20,000 Days on Earth Page #8

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And we ended up on

Top Of The Pops...

Mm.

...and that whole event, around Kylie,

kind of lives

in this sort of weird kind of bubble

where life for that brief time

was kind of different,

because we were suddenly

thrown into this weird situation

of having a hit record,

and then, obviously, people bought

the album and listened to it,

and realised that, you know,

that would be the last time they would...

they would, er...have anything to do

with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds again.

But for that moment, it was...

it was kind of a...for me,

a very special moment in time, you know.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

NICK:
Louis Wain. Look at that.

That's The Fire Of The Mind

Agitates The Atmosphere, that.

Do you have my copy of Lolita?

That's Anita. Yeah.

That's Susie.

The word "muse"

I often feel reluctant to use,

because it feels like the muse is

something ethereal and out there.

It's not for me.

The songs are very much about people

and...and it's these people

that kind of prop up the songs.

If I sing a song like Deanna,

it's very much three

minutes or whatever

with the memory of that person.

Not that I have any interest

in the way that that person is now,

but I have a huge interest

in the memory of that person.

The mythologised, edited

kind of memory of that person.

There's a slide that I want to show you.

If you just switch the lights off.

That's my absolute favourite

photograph of Susie.

It staggers me that, um...

Susie, who has this kind of innate

relationship with the camera...

KIRK:
Yeah.

...can be so fiercely, er...

reluctant to be photographed,

and...it's really that framing

of the face,

of the hair, the black hair,

and the framing of the white face

that's really, er...interesting.

There's an audio clip that I wanted

to play through to you as well.

If you just wanna listen to this one.

NICK:
The first time I saw Susie was at

the Victoria & Albert Museum in London

and when she came walking in,

all the things I had obsessed over for all

the years - pictures of movie stars,

Jenny Agutter in the billabong,

Anita Ekberg in the fountain,

Ali MacGraw in her black tights,

images from the TV when I was a kid,

Barbara Eden

and Elizabeth Montgomery and Abigail,

Miss World competitions, Marilyn Monroe

and Jennifer Jones and Bo Derek

and Angie Dickinson as Police Woman,

Maria Falconetti and Suzi Quatro,

Bolshoi ballerinas and Russian gymnasts,

Wonder Woman and Barbarella

and supermodels and Page 3 girls,

all the endless, impossible fantasies,

the young girls at the Wangaratta pool

lying on the hot concrete,

Courbet's Origin Of The World,

Bataille's bowl of milk,

Jean Simmons' nose ring,

all the stuff I had heard

and seen and read.

Advertising and TV commercials,

billboards and fashion spreads

and Playmate of the Month,

Caroline Jones dying in Elvis's arms,

Jackie O in mourning,

Tinker Bell trapped in the drawer,

all the continuing, never-ending

drip-feed of erotic data

came together at that moment

in one great big crash-bang

and I was lost to her

and that was that.

(SEAGULLS CRY)

Sometimes it feels like the ghosts

of the past are all about and crowding in,

vying for space and recognition.

They are no longer content

to be kept down there in the dark.

They have been there too long.

They are angry and gathering strength

and calling for attention.

They're clawing their way into the future

and will be waiting there.

Have I remembered them enough?

Have I honoured them sufficiently?

Have I done my best to keep them alive?

KYLIE:
There's the pier.

You were so important in my life.

You were like

this kind of mist that rolled in,

cos I knew about you and...

and I'd heard about...

your desire to do this song,

and then I saw you perform live

with The Bad Seeds and it was like, "Uh!"

You were walking up this ramp to go

on stage. It was like a scene from a film.

You all just had this kind of swagger

and the energy,

you know, when you're building up

to go on stage,

and then the performance

was just electrifying,

and your body language,

you were like this...

like a...like a tree.

- (LAUGHS)

- That probably doesn't sound...

- Like a big tree?

- Like a...

you know, like from a Hitchcock film,

a kind of tree in...in silhouette,

like really in a storm or something.

It was...it was amazing.

Cos you didn't know much

about what I did, right?

No, I had to speed-read your biography.

- Oh, you read that thing?

- Yeah.

- That wasn't the truth, though.

- (LAUGHS)

NICK:
Are you worried

about being forgotten?

Yeah, I worry about being forgotten

and about being lonely.

- Oh, really?

- Yeah.

- You had waxworks made of you.

- I had multiple waxworks.

How many?

I think I had five.

- Well, at a certain point...

- I'm really jealous of you.

...the story went that

the only person who had

more waxworks than me was the Queen.

Is that right?

I don't know if that's still a fact,

but it was at the time.

KYLIE:
I remember Michael Hutchence

telling me that he was short-sighted

and he tried wearing glasses or contacts

to see the audience,

and it terrified him so much

he never did again.

- Oh, is that right?

- We spoke about that

because the first time I saw INXS play,

I thought that he'd looked at me,

which an audience member

is supposed to do.

Everyone in the audience

should feel like you've looked at them,

and it became apparent that

he probably never saw me, just a blur.

But he had a kind of way of

projecting outwards. I'm envious of that.

I'm very much a front-row kind of guy.

I don't feel I'm that kind

of performer that can...

reach out that far, you know.

For me, there's a kind of psychodrama

that goes on between

singular people in the front row

that becomes very important in the...

in the telling of the...

the narratives of the songs.

I get a huge amount of energy from...

From picking out singular...

People, and terrifying them.

Really? Do you make it

your mission to terrify them?

Well, it's that kind of, um...

mixture of awe and terror

that you can get from one person

or a small group of people

- that is really, um...

- Mm.

...that gives a huge amount of, er...

energy to...to kind of transform yourself.

# Ooh

# Ah, let the damn day break

# Ooh

# Rainy days

# Always make me sad

# Ooh

# Miley Cyrus floats in a swimming pool

in Toluca Lake... #

(CROWD CHEER)

# You're the best girl I ever had... #

(CHEERING)

# Can you feel my heartbeat?

# Can you feel my heartbeat?

# I'm driving my car down to Geneva

# I'm driving

# Can you feel my heartbeat... #

(CROWD CHEERS AND CLAPS)

# I'm driving my car

# Can't remember anything at all... #

(AUDIENCE CHEER)

# Can't remember anything at all

# Sitting here

# In my basement patio. #

(AUDIENCE CHEER)

(DOOR CREAKS)

(FILM PLAYING)

(CHUCKLING) No.

No? You don't want any?

AL PACINO:
You wanna f*** with me?

(FILM CHARACTER SHOUTS)

You f***ing with the best!

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