I read today about Cave's plan for doing the next Bad Seeds album and I have to say the last three albums: two Grinderman's and the last Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! all now sound just the same so I'm hoping for something totally different next, even a quick U-turn in the opposite direction.
Dig album was pretty much the same as the Grinderman line-up except Thomas Wydler, the Bad Seeds drummer since 1985 who only played drums on three songs. Conway Savage does play piano & organ but didn't play any of the tracks on the Dig album. Mick Harvey played on all the songs but quit soon after it's tour. James Johnston who plays only four songs on Dig but didn't tour with them. Ed Kuepper joined last year for a festival tour after Harvey left.
I read a great long interview a couple of months ago which Nick Cave who said, "I'd be honoured if Ed would come in and play. But like I said, I'm not really sure what the next record's going to be. I know it's very exciting to me, because the possibilities now have opened up. Now that Mick has left, there's a void. And it's a kind of void of possibilities." Also he said this about Blixa Bargeld rejoining: "But there was certainly no animosity between me and Blixa. We're very good friends, and I think we both feel that what he did was, both for him and the Bad Seeds, the right decision. I mean, I would quite happily have Blixa back if he wanted to come back." Cool, eh? He should make that an official offer because I think everyone would love to see him back in the Bad Seeds.
Of course nothing has happened yet but here's my dream eight man line-up for the Nick Cave & the Bad Seed 15th album plus ideas or my wishlist for songwriting, recording and producing:
Nick Cave
The vocals.
Just write the songs, just sing them like a front man because what a great band you have here.
Blixa Bargeld
The guitars.
Back with his open tuned electric guitar, slide guitar and maybe even pedal steel guitar but on different songs.
Ed Kuepper
The guitars.
His first time recording as a Bad Seeds why not electric guitar and acoustic guitar too but on different songs.
Conway Savage
The piano, organ and all keyboards.
So just let him play them this time around.
Martyn P. Casey
The bass guitar.
Of-course.
Thomas Wydler
The drums.
Just put him back on the drums on all the songs, he's the Bad Seeds drummer.
Jim Sclavunos
The percussion.
That's it, no drumming this time for him he can wait for the next Grinderman album, god help us all.
Warren Ellis
The violin, mandolin, viola, accordion, flute, loops and programming.
Plus anything and everything else he can think off too.
Now here's a good question: can Nick Cave still write really bleak and depressing songs anymore??? Can he just let his sad and morbid side run wild and lock-up his dirty pervert side for Grinderman 3. Can someone please buy him a pet "Moose", maybe. The recording should be done outside of England, returning to American for the first time since the early 90's, maybe even New York might work great for them now. A different producer too would be good. It will be ten years since Tony Cohen did that job but after Nick Launay doing every album since Nocturama so he needs to take a break. Ten songs I think would be the best amount. Something with a totally different sound than the last three albums. Something entirely miserable, they wouldn't have to be all those piano ballads, I don't mean that. Can Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds do a complete back flip at this stage? Maybe not but Cave being a happily married man has done nothing for his songwriting so he should do the "Moose" album. Hey, maybe that is great working title: The Moose Album and here the album cover too, it looks very Bad Seeds to me.
The Moose, 1773, Oil on canvas by George Stubbs. Whatever is going to happen is not going to happen until next year anyway so back to my countdown. Right now it's going down to number fifteenth which is getting a bit hard, numbering all these songs the higher I get but here goes...
19. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Wings Off Flies
Well, this seems like it's the only one from this album, the debut Cave album featuring The Bad Seeds. I do quite like it as an album but for some reason which I don't know myself and can't really explain I've only chosen this one track. The lyrics at the very start of the song repeat throughout from an old game picking one petal off a flower but Cave replaces it with flies which of-course only have two wings so it always ends on not. Can you imagine young Nick sitting at his London window on rainy day picking up dead insects pulling their wings off?
Find it on: From Her To Eternity (Album) 1984
18. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Magma
This one might seems like an odd one at this stage but I've been enjoying these soundtrack works so much more than say the two Grinderman albums and even the last Bad Seeds album. The Proposition and The Road soundtrack are great. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the weakest one. Some tracks from the three previously mentioned soundtracks are collected on disc one of White Lunar but the second disc is even better. This track is from "The Vaults" which is apparently just vocals but with the FX pedals used heavily over it. Also I wish they would officially release Metamorphosis, Woyzeck and Faust which are all the theater soundtracks and could be on an album too.
Find it on: White Lunar (Compilation) 2009
17. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Jack The Ripper
Just like Loverman in the last post of these 50 tracks, I think this should have been included on The Best of... compilation album because I think it's one of the strongest singles, if not the best one they have ever released. What a killer promo video clip. This song has to be one of the best if not the best ways to close an album too. Wow what an album as well, it's like being hit by sledgehammer repeatedly.
Find it on: Straight To You/Jack The Ripper (Single) 1992 or Henry's Dream (Album) 1992
16. The Birthday Party - Zoo Music Girl
My favorite The Birthday Party album, I think Junkyard is so overrated and you can't call Mutiny/The Bad Seed an album because it's two E.P.'s. This track is the opener for it and I guess, I could say like I said with the previous song but the best way to start an album plus this track it's like a jackhammer . Am I just repeating myself now? If so sorry about that. What about this, can I call this track his first great love song?
Find it on: Prayers on Fire (Album) 1981
15. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Nature Boy
The first single from the epic double album and the only one from the Abattoir Blues side or disc here in my list. A great way to kick start the last truly great Bad Seeds and Nick Cave album. It's the first album without Blixa Bargeld but it's an album dedicated to Mick Geyer who's his best mate outside of his bands, and was someone Cave spoke to on the phone sometimes more than once a day and talked about everything including Cave's own music. He died soon after this album was finished and I would say it was his biggest loss in his life since his father at the age of 21. I can't underestimate Mick Geyer's importance to Nick Cave really so now it seems he's a bit lost without him.
Find it on: Nature Boy (Single) 2004 or Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (Album) 2004
The top photo is of Nick Cave who is far left (with his very short hair cut). The Bad Seeds who going from left to right are Jim Sclavunos, Conway Savage, James Johnston, Martyn P. Casey, Warren Ellis (in white and blue not black like the rest of the band), Thomas Wydler and Mick Harvey walking the streets of Paris during the recording of the album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus and the photographer was Steve Gullick.
Stay tuned for more soon...
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