Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Released 2016
The Sick Bag Song began life scribbled on paper airlinesick bags during Cave’s 2014 tour. It soon grew into a restless full-length contemporary odyssey. Spurred by encounters with modern-day North America, beset by longing and exhaustion, Cave teases out the significant moments, the people, the books, and the music that have influenced him. Drawing inspiration from Leonard Cohen, John Berryman, Patti Smith, Sharon Olds, folk ballads and ancient texts, The Sick Bag Song takes the form of a quest, turning over questions of creativity, loss, death, and romance. Both mythic and grounded in the now, it lies somewhere between The Waste Land and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It is also a companion piece to the Sundance award-winning feature documentary 20,000 Days on Earth. This beautifully packaged hardcover will be a centerpiece for any fan's library, as well as a poetic introduction for the uninitiated to the limitless imaginative universe of this living legend.