Lucy

Great song - one of his "dark eyed, gloomy children".

A random reporter asked Nick whether this song is about a real person named Lucy, and Nick replied that it was not, and that he'd written it while in rehab.

Seems like he has a fondness for the name "Lucy". Because in this song he writes that he loves Lucy forever and in "Swampland" by The Birthday Party he also writes "Lucy, ah'll love ya till the end!" ;)

In the biography by Ian Johnston is written that the song maybe could be about Anita Lane.

I thought that too because already when i listened to Swampland i thought that Lucy could be her. But that can all be completely wrong.

I'm sure that this is not what Nick intended or even how he sees it, but this song makes me think of Dracula- you know Lucy Westenra from Bram Stoker's classic Dracula. You know when she dies (really comes back as a vampire) but I imagine this song of her fiance dreaming about her... or perhaps she visits him...

First verse would refer to the fact that it is night, she's dead and so it's 'the end of love'.. Second verse, talking about her beauty above him, dressed in white- refering to the white funeral shroud..

Now the bell-tower is ringing And the night has stole past O Lucy, can you hear me? Wherever you rest

They used to ring the bells when people died.. pretty obvious.. and night is gone, so she has to return to her grave, 'wherever you rest' refering to that...

The whole song just seems to refer to that to me... Of course it's probably not this particular Lucy... But perhaps just a Lucy that died and her lover is mourning her, maybe she visits before she 'passes on'...

Anyway that's how I interpret it...

My name is Lucy- I think about it as when who loves me finds me dead.

Oh my... now it makes me cry even more T_T

I was pondering about this song and I thought this is just another one of his murder ballads. I could be wrong though, but the line "it was the end of our love" and the fact he doesn't know where she's burried (wherever your rest) to me points this out clearly. Makes me imagine he's either incarcerated or in an insane asylum. Especially with him "shaking on the floor", and the song having this innocuous and almost childish melody and beauty I think corroborates the point of it being a murder ballad. I think this latter paradox is almost idiosyncratic of Cave. E.g. Henry Lee is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard and it is so acrimonious in lines.

love this song but the outro is totally unnecessary. Sends me into a murderous rage in fact