En af flere store, tårevædede klassikere i amerikansk popmusik af sangskriveren Jimmy Webb. Originalen fra 1968 er med Glen Campbell, men siden er den enkle historie om den ensomme mand oppe i højspændingsledningerne også blevet givet af R.E.M. blandt utallige andre. Her er det for nu aldrig hvilende Nick Cave der synger den som gæstesolist på RHCP-bassisten Fleas’s nye album Honora, der udgives i dag…
…And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman
Is still on the line…
Nick Cave røg officielt fredspipen i 2025:
“About twenty-five years ago, I made an offhand and somewhat uncharitable remark about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There was no malice intended, it was just the sort of obnoxious thing I would say back then to piss people off. I was a troublemaker, a shit-stirrer, feeling most at ease in the role of a societal irritant. Perhaps it’s an Australian trait among people of my generation, I don’t know, but that comment has followed me around for the last quarter-century. But the most interesting aspect of all this is not what I said about the Chili Peppers, but rather the response from Flea, their bass player. On Facebook, Flea expressed how hurt he felt by my remark, but went on to say, in great detail, that he loved my music regardless. He wrote a profoundly generous and open-hearted love letter to Nick Cave. I remember being genuinely moved by his words and thinking what a classy guy Flea was, and feeling on some subterranean level that I was unable to fully grasp at that point in my life, that Flea was a human being of an entirely different calibre, indeed, of a higher order.”
Mr. Flea kommenterede to år efter:
“For a second that hurt my feelings because I love Nick Cave. I have all of his records. I don’t care if Nick Cave hates my band because his music means everything to me because he is one of my favorite songwriters and singers and musicians of all time. I love all the incarnations of the Bad Seeds. But it only hurt my feelings for a second because my love for his music is bigger than all that shit, and if he thinks my band is lame then that’s OK.”
Nick Cave, 2004: “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”
Det er interessant – ikke mindst når man tænker på at Nick Cave for 25 år siden udtalte sig særdeles negativt om The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Han må have skiftet mening siden da.
Flea alias Michael Balzary er i øvrigt født i Australien, endda i Melbourne, hvor Nick Cave boede som ung.