Synopsis
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds submit themselves to a professional hypnotist in an unsettling, darkly comic experiment. The musicians sit through induction and suggestion exercises, their vacant expressions and involuntary movements contrasting with flashes of the band performing. Nick Cave's intense presence gives the footage a sinister edge, while the other members appear increasingly vulnerable and disoriented. The result is less a conventional performance clip than a strange document of altered consciousness, matching the song's themes of desire, menace, and psychological surrender.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video was made in 1994 to promote "Loverman," the second single from the band's eighth studio album, *Let Love In*.
- The central concept came from filming Cave and the Bad Seeds undergoing hypnosis rather than staging a conventional narrative or performance video.
- A professional hypnotist was hired for the session. According to a later account, the band was enthusiastic about the idea, although their susceptibility to hypnosis varied considerably.
- Mick Harvey was reportedly the band member most responsive to the hypnotist. During the filming of a sequence in which his hands shook, the hypnotist stopped the shoot after warning that Harvey's blood sugar level may have dropped dangerously low.
- The finished clip combines the hypnosis footage with concert material, creating an uneasy contrast between controlled stage performance and apparent loss of control.
- "Loverman" was later covered by Metallica on the 1998 album *Garage Inc.*, helping introduce the song to a wider heavy-metal audience.
- The video was subsequently included in *Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: The Videos*, a compilation released in 1998.