Famed Australian singer-songwriter, screenwriter and composer Nick Cave performed a solo-piano performance over the summer titled Idiot Prayer that was streamed globally back in July, and is now being released as a live album on November 20, as well as being released in theaters on November 5. As previously reported on Brooklyn Vegan, “Ahead of that, Nick has shared another little teaser from the show, this time of his performance of a previously unreleased track, ‘Euthanasia.’ It’s a gorgeous, melancholy song, which he wrote during the sessions that produced 2016’s Skeleton Tree…”
In the video, Cave’s performance of “Euthanasia” is stoic, yet somber making for a truly melancholic tune. Gently playing the piano keys, Cave is showcasing a deep vulnerability as the song delves into great regret and sorrow. The formerly unreleased track is very self-reflective as his pain and anguish is both seen and heard. There is a sense of deep loss, but Cave turns deep loss into meaning and by the glimpse of one’s smile he finds himself. To listen to Nick Cave’s “Euthanasia” stream below, via YouTube.
The above source sheds light into Cave’s past addiction with heroin and how Narcotic’s Anonymous saved his life. Cave divulged in his past vices, via Cave’s The Red Hand Files page, responding to one of his fans who also has copped with past drug use, in a lengthy response, saying:
Dear Evan,
Personally, I have a lot of time for Narcotics Anonymous, but I do understand your resistance to the idea. I was the same. In my heart I never really got it — never felt the same connection other people seemed to have. I always felt outside the idea, looking in. I could never fully commit.
However, I think it would be fair to say if it weren’t for NA I probably wouldn’t have survived my heroin addiction. Narcotics Anonymous was this thing, steady and ever-present, that just never ever went away, a place I could come crawling back to, again and again, year after year, and be accepted and welcomed, welcomed back in. In this respect I owe Narcotics Anonymous my life. When no one else would have me, Narcotics Anonymous always would.
The basis of Narcotics Anonymous, the Twelve Steps, a series of suggestions as to how to live a life — the original ‘antidote to chaos’ — seems to me to be an extraordinarily effective way to navigate the world, for all people, addicts or otherwise. Having said that, I do not follow The Twelve Steps myself, to my detriment I would say. Doubtless, I would be a better person if I did.
In the end you find your own way. Ultimately I found mine outside of NA, with my wife, but it took Narcotics Anonymous to show me the way.
Reading your letter again, Evan, my advice to you — and to me — go to a fucking meeting.
Love, Nick
As of late, Nick Cave contributed as a guest appearance on AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T. Rex. As previously reported here on mxdwn, “Since the passing of producer Hal Wilner, Nick Cave contributed a cover of ‘Cosmic Dancer’ as part of a tribute album titled AngelHeaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T. Rex.”
Photo credit: Raymond Flotat
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