Anita Lane, Early Member of the Bad Seeds, Dies at 61

Anita Lane, the singer-songwriter and longtime Nick Cave collaborator who was an early member of the Bad Seeds, has died, Rolling Stone reports. A lyricist and solo artist in her own right, Lane was an early collaborator of Cave’s, working with him and Mick Harvey during their time in the Birthday Party in the early 1980s. A cause of death has not been announced. Anita Lane was 61 years old.

Anita Lane met Nick Cave in the late 1970s, leading to their work together with the Birthday Party in the early ’80s: Lane wrote the lyrics to “A Dead Song” (from 1981’s Prayer on Fire) and also wrote lyrics for two songs on 1982’s Junkyard. In addition, she co-wrote several of Cave’s career-defining songs, including “From Her to Eternity” and “Stranger Than Kindness.” Her solo debut, the 1988 EP Dirty Sings, featured performances by Cave and members of the Bad Seeds.

After working with Lane in the Bad Seeds, Mick Harvey produced the artist’s two full-length albums: 1993’s Dirty Pearl and 2001’s Sex O’Clock. Lane continued to contribute to Bad Seeds records up through 1995’s Murder Ballads. Shortly after the news of her death, Nick Cave published a tribute to Lane, “the smartest and most talented of all of us, by far.” He wrote, “You think you know grief, you think you’ve worked out its mechanics, you think you’ve become grief-savvy—stronger, wiser, more resilient—you think that there is nothing more that can hurt you in this world, and then Anita dies. … Two months ago, speaking to her on the phone she seemed a million miles away. Loved her children more than anything. They were her pride and joy. It was both easy and terrifying to love her. Leaves a big, crying space.”