Sad waters revisited

There are very few Nick Cave songs that I find difficult to talk about.
Most of them tell exciting stories and even the gory ones are fun enough to listen to, in a way.
But this one is sad to the core. There is nothing remotely fun or uplifting about it.
Now I know that there is nothing fun or uplifting about, say, Mercy Seat or The Carny, but both of them have got some sort of theatrical narrative that makes them a bit easier to listen to, despite their disturbing or depressing theme.
But Sad Waters just breaks your heart and makes your knees bend.
The album version is very strange, with its almost amateurish guitar running through the song and Nick's double vocals. Unsurprisingly, he sounds like a drunk (or hung over) man singing.

I usually prefer the re-invention of the song in the live performances of the early '00s , with the piano and the violin and with Nick's middle-aged voice, because as it is often the case with this type of songs, it sounds like it was written to be sung exactly like this one day.
And I know that it is supposed to be about a young, innocent girl called Mary, but what I've always heard in this song, is the voice of a broken man trying to sing about things he knows he has left behind.