Oh My Lord

Amazing, once again, how he manages to construct a thriller around something, it seems to me, not more important than a single event of a "media intrusion" into the day of life of Nick Cave and his family. Truly amazing... And an entertaining bit of comparing the journalists' questioning of his work to the rugged check of J.C.'s vital signs :)

Something quoted a favorite lyric, this one makes me shudder, so universal: "So that when you think youre climbing up, man In fact youre climbing down"

I kind of think this song is about his growth as a person and performer versus the way his fans perceive him, or want to perceive him. Nick is an artist who gradually become more and more confessional and personal in his writing, culminating with 'The Boatman's Call' and I think this song was a bit of a response to those who started writing him off.

Listen to 'Saint Huck' then listen to 'Into My Arms', without Nick singing them, you'd hardly know they were written by the same person.

There is a part of him as a performer that wants to challenge his audience and take them along for the ride, but I'm sure there's also a part of him who is sensitive to the critcism (songs like 'A Box For Black Paul' and 'Scum' seem to even indicate this).

to me the song is about dealing with him being Nick Cave, the family man vs. Nick Cave the entertainer. and sometimes how they may clash. In this song he builds a world of a man in a decent, in almost david lynchian ways. And maybe he thinks that neither side his family or his fans get him.. and he feels lost.

I see it as being about his previous drug use:

"I thought I'd take a walk today It's a mistake I sometimes make"

Take a walk; a mistake. 'Take a walk' is a euphemism for taking another drug fix.

"I kissed her softly on the brow I tried not to make a sound But with stony eyes she looked at me And gently squeezed my hand"

'Tried not to make a sound' - trying to keep it a secret. But when his wife looks into his eyes...

"But when she looked up at me, I could clearly see The Sword of Damocles hanging directly above her"

...he suddenly realises he's endangering his family. The Sword of Damocles represents the dangers and downfalls of those in power; power itself is another euphemism for his drug use. Feels powerful, on top of the world etc. you get the gist.

"They called at me through the fence They were not making any sense They claimed that I had lost the plot Kept saying that I was not The man I used to be"

This refers to people telling him he should quit.

"But their words of derision meant they hardly knew me For even I could see in the way they looked at me The Spear of Destiny sticking right through me"

And he ignores these people, feeling persecuted for his choices.

The next stanza is basically falling into insanity due to excessive drug use, and realising that people were right about him and the despair of such a realisation - "I screamed 'the plot! the plot!'"; people told him he'd lost the plot and he dismissed such claims, and now he sees they were right.

He calls up his wife and she doesn't recognise him ("She screams, 'Leave us alone!' I say, "Hey, it`s only me'"). The hairdresser holds up a mirror and "I cannot believe what I can see" - he doesn't recognise himself, he's not the man he used to be.

The last stanza is a lot of warnings and such, but one line stands out in particular:

"So that when you think youre climbing up, man In fact youre climbing down"

Basically: drugs feel good but they make everything worse. You think you're high on top of the world, but in fact you're pulling yourself down. Something like that.

I don't think this song has any particular meaning. It's one of those songs written from the artist's subconscious, drawing on several aspects from their life, and is not written specifically about one thing. It's so abstract that it could - and probably does - refer to many personal experiences in his life. I've presented one side, one possible explanation, one which has not been offered as of yet.

This is one of only a handful of songs that make me grit my teeth with emotion when I hear it. Its simply wonderful.

My interpretation of it is simple: Media Intrusion:

They called at me through the fence They were not making any sense They claimed that I had lost the plot Kept saying that I was not The man I used to be

and

But their words of derision meant they hardly knew me

and

I grab my telephone, I call my wife at home She screams, "Leave us alone!" I say, "Hey, it`s only me"

and

Into the hollows of glamour, where with spikes and hammer With telescopic camera, they chose to turn the screw

" A guy wearing plastic antlers presses his bum against the wall", the hairdresser's scissors, the frantic musical climax: you can feel reality crumbling around him as insanity creeps in. Wow. This must be how Philip K Dick felt.

I love this damn song. I think this is pretty much about those times in your life when you realize you're hanging around people you don't care about, doing things that lack substance, and wondering where the joy/point of living is. this is the breakdown from all those realizations. and from the song title, it's also asking god why he let your life go to shit, I guess.

I like precip's interpretation. My impressions are similar, but with different details: I like poetry which can be interpreted in many different ways, and why I appreciate Cave so much.

I sense in this person also a kind of isolation that they weren't expecting. Their "ladder of life" turned over and perhaps the person has found celebrity to be a place foreign to their nature.

I particularly like the grim panic around, "The plot! The plot!" and the call to "home". (shiver, indeed)

-Phase

The way this song builds sends chills down my spine no matter how many times I hear it. This song hits me physically. Not many songs do that.

I think if you google or wiki "sword of the damocles," you'll see what the song is about. nick cave is playing with that story about the precariousness of power with a man who loses his family because of it. seems like the man lost the plot, started feeling too much power, and lost everything. pretty damned amazing song. i agree with the person who said it hit him physically--yes, it sure does.