The analogy with The Hammer Song holds up surprisingly well over the eighty page chapter. The latter is fairly typical biographical fare – the rebellious and misunderstood early years (here with a punk rock attitude), and striving to find his own voice, as the band evolve into The Birthday Party. First up is The Hammer Song, which intercuts that song’s gothic scenario of a boy setting out alone into the wilderness, with Nick figuratively doing that in small-town Australia.
Each is named after one of Cave’s works, and weaves together a dramatisation of this with a related strand of his biography. While the earlier book was essentially chronological, Mercy on Me has five sections, with overlapping time-frames. Mercy on Me offers a chance to build on that. That book most came to life when Kleist loosened the biographical constraints, with magic realist moments, and dramatisations of the songs. In a knowing wink, Kleist even shows the young Cave and bandmates spinning Folsom Prison Blues, which frames the Cash volume.
Indeed the two covered each other’s songs, and recorded a duet. Nick Cave is a kindred spirit to Cash as an author of narrative songs channelling old testament blood and thunder. Reinhard Kleist has a number of biographies to his name including Johnny Cash – I See a Darkness.
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