Darker With The Day Lyrics
So with that, I thought I'd take a final walk
The tide of public opinion had started to abate
The neighbors, bless them, had turned out to be all talk
I could see their frightened faces peering at me through the gate
I was looking for an end to this, for some kind of closure
Time moved so rapidly, I had no hope of keeping track of it
And I thought of my friends who had died of exposure
And I remembered other ones who had died from the lack of it
[Verse 2]
And in my best shoes, I started falling forward down the street
Stopped at a church and jostled through the crowd
Love followed just behind me, panting at my feet
As the steeple tore the stomach from a lonely little cloud
Inside I sat, seeking the presence of a God
Searched through the pictures in a leather-bound book
And I found a woolly lamb dozing in an issue of blood
And a gilled Jesus shivering on a fisherman's hook
[Chorus]
And babe, it seems so long
Since you've been gone away
And I just got to say
That it grows darker with the day
Back on the street I saw a great big smiling sun
It was a good day and an evil day and all was bright and new
Seemed to me that most destruction was being done
By those who could not choose between the two
Amateurs, dilettantes, hacks, cowboys, clones
The streets groan with the little Caesars, Napoleons, and cunts
With their building blocks and their tiny plastic phones
Counting on their fingers, with their crumbs down their fronts
[Verse 4]
I passed by your garden, saw you with your flowers
The Camellias, Magnolias, and Azaleas so sweet
You stood there invisible in the panicking crowds
You looked so beautiful in the rising heat
I smell smoke, see little fires bursting on the lawns
People carry on regardless, listening to their hands
Great cracks appear in the pavement, the earth yawns
Bored and disgusted, to do us down
[Chorus]
And babe, it seems so long
Since you've been gone
You went away
And I just got to say
That it grows darker with the day
All these streets are frozen now. I come and go
Full of a longing for something I do not know
My father sits slumped in the deepening snow
As I search, in and out, above, about, and below
[Chorus]
Babe, it seems so long
Since you've been gone
And you went away
And I hope and I pray
That it grows darker with the day
About
Track #12 from Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds‘ eleventh studio album No More Shall We Part.
As the rough narrative of the album reaches its conclusion, we find that Cave’s relationship with his wife has finally collapsed under the pressures in their life. The song centers around his search for comfort following that loss. Throughout the course of the song, there are multiple callbacks to earlier narratives and themes within the album, drawing the whole album to a close.
Cave travels all over town looking for something that will ease the pain of his wife leaving, but nothing he seems to find brings him any comfort, except for a brief moment where he spies his wife in her yard.
There is also some subtle suggestion, especially in verses four and five, that while Cave is searching for respite from his own loss, the whole world is coming to an actual end. It is not clear how literally Cave intended that imagery or if it was merely suggestive of the narrator’s emotional state, but the important aspect is that the apocalyptic imagery happens at the peripheral. Cave is so absorbed in the absence of his wife that he fails to properly synthesize all of the important facts around him into a coherent understanding. This establishes that the loss of his wife is on equal standing with a literal end of his world.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 3.Hallelujah
- 4.Love Letter
- 7.Oh My Lord
- 12.Darker With The Day
