The Sick Bag Song

The legendary indie rock star offers a genre-bending chronicle of his 2014 American tour with the Bad Seeds that’s part memoir, part epic poem.

The Sick Bag Song began when Nick Cave was struck with inspiration during a flight between tour stops and reached for an airplane sick bag to scribble it down. This improvised diary soon grew into a restless full-length contemporary odyssey. Spurred by encounters with modern-day North America, beset by longing and exhaustion, Cave teases out the significant moments, the people, the books, and the music that have influenced him over the years.

Drawing inspiration from Leonard Cohen, John Berryman, Patti Smith, Sharon Olds, folk ballads and ancient texts, The Sick Bag Song takes the form of a quest, turning over questions of creativity, loss, death, and romance. It is also the perfect companion piece to the Sundance award-winning feature documentary 20,000 Days on Earth.