On Sunday, November 17, 2024, Bob Dylan went to see Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds perform at the Accor Arena in Paris, France during some downtime on his tour. A few days after the show, which was part of Cave and the Bad Seeds UK and European tour around their 18th album Wild God, Dylan shared his thoughts on one song in particular that struck him during Cave’s performance.
“Saw Nick Cave in Paris recently at the Accor Arena and I was really struck by that song ‘Joy’ where he sings ‘We’ve all had too much sorrow, now it the time for joy,” wrote Dylan in a post on social media. “I was thinking to myself, ‘Yeah that’s about right.’”
For Cave, Wild God felt like an earlier Bad Seeds album. “This one feels like we brought the Bad Seeds back,” said Cave. “It was a sort of explosion of activity and life. It’s joyous.”
And “Joy” penetrated something more than what’s on the surface, the word, alone. It transits loss, grief, longing, and the existence of love amongst all the hate.
“There’s a song [on the new record] called ‘Joy,’” added Cave of the track. “I do have a particular understanding of what that word actually means, and it’s a deeper word than it appears to be.”
And then I saw a movement around my narrow bed
And then I saw a movement around my narrow bed
A ghost in giant sneakers, laughing stars around his head
Who sat down on the narrow bed, this flaming boy
Who sat down on the narrow bed, this flaming boy
Said, we’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy
And all across the world they shout bad words, they shout angry words
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Cave’s Favorite Dylan Song
“Joy” is presumably Dylan’s favorite song by Cave and the Bad Seeds. In September 2024, Cave also shared his favorite Dylan song for a compilation in Mojo magazine, “I Threw It All Away.”
Released on Dylan’s 1969 album Nashville Skyline, “I Threw It All Away” tells the story of a failed relationship due to his cruel disposition—I once held her in my arms / She said she would always stay / But I was cruel / I treated her like a fool / I threw it all away.
“This is my favorite Dylan song,” said Cave. “The production is so clean, fluid, and uncluttered, and there is an ease and innocence to Dylan’s voice in its phrasing, in its tone that is in no Dylan recording before or after. There is a perfectly measured emotional pull to the singing. This is a guy doing the job God put him on Earth to do, and doing it well. This song is about craft; Dylan removes himself, the burden of his history, his myth, from the process of songwriting to craft a song unparalleled in its gorgeousness.”
[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Nick Cave Wrote for Other Artists]
“It’s Mathematics, Music by Numbers”
When describing Nashville, Cave continued, “It’s mathematics, music by numbers, and all the more affecting for it. It’s Mozart man up against the wracked Beethoven of his other work. Nashville Skyline was an audacious record, lyrically and musically, flying in the face of those who thought it was Dylan’s moral duty to be the drum major of his generation. I can put this song on first thing in the morning or the middle of a dark night and it will make me feel better, make me want to carry on. The song serves the listener as it should and that’s its genius.”
In 1995, Cave also revealed that he had obsessively purchased the Dylan album. “I constantly buy the same record over and over again,” said Cave. “I’ve bought so many versions of ‘Nashville Skyline.’ I must be keeping Dylan in whatever that is he needs keeping in.”
Of “I Threw It All Away,” Cave added: “There was always something about that song, that was so simple, and an audacity to this sort of simplicity to that song. But it was so, so powerful at the same time. For me, at least. I was always ragingly envious of that song.”
Watch Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Perform “Joy at the Accor Arena in Paris on November 17, 2024.
Photo: (l to r) Nick Cave (Matthew Baker/Getty Images); Bob Dylan (Harry Scott/Redferns)
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