Now, what kind of an answer is that? I tend to believe that Nick Cave's lyric is a bit more complicated than that answer would suggest.
In the opening verse the protagonist claims to be ”nearly wholly innocent you know”, a very suggestive assertion. It is innocence measured on a gliding scale. Can a person be nearly innocent, and what would that suggest about the act he is innocent, or guilty, of? Throughout the song he keeps referring to ”the measuring of truth”, if truth can be measured than perhaps you can measure guilt aswell. Both truth and guilt are abstract notions, yet it is these notions that lay the foundation for moral perceptions aswell as for the juridicial system. A trial is just this, a measuring of truth, weighing evidence and testimonials against eachother to decide how guilty the accused is and what punishment is more appropriate. However, even though a measuring would suggest that the occurence can not be bi-polar, a conviction certainly is. You either walk free, or you get locked up. In verse 12 and 15 it is stated that there was no proof. No proof usually implies someone’s innocence, but in the end of verse 15 the protagonist claims that he is ”not afraid to tell a lie”. The act of arresting the murderer and make him pay for the crime he has commited outshines society’s ambition to protect its citizens. The recurring variations of the phrase ”an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” can be seen as a claim that the courts of law are usually more driven by vindictive reasons than by a sincere wish for justice to be done. ”A lie for a lie and a truth for a truth” is the murderer’s defense for his own lies. A lie can only be answered by another lie, thereby the responsibilty for the lies are placed with someone else. Wrapped up in questions about who is lying and where truth really can be found, the story reveals layer after layer of what seems to be self-deceit.
The two hands, tattooed with good and evil, deceives the killer. Verse 6 expresses the anger and disgust he feels for the evil hand, ”That filthy five! They did nothing to challenge or resist.” It seems the hand has deceived the killer by not resisting an urge to do something bad. In verse 9 it is clear that the evil hand has killed someone, but we are told that the hand ”wears a wedding band that’s G.O.O.D”, and this wedding band is a ”long-suffering shackle”. Is the evil hand disguised as good, making both hands evil, or is perhaps the evil hand restrained by the shackles of the good hand, symbolising the killer’s struggle with his own guilt?
The electric chair is referred to as ”the mercy seat”, the seat in which the protagonist will meet his last judgement. Or rather, the seat that will pass him on to the actual mercy seat where he will stand trial infront of God. In verse 7 the two are compared, ”in Heaven His throne is made of gold” / ”Down here it’s made of wood and wire”, both are seen as a throne from which ”All history does unfold”. By climbing into the electric chair and thereby passing away and taking his stand infront of the throne of last judgement the truth will be revealed. Claiming not to be afraid of death and knowing he will face this final trial suggests that the killer is convinced of his own innocence. Yet, in verse 13 he claims to be ”helping to be done with all this twisted of the truth”, this could indicate that he has never had any intentions of claiming his innocence or that he is lying to himself. It is never cleared whose truth is being twisted and there is certainly a possibility that it is his own truth that has been twisted in order for his behaviour to fit into the understanding of the life after this that he has gained in prison. The final verse confuses matters more. The killer still claims that he is telling the truth, but ends with the confession ”But I’m afraid I told a lie”. This could mean several things; he lied to himself, he lied to the judge. However, more than anything it suggests that in the last few minutes of his life, the killer himself does not know if he is innocent or not. After lying to yourself for a long time, a person might be very confused about what is real and what is not. The lie becomes the truth, thereby closing the circle and adding even more meaning to the old saying ”an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”.
As in the case with most poetry, finding answers is never easy and there is not always an answer to be found. Whether the killer commited the crime or not becomes less important as the text proceeds, instead the lyrics turn out to deal with the concept of truth and the internal conflicts that sometimes occur when trying to cope with notions that move in a grey area open to everyone’s own decipherment. It shines an interesting light on the conflict of ethics and practice, particularly in the case of society trying to protect itself and its citizens. After abandoning Christian law for the use of a democratic legal system, is it still morally defensible to claim a life as payment for a life that has been taken? Whether it was Nick Cave’s intention or not, this is certainly a debate that can be found in these lyrics.
Yes. Well. That's what I think.
― Johanna Lindau (johanna.), Sunday, 9 January 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)
So when he sings "and by the way I told a lie" (or whatever) .. is he lying about being guilty or lying about being afraid to die?The last line goes "But I'm afraid I told a lie" and is not proceeded by the statement that he is not afraid to die, but by his "anyway i told the truth" statement. Which to me would suggest that he lied about telling the truth, or one of the truths he possibly could have told (the judge, himself, or someone else).
― johanna. (johanna.), Monday, 10 January 2005 02:57 (twenty years ago)
eight years pass...
one month passes...