Jesus Alone

I'd never listened to Nick Cave before this album, but my husband played this song for me after we suddenly lost our closest friend this year. While I listened, I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest, but it was incredibly cathartic. For that reason, this song and the whole Skeleton Tree album has become part of my repertoire. After learning about Nick's son’s death and seeing "One More Time With Feeling" - even though most lyrics were written before his death - Nick obviously recorded the album while grieving, and that raw emotion comes through on each song of the album.

So here's my interpretation -

[Verse 1] You fell from the sky Crash landed in a field Near the river Adur Flowers spring from the ground Lambs burst from the wombs of their mothers In a hole beneath the bridge You convalesced, you fashioned masks of twigs and clay You cried beneath the dripping trees Ghost song lodged in the throat of a mermaid

When I first heard this song, I thought he was talking about life beginning on Earth, microbes on a meteor crash landing, flora and fauna appearing, building shelter and developing superstitions.

But after listening to it many times, I think that while he won't openly admit it's about his son, it is. Adur is a river near Brighton where his son fell. The crying beneath dripping trees conjures imagery of a funeral in the rain, and the voice of the person you lost is now a ghost song.

[Verse 2]

I think this verse is the personifications of the emotions one goes through after a terrible loss.

You're a young man waking Covered in blood that is not yours

• Rage and anger

You're a woman in a yellow dress Surrounded by a charm of hummingbirds

-When you remember a funny story or a happy time with your lost one, the bittersweet memories.

You're a young girl full of forbidden energy Flickering in the gloom

-Wanting to move on with your life but not knowing if you should, especially if those around you aren't ready.

You're a drug addict lying on your back In a Tijuana hotel room

-Total despair and depression.

[Verse 3] You're an African doctor harvesting tear ducts You believe in God, but you get no special dispensation for this belief now You're an old man sitting by the fire, you're the mist rolling off the sea You're a distant memory in the mind of your creator, don't you see?

Shit happens to everybody, regardless of religion or belief. We all live and we all will die, and inevitably 99% of us will lose somebody we love before it's our time to go. Belief in God will not spare you that pain because it's part of being human.

The African doctor lyric is probably my least favourite, but again think he's using shocking imagery trying to point out that the extremes people will go to for their dogma thinking it will insulate them from life.

[Chorus] With my voice I am calling you With my voice I am calling you Let us sit together until the moment comes With my voice I am calling you

To me, this has a double meaning. He’s calling to his son, wherever he is, to not leave him. To sit together until perhaps it's Nick’s time to depart so they can be together.

This morning, I listened to it again and I hear it as Nick is calling to us, his listeners that are also going through our own grief. He gets it, he understands, and we are not alone. Let’s sit together without saying a word because we don’t need to. Words aren’t necessary. You're not alone.

Cave's son died during the recording of this album. This song definitely feels like Cave is calling to his lost child, or perhaps wishing that he had a chance to say goodbye. "Let us sit together in the dark until the moment comes". No father should outlive his son, Cave wishes he had the chance to sit longer in the dark with his son, instead of having his son pulled away from him.

Also, it sounds like Cave is coming to bitter conclusions himself. "You believe in God, but you get no special dispensation for this belief now You're an old man sitting by the fire, you're the mist rolling off the sea You're a distant memory in the mind of your creator, don't you see?" God is there, but he doesn't care for the suffering of his creations.

Don’t know about the whole song but I do know that the opening line is about the Shoreham air disaster