DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sue Webster & Tim Noble

How one song grew into an eight-foot light sculpture

For Nick Cave the creative process is as fun and rewarding as the result. Then he has to find something else to feed the creative monkey on his back. Cave has already dabbled with presenting his lyrics in original form in the two volumes of King Ink, but this is something of a first as he devotes a whole little book to the title track of an album which only hit the shops a few months ago.

Cave collectors may spontaneously ejaculate at this 4” x 4” tome, which charts the song’s progress from Cave’s initial scribblings and doodles on envelopes and hotel room stationery through the creative process into Sue Webster and Tim Noble’s huge installation as seen on the album cover, which involved Webster screwing in 775 light bulbs. As with much of Cave’s work, humour is not far beneath the surface, particularly the conversation reproduced between himself and the two artists who, after some striking photos of Cave (one smiling!) and the band, are shown constructing the sculpture. Not only that, there’s a 3” CD of what Cave describes as this “classic rock’n’roll song” to emphasise that the fuss is, indeed, worth it.

ISBN 5099921505027

Reviewed by Kris Needs
<< Back to Issue 354