The Road to God Knows Where (1990) - full transcript

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

Are they on?

Three things. I'm Nick Cave... No,
what was the...

I'm Nick Cave...Um.

Three things.

I'm Nick Cave. I love you all...

I'm Nick Cave. I love you. And I want
to tell you about a girl. End of story.

Are you ready?

Oh, yeah. As ready as we'll ever be.

I should come this way 'cause it's
kind of difficult to get on the stage.

Three things. I'm Nick Cave, I love you,
and I want to tell you about a girl...



A man consumed with hate.

"I hated black people.'

A member of America's most
dangerous racist groups...

"It takes over your body,
it's like a cancer.'

When their gospel of violence
became too much...

he became an FBI informant.

Now they want him dead.

Meet a fugitive from hate.

Tonight on Evening Magazine.

Men and women.

So different. So incompatible.
So opposite.

The Battle of the Sexes. Tonight on
Eyewitness News at 5:30.

I love you all and I love you.

Each and every one of you



holds a very very special place
here in my heart.

Which reminds me of a time
not so very long ago.

I was drivin' down a long road.
A long road.

And the miles, the miles were stretchin' on behind me
and that old road was stretchin' on in front of me.

And the rain, why, the rain it was
fallin' down

and the windscreen wipers
were goin' back and forth.

And let me tell you this,

ladies and gentlemen,

I had tears in my eyes,

tears in my eyes.

And these words...

While these words went
through my mind...

Let's try a few bars of 'Phoenix'.

Try a bit of "Phoenix', right.

I hate you.

I despise you.

One day a big rain's gonna come
and wash all the scum off the street.

Sitting or standing pose?
Or squatting?

Standing would be fine.

Nick, drop your dacks like in the
Art House photo.

Do you think I should?

The outhouse photo?

What do you mean, just Nick or...

Weill, it's your photo, just say it, don't
you want these other people in it?

Yes.

He'd like to do some of me.

Why don't we do Nick alone first?

Oh shit, we have to go on...
you'd better just do Nick.

That was a nice photograph.

Am I in the middle? No.

Move over a bit more that way.

We should get Kid in the front.

O.K. Nick, can you come right in front?

Surprise, surprise.

Oh, shucks.

I'm shooting it vertical
so I want to have Nick up front.

So I'm kinda right there.

In focus.

You'll all be in focus.

It was just a joke. I didn't mean it.

One, two, three, PFFT.

When we go PFFT it means it's the
end of the photo session. PFFT.

We've got ten minutes.

You'll have to do the last couple
of photos.

...if you need a new guitarist man the
name's Terry...So I got his address.

I asked for him to put it in three
times. I just gave up eventually.

Still, it was alright.

It was fine...It was good.

Just stood there and go...
What?.. What did I do?

Victor's pretty wild. Well, I mean, when
there's a really weird stage sound...

That and Kid's amp somehow got
directed straight at it. It'd been moved.

Yeah, it was.

They liked it, 'cause Nick was good.
That's the important thing.

I refuse to pay. It's an outrage.

A Bunch of Bad Seeds...

Who made the most mistakes tonight?

...The I Ching...

Mick Harvey.

Who played the best tonight?

Kid Congo. Naturally.

Who made the idiot out of himself?

Who was the most pretentious on
stage? Thomas. It can't be.

You couldn't hear me anyway.

And so, two left.

Who was the sex symbol?

Roland.

And left of course is Blixa.

Blixa was the guitarist.

Hello. Ah, hi. Who's this?

The Michigan Daily...Mike.
Hold on, Mike, I'll just get him.

Hello...I'm alright...Yeah, quite a few...
What's this for?

Ah ha...You know, Robert Johnson
and a lot of gospel stuff too...

Yeah, I mean that's always been
close to my heart...for many years

I don't see Tom Jones as being a
pop artist...

I don't really understand.

I mean I don't like those genres
put on him.

I think he's a truly great singer and
he shouldn't be classified so hastily.

...but I guess those sort of influences...
...Taking those influences and filtering

...them through the Bad Seeds. I
guess perhaps those influences

...are becoming a bit more apparent.

It's called Hey Hey My My, and then in
brackets, Out of the Blue into the Black.

Mustn't speak with Walter Scott.

