This song is transcendent and uplifting

It makes perfect sense to me. What's so ethereal about Gurrumul Yunupingu is just as you say - it's not about the lyrics it's about the experience of his voice. For Nick Cave, the lyrics are really important. They're poetry actually. Just like Leonard Cohen you can read them as poems without the music.

Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

I've felt you coming girl, as you drew near
I knew you'd find me, cause I longed you here
Are you my destiny? is this how you'll appear?
Wrapped in a coat with tears in your eyes?
Well take that coat babe, and throw it on the floor
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

As you've been moving surely toward me
My soul has comforted and assured me
That in time my heart it will reward me
And that all will be revealed
So I've sat and I've watched an ice-age thaw
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built
Out of longing great wonders have been willed
They're only little tears, darling, let them spill
And lay your head upon my shoulder

Outside my window the world has gone to war
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

O we will know, won't we?
The stars will explode in the sky
O but they don't, do they?
Stars have their moment and then they die

There's a man who spoke wonders though I've never met him
He said, 'he who seeks finds and who knocks will be let in'
I think of you in motion and just how close you are getting
And how every little thing anticipates you
All down my veins my heart-strings call
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

 

I just checked out the Youtube clip for Gurrumul Yunupingu again - one of the comments says this song is about his grief for his dead father. Just makes it even more powerful knowing that.

 

Thanks Sarita, I take that as a huge compliment!

 

I ended up downloading two songs of Nick Cave.

 

I ended up ordering one of his CDs, too