The Genius of Nick Cave, an example

 Take a listen:

That bass lets you know there's something menacing afoot, right?  

Then you starting tuning in on some clues:  

"Who was it you called the good shepherd," Hmmm... seems like a Jesus/Christian reference

"Who measured the distance from the planets
Right down to your big blue spinning world"  Compare to Isaiah 40:12: Who has measured the waters in                                                                             the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand                                                                                     marked off the heavens?

So, Nick is putting into juxtaposition the role of parenting and that of god and mankind.

But, what about that refrain and title?  Could it be a reference to the 1959 classic Gwendolyn Brooks poem: We Real Cool 

Live fast but die young? The folly of youth is to think they are cool. Hmmm...

Go back to those opening lines: "Who took your measurements? From your toes to the top of your head"

I was thinking your parents or a doctor when you are born or maybe god may be measuring mankind, but the undertaker does that as well when he puts you in your coffin now doesn't he?  

So, quick recap:  We have themes of parenting, god, birth, and death.

Now what about this pivot to Wikipedia and facts about the stars?

Have we lost religion and replaced it with science? Or is it that science and religion are where we turn to for answers? Or is it simply that when we look at those stars, we are looking into the past?  Is a single human life a metaphor for the life of our species in the cosmos?  Are we all always stuck to be simply looking to the past?  Do we, as a species, think we are so cool simply because we are so young in the cosmic scheme and don't know anything?

"The past is the past and it's here to stay" Yes, we can always visit our departed loved ones in our memories just like we see the light from those long dead stars...

"And I hope you hear me, and you'll call" 

Do the dead hear us?  Can we get a call from the past?  Do we as a species know anything?  Are we, as a species, living fast and dying young? If god is out there, is she going to reach out?

Damn, Nick, did you just sing me a song about life, death, god, science, and the fundamental human condition of not knowing anything for sure except that we yearn for connection and meaning?

I looked up the album notes in Wikipedia and  Nick said "if I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then Push The Sky Away is the ghost-baby in the incubator".  So the song is meta as well: a song about songs (just like the 1959 poem has a jazz reference embedded in it!)... Every song is like a child to an artist, isn't it?

Awestruck am I.  Even if I'm just projecting my own stuff into your magnificent song, thanks for creating the space for me, Nick.

"Yeah, we real, real cool"