Hey Hey.
I'm glad that I'm gay.

Frustrated women.
Back at ten o'clock.

What?

It's great, 'Dirty Water' by
The Standells.

This Boston group,
a sixties Boston group.

What's that?

That's how it goes.

I know how it goes.

It was my first single.
I know how this goes.

It goes...

I know who you are.

This is Alex from Good Vibrations.

Alex from Good Vibrations.

This is Mark from Capital.

Welcome to Boston.

These are some people from
Strawberry Records. This is Amy.

Hi, Amy.

Is it alright if we crowd everybody
around and get a picture?

That's fine. Just prop me up.

Good show.

Thanks. Bye.

What you've also got to remember
is that it's not exactly what you

...thought it was going to be.

You showed me something real nice
that I haven't seen in a lot of years.

What was that?

You and your band just looked at
each other and then went BARNK,

and you were saying HEY, what the
fuck happened, but also what you did

was you said break time, stop, or
something, we're playing and we'll

stand on stage and just play for
you. Later on, but we're going

to take a break.

One of the, like, classiest things...

I don't khow what you're all about, but I
like the way you handile yourself on stage.

But you need to start feeling better
about yourself.

I feel alright about myself.

Dear Mr. Cave, I'm writing to you
on my favourite thing - chocolate.

I saw your article in Spin.

It must be hard being famous and
having people know all about you

without having you...
...without knowing you.

I already know, for example, how
you feel almost...

...Tammy Wynette, and I think she is
wonderful, but you see...

...I wouldn't know that about you
unless I saw that article, whereas

you'd never have known that about
me unless you had read this letter,

and I have no place to send it anyway.

I've written you several letters,
have not sent them,

mainly because stamps,
though necessary, are bothersome.

I could have someone give this to you,
but we justify our ends by our means,

and so I'll tell you a little bit
about myself.

I teach at school, I teach English,

you might say I have a passion
for the written, unsaid word.

Although it seems unlikely,
writing is my career.

I am reading a friend's novel lying
in my bed with my cat, Gus.

My room is filthy,

and I have this intimate personality
that unfortunately accompanies

this strong desire to stay clear
of lots of people.

I hope you are well. Lots of luck.
Sincerely, Alli.

Ali Baba.

How's it been goin', babe?

Great.

Lookin' good.

We've got a great house, so it
doesn't really matter where we are.

Do you have a housemate?

Nick and Anita.

Ah, so you're living in London now?

Yep.

What happened?

Some naked person came on stage?

No, oh, God, they saw me.

That wasn't why they cheered.

I thought there's some naked
person on stage.

How much did they pay us?

I'll go down and remind
them about 1981...

...and how they had us
thrown off stage.

I had that experience here as well.

It's different management now
apparently.

These guys have been here for five
years and I thought, yeah, so what?

That makes it 1984.

We've been at this for a
long time, haven't we?

We got thrown off stage
here in 1981.

So tell me about yourself,
what have you been doing?

Well, I'm working on a film,
with Robert Williams...

-you know, that illustrator?

Has his box set come out yet?

No, that's Mike Matthews, the guy
who he ripped off, the originator...

...did the Ratfink thing, the guy
who used to draw for Big Daddy...

I go out to L.A. in March, start raising
the cash, that's my next project.

Well, good luck.

It's about the effects of PMS and
a woman who injects herself

with chemicals to be chronically in
premenstrual tension, and the results.

A woman that can no longer control
the natural impulse to stalk and kill.

But there are no female serial killers,
there are no female sexual

murderers, especially as in serialised,
and this is something I've been

researching through a lot of
encyclopaedias of psycho sexual

insanity, and why women don't do this,
and basically it's a chromosomal thing.

I'm still working on my thesis on it,
but it'll be all in the film, believe me.

I'll cover every mythology based on serial killings,
lunacy, werewolf - vampirism, psychic-vampirism...

Brainless women,

housewives who don't fucking
clean up after them,

cleaning up, doing the dishes...

It's a very constipated life...

And to get onto stage is to throw
off that bridle, cast off that saddle...

...and explode in a catharsis of
pure unadulterated...

...emotion.

...I feel really frustrated and
I feel like it's my fault...

That's what it's like, man.

Throw it off.

