Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds :: God’s Hotel
I don’t know much about heaven, but when I take my last long stroll into that winterlit forever I hope I get the chance (assuming he is not a cursed earthbound immortal) to bunk with Nick Cave for a minute. His is a heaven I can get with. And when at 1:59 in, he laughs, just a little, at the simple and obvious and brilliant joke by the Bad Seeds, I’m sold. Book me a room.
I wish I knew the word that comes between ironic funny and just plain funny, ‘cos it’d be useful right now. Maybe that word is horsing around. And this song is crystalline perfect serious horsing around. Straight man to clown foil. How everything gets alittle quieter on the ‘deaf’ verse. How the pianist does those ‘dreamscape’ runs. How you’ll never see a sign hanging on the door saying “At no time may both feet leave the floor in this hotel anymore”. Recorded live at like 8am on KCRW, five cats in a little radio studio, sloppy, belting, laughing, goofing. And being so smart about it.
But most importantly, when Cave horses around in Judeo-Christian heaven it is never dismissive, and his teasing reveals My Father’s Mansion’s most important characteristic: Everybody’s got a room.
God’s Hotel (2.9MB MP3)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
vj said on tuesday, june 03rd, 2008
Rob said on tuesday, june 10th, 2008
Ha! Me too VJ! I remember Mark Tomacco introduced me to this song maybe thirteen years ago. I listened to it once or twice then. Never forgot it. Listened to it once about a year ago. I totally love this song, and I’ve known it since probably 1995 or ‘96, and I think I’ve only listened to it about four times. Gonna give it another spin…
I totally knew this was your post without even looking!! You have such a unique voice, and I don’t mean raspy.