The singer and the song: Nick Cave and the archetypal function of the cover version

Throughout his career, from The Boys Next Door, through The Birthday Party, and with The Bad Seeds, Australian singer / songwriter Nick Cave has balanced his own set of creative voices alongside those of others through his choice of cover versions. Cave’s 1986 album with The Bad Seeds, ‘Kicking Against the Pricks’, is a collection of cover versions that spans American folk idioms (‘Black Betty’, ‘Hey Joe’, ‘The Singer’), Tin-Pan-Alley balladeering (‘Something’s Gotten Hold of my Heart’, ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’) and left-field alt-rock (‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’, ‘The Hammer Song’). Cave’s first single as a solo artist beyond the confines of The Birthday Party was a cover of ‘In The Ghetto’, made famous by Elvis Presley, and the cover version has been a noticeable presence in Cave’s work both in his live and recorded output ever since. This chapter seeks to understand the uses of Cave’s choices of cover versions, both in terms of the idiosyncrasies of his own interpretations, and the context within which Cave places himself as part of a wider musical community. Cave’s relationship to a pantheon of elder statesmen figures (Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen for example) is understood as not only one of recognising influences, but also of placing Cave within a specific tradition or lineage. Equally, certain song forms such as the folk ballad or the blues lament are utilised to give shape and form to Cave’s wider concerns outside of the specific cover version. Cave’s reimagining of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Tupelo’, or Dylan’s ‘Wanted Man’ from The Firstborn is Dead (1985) provide clues to the uses of the cover to both articulate the individual interpreting the song, thus placing it within a personalised lexicon, and to connect the singer to traditions, or archetypes of performance that resonate in specific ways. Cave’s covers are never wholly reproductions, at times they are reworking's that might be seen to reconnect a song to a potential ‘lost truth’, at others they may be seen as parodies or homages that have more transparent aims. However at all times, the connections between Cave the singer and the latent archetypes inherent in the song provide provocative and loaded connections and values. This paper seeks to understand how Cave’s choices of cover versions, and his approaches to interpretation, shape not only the musical moment, but also our perceptions of Cave as an artist in a broader sens

‘You should try lying more’: the nomadic impermanence of sound and text in the work of Bill Drummond

Bill Drummond’s work straddles the worlds of popular music, literature and art. Through his books, music and artistic interventions Drummond has engaged with the (im)permanence of culture while manifesting a network of creative associations that give shape to a nebulous series of artistic efforts in a variety of media. His latest project, The17 and its associated book of the same name, explores the impermanence of musical expression, a theme manifested by his deletion of the KLF back catalogue in 1992 and his burning of £1 million pounds in 1994. Yet the concentration on impermanence in Drummond’s musical work is balanced by the possible permanence of language, manifest both in his books and leaflets, as well as in his artworks which are highly logo centric, whether they be graffiti or the painted scores for the 17 project. This article explores Drummond’s work through the Deleuzian filter of nomadism to interrogate the tensions between that which is now and that which has the possibility to always be. Drummond stands in many ways as an anti-theorist, engaging with music, literature and art in nomadic ways that are not always intended by him, providing a network of connections that might seek to evade the very conception of the network itself

You should try lying more: the nomadic impermanence of Bill Drummond

Bill Drummond’s work straddles the worlds of popular music, literature and art. Through his books, music and artistic interventions Drummond has engaged with the (im)permanence of culture while manifesting a network of creative associations that give shape to a nebulous series of artistic efforts in a variety of media. His latest project, The 17 and its associated book of the same name, explores the impermanence of musical expression, a theme manifested by his deletion of the KLF back catalogue in 1992 and his burning of £1 million pounds in 1994. Yet the concentration on impermanence in Drummond’s musical work is balanced by the possible permanence of language, manifest both in his books and leaflets, as well as in his artworks which are highly logocentric, whether they be graffiti or the painted scores for the 17 project. This article explores Drummond’s work through the Deleuzian filter of nomadism to interrogate the tensions between that which is now and that which has the possibility to always be. Drummond stands in many ways as an anti-theorist, engaging with music, literature and art in nomadic ways that are not always intended by him, providing a network of connections that might seek to evade the very conception of the network itsel