Release...purge.

Purge of the senses.

Yeah, they're all here, Kid Congo
and the other ones as well.

Yeah, we're in...just out of
Columbus at the moment.

Pardon?

Yeah, probably.

I wouldn't?

I would?

No, look, you ask the questions.

I've just been rung up and told to
do an interview, and I was just

sitting back listening to
John Coltrane there.

So, you ask the questions and I'll

answer them, and then we'll
have an interview.

On what, Detroit?

What's the radio station?
I'm sorry, it's really hard to hear you.

CJAM.

So you want me to say, I'm Nick
Cave and this is CJAM. Is that right?

And then.. what was it?

Ad-lib?

Oh, look, I'll just say the I.D., okay?

Pardon?

Oh, I've already done it, have 1? Okay.

OK.

See you.

Nick Cave used to have
two major problems;

heroin addiction and a bad voice.

He's Kicked the former
and he's working on the latter.

That's funny.

Yeah, that's pretty funny.

Real sex beasts.

I think they're on Ecstasy or
something, they didn't do anything

than hugging each other, and they
just talked to each other all the time.

They didn't pay any attention, and
just talked to each other.

That was really disturbing.

I bet.

Yes, that is disturbing.

There's two girls standing in
front of you going...

...all the time...

-.-.Just play my quitar...really incredible.

Nick, somebody said give this
to Nick. Follow me.

Just straighten my hair.

Is this going to be locked?

Yeah, just follow me, man.
Hey, wait for me downstairs.

It's supposed to be at quarter to
seven. So just come back at

half past six.

Watch out for that black ice, guys.

1,2,3,4,9,6,7,8,9.

Ten, ten is standing outside.

Ah, who pressed that?

It was already pressed when
we got in.

We're all on the big 12.

(UHH)

Sorry, no room, no room.

There's Victor.

How did you get in? Did you sneak
in, then? God.

Let me out of here.

O.K., everybody.

What's the difference between a
VIP suite and the rest of it?

Have you got an
upright piano in there?

Let's go have a look,
see if there's any difference.

Come into my...suite.

We've got all suites. Did you know
they have one suite with a

Steinway upright piano for
musicians that have to rehearse?

You've got a message, Nick.

From Prince!

Weill, I go back to my suite and
feel really happy now.

There's a message for me.

I'm going back to my VIP suite.

O.K. Alright.

What songs are we gonna do
on the radio station?

'Sunny'.

Sunny, thank you for the smile...

Montana!

Buffalo shirt.

Alright. I'm somewhere in the middle
of the Rockies.

We were supposed to be in there
by now, but the brakes froze

just as we left Minneapolis.

Rayner...Rayner Jesson.

Manager, road manager, baggage
boy, everything.

OK.

The other thing is just to add to
the rider, you've got all the stuff

in the dressing room, right?
Can you do bitter lemon?

If you can't get bitter lemon, just
get some sort of sweet juice like

mango, apricot, peach,
something like that.

Also, if you could add onto it a
dozen root beers...preferably 'Dad's'.

I much appreciate it.

No...Yeah.

And preferably on arrival at
4 o'clock. All to be there.

Mm, fuck, I left my laundry behind.

I knew I'd do that.

I was saying I'm gonna leave
that behind.

Get it sent to San Francisco.

Actually, we shouldn't play this,

it's too much inspired by
'Up Jumped The Devil'.

No, it isn't.

No, it goes...

That's right, yeah.

Let's get down to the bottom of this.
Your road manager tells us

that you're not going to play the
show unless you get $500 more.

Well...

Is that correct?

I think you should look at it this way,
that you've saved a lot of money

on our account by giving us a PA
which is not fulfilling the contract.

You saved some money on that.

Well, where's the sense in that?

We just offer you a compromise
and say you give us some of the

money you saved and then
everything is fine.

You feel that it's not sufficient
enough for your fans.

We are afraid that it is not.

Unfortunately, by the gig it will be
too late.

Then we found out that it wasn't
loud enough and then we are upset...

...so we're upset now instead.

If you just make it reliant on how
many tickets are sold and how

many people are coming, you
obviously don't take any risk 'cause

you just plan it economically, you
will make a profit, and the less

people that come the smaller the PA
will get. Is that what you're telling me?

