“The Black crow king”

“I am the black crow king
The Keeper of the nodding corn
All the hammers are a-talking, all the nails are a-singing
So sweet and low, you can hear it in the valley
Where live the lame and the blind
They climb the hill out of its belly, leave with mean, black boots on”

Something about Nick Caves unique face has always intrigued me long before I listened to his music. Everything is all tightly wound around the eyes but as soon as you get to the tip of the nose there’s this droop and mush-mouthness almost like a release from all the tension at the top. If you can in fact read a person by their covering; he is both a highbrow intellectual and ghoul-faced maniac, devilishly handsome, and just plain devilish. And this is an image that marries perfectly with his artistic creations. The Black crow-cage symbolizes the dark subject matter of most of his career while the humming bird represents the songs like “O children” and “Into my arms” that surface every now and then and are beautiful and free of any stage persona.