets and rocked like no other, but he's pathetic. How do these goth kids buy this crap? That's his genius; he's convinced goth kids to listen to their grandfathers' music."

"There was one review [of Stadium Arcadium] by an English newspaper where the guy really hated us and it was full of insults and descriptions about how terrible and worthless we are and how inane our music is. The guy mentioned that Nick Cave really thought we were a shitty band and printed a quote that Nick Cave had said in that regard. For a second that hurt my feelings because I love Nick Cave. I have all of his records. I don't care if Nick Cave hates my band because his music means everything to me and he is one of my favourite songwriters and singers and musicians of all time. I love all the incarnations of the Bad Seeds. But it only hurt my feelings for a second because my love for his music is bigger than all that shit and if he thinks my band is lame then that's OK."

"Nick Cave and myself got up and did karaoke in Brisbane one night at this Mongolian BBQ karaoke restaurant. It was just a bunch of normal, Brisbane folk. Me and Nick got up to do "Fernado", "Sometimes When We Touch" and "He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother". I was just playing the straight man, but Nick was doing the whole Birthday Party bit, with the kneedrops and the 'Raarrggh!', running up to tables doing the cabaret terrorist act, kissing old ladies. They took it for two numbers, and by the third they'd had enough and wanted to go back to, well, enjoying their evening."

"I'm looking forward to working with Nick on something special one day. .... He has an amazing gift, a level of spirituality and self-realisation in his writing you don't often find. A Hemingway or Xavier Herbert of our time."

"He is an Australian artist like Sidney Nolan is an Australian artist - beyond comparison, beyond genre, beyond dispute."

"Rats in paradise! Rats in paradise!"

"Well, ah tied on, percht on mah bed ah was, Sticken' a needle in mah arm, Ah tied off, Fucken wings burst out mah back!"

"Punishment? Reward! Punishment? Reward!"

"Ah wassa born... And Lord shakin', even then was dumpt into some icy font, Like some great stinky unclean! From slum-chuch to slum-church, ah spilt mah heart to some fat cunt behind a screen..."

"If this is heaven ahm bailin' out!"

"Another ship ready to dock... the rigging comes loose... like Jennifer's Veil."

"I took her from rags right through to stitches, Oh baby, tonight we sleep in separate ditches."

"The woods eats the woman and dumps her honey-body in the mud, Her dress floats down the well and it assumes the shape of the body of a little girl, Yeah, I recognize that girl, She stumbled in some time last loneliness, But I could not stand to touch her now, My one and only onlyness."

"Fingers down the throat of love! Love! Love!"

"Hold me up baby, for I may fall, Hold my dish-rag body tall, Our bodies melt together, we are one, Post-crucifixion baby, post-crucifixion and all undone."

"Let there be no sadness, no sorrow, Let there be no road too narrow, There'll be a new day, and it's today, For all of us."

"The spears of the bright sun, all brave with its conquest, Did hover unearthly, in banners of fire. I knelt in the garden, awash with the dawning, And a voice came so brightly, I covered my eyes."

"One morn I awakened, a new sun was shining, The sky was a kingdom, all covered in blood. The moon and the stars, where the troops that lay conquered, Like food left to wither, poor spirital food."

"In the days of madness, my brother, my sister, When you're dragged toward the Hell-mouth, You will beg for the end, but there ain't gonna be one, friend, For the grave will spew you out! It will spew you out!"

"The moon was turned toward me, Like a platter made of gold, My death, it almost bored me, So often was it told."

"Thrown into a dungeon, Bread and water was my portion, Faith - my only weapon, To rest the devil's legion. The speak-hole would slide open, A viper's voice would pleade, A voice think with innuendo, Syphillis and greed."

"O no don't go O no O slow down Joe! The righteous path is straight as an arrow, Take a walk and you'll find it's too narrow, Too narrow for the likes of me."

"Who's that yonder all in flames? Draggin' behind him a sack of chains Who's that yonder all in flames? Up jumped the Devil and staked his claim"

"O poor heart, I was doomed from the start, Doomed to play the villian's part, I was the baddest Johnny in the apple cart, My blood was blacker than the chambers of a dead nun's heart."

"My oh My,what a wretched Life. I was born on the day that my poor mama died. I was cut from Her belly with a stanley knife. My daddy did a jig with the drunk midwife"

"And the mercy seat is melting, And I think my blood is boiling, And in a way I'm spoiling, All the fun with all this truth and consequence. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, And anyway I told the truth, And I'm not afraid to die."

"In heaven His throne is made of gold, Where the ark of His testament is stowed, A throne from which I'm told all history does unfold, Down here it's made of wood and wire, And my body is on fire, And God is never far away."

"I hear stories from the chamber, How Christ was born into a manger, And like some ragged stranger died up on the cross, And might I say it seems to fitting in its way, He was a carpenter by trade, Or at least that's what I'm told."

"And as the company passed from the valley, into a higher ground, The rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow, and on the mound, Until nothing was left, nothing at all except the body of Sorrow, That rose in time, to float upon the surface of the eaten soil."

"The carny had a horse, all skin and bone, A bow-backed nag, that he named "Sorrow", Now it is buried in a shallow grave, In the then parched meadow."

"A thousand Marys lured me, To feathered beds and fields of glover, Bird with crooked wing cast, Its wicked shadow over, A bauble moon did mock, And trinket stars did smile, Your funeral, my trial."

"Numbin' the runt of reputation they call rat frame, Top-E as a tourniquet, A low tune whistles across his grave, Forever the slave of his Six Strings."

"Here comes the Judgement train! Git on board!"

"Blind Lemon Jefferson is a-comin', Tap tap tappin', with his cane."