It's not what I'm telling you, but to
an extent that's correct...what a band

gets...let's say if your catering
rider is $2,000...

Where's your risk then?

What's my risk?

Yes, what's your risk?

What, am I supposed to take a risk?

You're supposed to take as much as
we're supposed to take a risk.

You're asking us to disappoint the
people because you save our PA,

that's what it is.

You don't understand that we are the
artists in this case and that we tell

you what the circumstances are that
we produce this music in, not you

telling me that this is the product
that we have to have to produce our music.

I try and provide the best that I
can within the economical...

I believe that. I believe that. So the best
you can is fine with me, but then tell us

before what the best you can will be,
so we can make up our minds before,

'cause we don't want to play bad,
we want to do it the way we can do it.

You see, I honestly stand here thinking
that you can play a good show.

And I can tell you that you're definitely
not the man that can tell me that.

I'm the only one that can tell you, or
this band is the only one that can tell

you how we have to play it.

Your stage sound is adequate,
correct?

How do you find out? How do you
know what it would sound like?

Do you know that? Do you know
what it would sound like? You just

know what it sounds like. You think
it sounds fine and I tell you it would

sound much better.

If you doubled the size of the PA in
this room, I think it'd sound worse.

That would be our problem.

Except that I work in the room,
every night. I'm here to advise...

You don't understand the point at all...
If somebody writes a piece for

two flutes and one cello...

It's not big enough.

O.K. You want me to bring some in.
I'll bring some in. O.K., now we've

got to work out the finances.

Yeah,sure.

Let's talk in the club.

How many K is that?

Let's see, probably about 35
hundred watts.

Three and a half K.

You want four times as much as
we have now?

I mean we could do without...

That's what's on the contract.

I know, but that's not taking the size
of the hall into account.

Sure. Absolutely...

12 K iis, like, you need five times more?

O.K. That's not to the size of the
room but even...

This is too small.

Didn't you read the contract?

A system like this works for
"A Flock of Seagulis' and 'Devo'...

I don't give a fuck about that, it's
not big enough, we're not gonna play

unless it gets bigger.

Well, there's no way we're gonna
put that much in.

Fine.

We can negotiate.

I knew whoever signed this hadn't
looked at it, because it would be

just crazy to sign this in a club this
size. We're not exactly stupid but

the fact is you've got 700 people
playing here, they're gonna be

going right back here. You've got 2
speakers here. So maybe a quarter

of the audience are going to get
value for money.

What we need to do to fix the
problem is not get 12 K of sound in

here, like this guy who just walked out...

Our boss, the guy that you signed
the contract for and on behalf of.

Obviously, what's in there is
not what we need.

O.K., boys, it's another one.

OK.

Just one minute, just a second.

Shut the door after you, chaps.

An hour delay, Blixa.

An hour delay. Oh, that's...that's good.

How are you?

Hi, Pete, how's it goin'?

What do we do?

We've got you some transport. When
we've got everybody together

we'll go to the club.

...you need to have your script
tonight, we'll go back if you

want to go back and get it.

Well, how long will it take?

It'll take 15 minutes to get back to
Enigma and then back to the freeway.

We haven't got... We have to go straight
to the gig. We're really late as it is.

Why don't you just get a cab
to cab it down?

You can't even read it tonight.

You can get it tomorrow,
III bring it with me.

If you can remember that.

I had a pile of stuff, there was a
package for you and something else.

Let's go. Let's go.

What are we waiting for?

Where is Blixa?

Blixa's just waiting for his bags.

Mick's at the gig already, he took
the bus with Katy.

Where's Blixa?

He's coming, he's just waiting for his
bags, they've probably gone to London.

Some good news and some bad news,
we've got some money and we

have got some tax for you.

We don't pay tax.

I get it every goddamned year, for
some reason when you're in

business for ten years they think
you're a thief.

That's a strange situation we had
at Fillmore. We had 500 returned

tickets, then they cancel led the show
for one day. 500, I thought we

weren't going to do it, but we did.

More people paid again?

Yeah, we sold out well and truly again.
500 walk up, which I suppose

is really surprising, I think a lot of
people took their money back

'cause they were afraid the show was
going to be blown out. I found out

after the show that we could have
actually played that night.

