Songfacts®:

• Well, sleep now, sleep now, take as long as you need
  'Cause I'm just waiting for you
  
  Nick Cave's son, Arthur, was 15 years old when he fell from a cliff to his death in Brighton, England, on July 14, 2015. Ghosteen is largely influenced by the loss of Arthur. Cave wrote the album during a period of grieving, and many of the songs reflect his emotions and experiences as he coped with the loss of his child. While the album is not explicitly about his son's death, the themes of loss, love, and grief are present throughout, and many of the lyrics are thought to be inspired by Cave's personal experiences.
  
  "Waiting For You" is a beautiful expression of love and loss. The lyrics capture the pain of losing someone you love, but also the hope that one day you will be reunited.
• Nick Cave co-wrote and co-produced "Waiting For You" with his longtime collaborator, Warren Ellis. After they played the track to Coldplay's Chris Martin, he gave Cave some advice that radically changed it.
  
  '"Waiting For You' is a ballad, but originally we had a very loud, super aggressive, industrial loop that played completely out of time throughout the song," Cave wrote in his 2022 book Faith, Hope and Carnage. "Originally, that loop played from start to finish and it absolutely dominated the song. In our minds, we thought it set up a weird, disciplined tension within the song that sounded unnerving and strange. We had never really questioned it, but when we played it to Chris, he said, 'I love you guys very much, but is there any chance I could hear the song again without the f---ing canning factory?' At which point, our friend, the film director, Andrew Dominik sprang out of his chair and shouted, thank God someone suggested that."
  
  "At that time, we weren't so pleased, because we liked the brutality of the whole thing but we compiled," Cave added. "We took away the industrial loop, and what was left was a very beautiful, vulnerable song shimmering there on its own - a classic old school ballad, raw and fragile and unimpeded. So thank God for that."