‘You should try lying more’: the nomadic impermanence of Bill Drummond

Bill Drummond’s work straddles the worlds of popular music, literature and art. Through his books, music and artistic interventions Drummond has engaged with the (im)permanence of culture while manifesting a network of creative associations that give shape to a nebulous series of artistic efforts in a variety of media. His latest project, The 17 and its associated book of the same name, explores the impermanence of musical expression, a theme manifested by his deletion of the KLF back catalogue in 1992 and his burning of £1 million pounds in 1994. Yet the concentration on impermanence in Drummond’s musical work is balanced by the possible permanence of language, manifest both in his books and leaflets, as well as in his artworks which are highly logocentric, whether they be graffiti or the painted scores for the 17 project. This article explores Drummond’s work through the Deleuzian filter of nomadism to interrogate the tensions between that which is now and that which has the possibility to always be. Drummond stands in many ways as an anti-theorist, engaging with music, literature and art in nomadic ways that are not always intended by him, providing a network of connections that might seek to evade the very conception of the network itsel

Book launch and discussion

Book launch event for Nick Drake: Dreaming England (Reaktion 2013) at the NN Cafe, Number 9 Guildhall Road, Northampton, NN1 1DP, Thursday 3rd October 2013. Author Nathan Wiseman-Trowse talked about and read from his book on the musician Nick Drake. Music was provided by Gregg Cave and Ant Savage and the book's photographer Paul Hillery DJd. The event was publically promoted and around sixty attended

‘You should try lying more’: the nomadic impermanence of sound and text in the work of Bill Drummond

Bill Drummond’s work straddles the worlds of popular music, literature and art. Through his books, music and artistic interventions Drummond has engaged with the (im)permanence of culture while manifesting a network of creative associations that give shape to a nebulous series of artistic efforts in a variety of media. His latest project, The 17 and its associated book of the same name, explores the impermanence of musical expression, a theme manifested by his deletion of the KLF back catalogue in 1992 and his burning of £1 million pounds in 1994. Yet the concentration on impermanence in Drummond’s musical work is balanced by the possible permanence of language, manifest both in his books and leaflets, as well as in his artworks which are highly logocentric, whether they be graffiti or the painted scores for the 17 project. This article explores Drummond’s work through the Deleuzian filter of nomadism to interrogate the tensions between that which is now and that which has the possibility to always be. Drummond stands in many ways as an anti-theorist, engaging with music, literature and art in nomadic ways that are not always intended by him, providing a network of connections that might seek to evade the very conception of the network itself

Goodbye Cruel World

Nathan Wiseman-Trowse explores 'Cruel World', the opening track of Lana Del Rey's second album Ultraviolence

Performing class in British popular music

his dissertation evaluates and explores the way in which class signification operates within British popular music. Notably, British rock music has forged a connection between working class experience and signification and notions of the authentic . This has been reinforced both within the disciplines of sociology and cultural studies by a focus on the articulation of marginalised and counter-hegemonic voices through popular music that is usually understood to have working class social origins, particularly in relation to subcultural activity. However, this dissertation utilises performativity theory to understand how popular music is capable of forming a discourse that provides performed subjectivities that articulate class identities. These identities are not simple manifestations of class-based experience, but are manifestations particular to popular music. Where performativity theory has dealt with the issue of class, the assumption has primarily been that middle class subjectivities are prioritised at the expense of working class identities. Within British rock discourse this relationship is consistently reversed, privileging working class subjectivity. This process acts as a strategy of authentication, a strategy that is demanded by the seemingly contradictory relationship between art and commerce, a contradiction at the heart of popular music. As rock discourse provides the listener with subjectivities to be performed, the subject’s relationship to a commercial industry is often masked by signifiers of authenticity, in this case, class-based identities and iconography. As such working class subjectivity is prioritised as a means to manage the commercial nature of rock music, even as that commercial structure (the music industry) provides that subjectivity. Through case studies focussing on folk rock, punk and indie rock, the articulation of class identity is explored as an assurance of authenticity that is performed and regulated through rock discourse as it connects with an invented tradition of the folk voice , a mythical representation of 'the (working class) people' constructed as a response both to modernity and the industrialisation of popular music

Prince: Don't play me

A consideration of the musical legacy of Prince following his death on the 21st April 2016

Gifts of unknown things: Terry Bickers

A consideration of the work of British guitarist Terry Bickers