Can you believe it?

We've been sold out, shit, three
weeks. Three and a half weeks.

Half of our advertising was saying
sold out for you guys. Just about.

It wasn't out of tune, no.

I was going off in the high notes
like ERHH from just having to

scream the entire night through.

It's like death valley in one throat.

Death rattle.

It was coming out of the monitors,
just really loud out of the monitors,

just a completely different bass sound,
just on one stage - it was as loud

as my amp. Just like Ding Ding Ding,
sounding like...like it had just had

all the bass and middle turned off
and the treble up on 10.

He's not a very good monitor
engineer, anyway.

Yeah, the problem is that, trying to
get more volume for the band,

there's two ways...either you turn up
the volume or you turn the...

No, no, no, that's not it, it seems to be
a particular characteristic of the way

Mark mixes it, "cause you have to
tell him at some point of the sound-

check to turn the general volume up.
Even if the PA is great. He just seems

to have the idea of putting in the
monitors everything necessary.

I think everyone's known since
Canada. I'm talking about monitors.

It's been getting worse and worse.
You've got various options open to you.

I just don't want him to be mixing
on the next shows.

Fine...O.K.

I haven't known that it's been him,
personally I don't know, it was really

bad equipment in a lot of them,
stuff like that, it was just in the last

couple that it seemed clear to me.
Why, you think 'cause we've known

for so long we should have
done it then and not now?

Yeah, yeah, exactly, no, yeah, well,
I mean you know anyway, so that's

the reason for these last shows.
I think you're right, you should get the

house guy in or this Ratman guy
will get me a monitor, or I'll get a

professional that I know in L.A.
to come and do it.

So what' 1 we do about it, then?

I'll talk to him after all the gear's
away and we're back at the hotel,

I'll talk to him when we get back to
the hotel. Basically, give him his

plane ticket. He's going to stay in
L.A. anyway, he's got friends here...

That's all, really. Shame we didn't
do it ages ago.

Should have had a felt but I don't.

Hi, how are you?

This is Polly Anne and Howard,
this is Nick.

I'm sorry about the misunderstanding
about the pictures. I'd just really

like to do, like, a quick ten minute
portrait, should be just a

couple of things...

Yeah, O.K.

After or before?

After. I'll just be setting up in the
background while you guys are talking.

What's this for?

L.A. Weekly.

The lovely L.A. Weekly.

The exciting and fun-filled
L.A. Weekly.

Yeah, I haven't read it,
the L.A. Weekly.

I can go out and get you one...

No, It's alright.

I was thinking of bringing one
'cause it's got Sal man Rushdie on

the cover right now.

Who?

Sal man Rushdie, he wrote this book
called the...Satanic Verses and all

this stuff's happening right now
about it, the Ayatollah has this big...

Oh, right, yeah, sorry.

...out for his head. Kinda creepy.

You know we have security guards now?

Do we?

Yeah, we have two security quards
on full time.

They're afraid the weekly might get
bomb threats now because some

New York paper wrote a thing and
got fire bombed or something.

So it's like, yeah, going to work.

Uhuh.

So, I hope they'll get killed next week.

So, I have a list of exciting
questions to ask.

OK.

So, is that it?

Seems like there's interest in...

...guess inspirational qualities.. this
Kinda like southern white trash kinda

guy that goes...that kind of image of
that kinda guy that so many songs

are written about...Seems like you
have that kinda...

...Sometimes that vein Kinda comes
up in different songs...some particular...

-..-Just one of the things that you
find interesting or...

Well, yeah I guess I do find
that interesting.

Are you serious?

You photograph so well, though.

Do you like the way you look?

Yeah, I'm really happy with it.

But you just don't like
being photographed.

No, I don't really, so let's move
it along here.

If you could turn your body just a
little, not too much.

Yeah, that's great, that's perfect.

Hello.

Pardon?

Um, we need to talk as to what
we're going to do here,

because basically we can't really
play anything and we need to have

some interview situation.

...If you feel comfortable with the
instrumentation. I want you to

just start pulsing.

O.K. So we'll do that all in
the other room.

Yes, and then I will encourage you to
play some songs and talk about the

novel, talk about the movie. I'd like
to ask you some things about those.

And I'll pray that my Irish
will save me from my headache.

Yeah, well, we'll all try
and put some positive energy in.

And I have in the studio with me...

Hi, hi, Deidre.

We've almost got all The Bad Seeds
here tonight. Thank you very much

for coming in and doing this unusual
appearance here on Snap on KCRW.

Shall we introduce the fellas
you've brought with you?

Do you want me to do that?

Can they hear my microphone?
Can you hear me?

Yes, I can.

You can. I'm Mick Harvey.

That's Roland Wolf.

Thomas Wydler.

Tomas Wydler on mouth drums.

Kid Congo Powers.

Kid Congo Powers in the easy chair.

And I'm Nick Cave.

The fabulous.

The one, the only, the inimitable,
the energetic man who's made some

of the most interesting music for
quite a long time. Pushing back a

lot of edges. I kKnow you've got to
go over and get ready to do a show

in a little bit and I've got to get off
the air for the BBC at eleven,

so let me just encourage you
to play a song.

You want us to play a song
right now?

You want to read something first?

No, we'll try a song hey.

We'll try a version of "The Mercy Seat'.

Which will be...

Which we'll try to do right now.

Thomas has to start it.

Beautiful.

They're speechless in there.

So, there you go.

So it's basically you and the cop, right?

I don't know, I've only read a bit of it.
I'm a kind of mysterious enigma

that runs through it. Not a lot of
dialogue, thank God.

Just jump off buildings, right?

A hooded killer.

I think it's on the other side of the
street. 6430 is what we're looking for.

Yeah, so Hollywood, here I come.

Weill, I told everybody in London and
they're very impressed.

They're not quite sure...

Sure what?

What it'll do for your career...
credibility.

Fuck my credibility.

I'm sure it's fine.

It's a nice day.

Yes, it is, Peter.

You can see the hills, there's no smog.

Oh, great, we're going the wrong
direction on Sunset.

Oh, well. U-turn.

We're not that late, are we, Beth?

We're not that late, are we?

Just a bit late, as usual.

Oh, it says do not enter,
wrong way, that's terrific.

So, are you looking after me
all day, Beth?

Um...I guess I'll drive you to sound-
check after Enigma.

We are going to Enigma.

Yeah, for a bit anyway.

Just for a short while as opposed
to a long hour conference.

So...

...and after this it's Orion Pictures.

Hi, we're here for Irene Simmons.

Hi, I'm Irene Simmons.
Nice to meet you.

Go all the way down to the end,
into that room.

Denis, are you all set?
Anything you need?

So, 'Wings of Desire',
that's a hell of a film.

Hey?

I said it's a hell of a film.

It's a good one.

The music's all over the place. Did
you appear in that thing as well?

Um, yeah, we're in the bar at the end
playing a concert. Have you seen it?

Pretend that I haven't asked
you that question.

OK.

We'll ask that once again when
we get rolling.

OK.

Hang on a second.
Are we happening?

Well, so here we go.

I don't know, it's all in the lyrics,
I think if I needed to explain what

I wanted to say I would have put
footnotes on the record or something

like that. But I think it's there in the
lyrics, it's an atmospheric song

and it's what it is. I have no
interest in explaining really what the

songs are about.

Do you feel comfortable with the
labelling that there's a certain,

shall we say, atmosphere of rage
involved in what's being sung?

I'm not really comfortable with
any sort of labelling, actually.

I think these songs are written with a
fair amount of disgust for things, yeah.

Why's that?

Because I'm a pretty disgusted
person, really.

How comfortable are you with the
publicity that's necessary as part

of the music industry?

I'm not really comfortable with it at
all, actually. I'm not really comfortable

with being involved in the whole kind
of business apparatus that

surrounds the whole thing.

I'm most comfortable writing, I like
to perform, I'm really interested in

the basic fundamental creative
process, and unfortunately there's so

much kind of... Such a morass
of stuff you have to go through,

whether it be interviews,
photo sessions, sound checks,

bus rides - all this sort of stuff,
you know, business meetings and

that sort of stuff - and that's
something that I can't really come

to terms with, being a musician,
that there's just so much of that,

so much time is spent doing that.

This is the final song of our tour
of America.

Thank God for that.

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.