50 Greatest Nick Cave Songs: from #24 to #20

Right, I'm back after moving house and finally getting back to my favorite Nick Cave's songs...

24. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Sorrow's Child
OK, sorry to say this is the only song from that album on my list. I think it is a bit over rated as an album and I'm totally sick and tired of The Ship Song (it's Jimmy Barnes favorite Cave track) and he should stop singing The Weeping Song live without Blixa too. This is I guess the most melancholic track from one of his most happy albums, well by his standards, which maybe why I don't like it as much. That in turn could explain why I don't like his new stuff. It's not a mid-life crisis because he sounds like he's having too much of a good time even when he's not getting any sex. Anyway I'm writing about Sorrow's Child. It's one of a few of his songs featuring rivers and water. It's not the first on my list and will not be the last too.
Find it on: The Good Son (Album) 1990

23. The Boys Next Door - Shivers
A song not written by Cave but Rowland S. Howard which he could not match up to at the time so it's really a track to make Cave work a lot harder as a songwriter in the early days. It was also banned by Molly Meldrum on Countdown which is of-course just another reason why it's so great. It made it into Triple J's top 10 Nick Cave songs on J-files in the 90's and pretty high too. Of-course some shit band covered it in the 90's and had a hit single with it and on the same label who dropped The Boys Next Door in the 70's after this album but then again Howard thanks Mushroom record's boss, Michael Gudinski on his final album credits Pop Crimes which would have to be the greatest album from last year and totally destroys anything Cave has done in the last five years. Should I say Howard is outdoing him again, maybe just haunting Cave from the grave.
Find it on: Door, Door (Album) 1979

22. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Up Jumped The Devil
A song sandwiched between two of his most famous tracks which for me I wish he would play this one live just once instead of those two, I think he's played The Mercy Seat every time I've seen him live and missed Deanna maybe once but what the fuck am I saying here? A few years ago when on myspace I asked a lot of people what their favorite Nick Cave song was. I remember that Gareth Liddiard from The Drones answered me with this as one of two songs he picked out. Plus it also was chosen for Mojo Magazine, Highway to Hell, the Devils best tunes, the cover mounted CD early this year too.
Find it on: Tender Prey (Album) 1988

21. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Hard On For Love
This is the second song Gareth Liddiard from The Drones picked out as his favorite Cave tracks too which I've kept together here on my list. Here is an interesting fact it was never played live until last years' 2009 Aussie tour so there is hope for those other tracks he never plays live too. This is an overly sexual or just totally erotic track but at the same time a song with so many religious reference's. He come in at her like Lazarus from above and few lines above that she walked straight out of the Book of Leviticus. Then the lord is his shepherd and then down few more line she is now Heaven and Hell so anyway you get the idea and before we get to the final repeated chorus.
Find it on: Your Funeral... My Trial (Album) 1986

2o. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Loverman
To finish off the twenties is a song that should have been on The Best of compilation album but of-course if it was it wouldn't be included here in my chart because of the rules made about this list. I think it was a better single than the others or maybe it was just because it has one of the best ever promo video clips Nick and the Bad Seeds's have made, they all got hypnosis for it, how cool is that. What is not very cool at all is the metal band and disco bloke covers, how to screw-up a great song two different ways but I will not say their names in this blog. Anyway check out the self-portrait drawing at the top of the page done by well... Nick Cave. I wonder if you could hire that today as a costume for Halloween somewhere?
Find it on: Loverman (Single) 1994 or Let Love In (Album) 1994
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50 Greatest Nick Cave Songs: from #45 to #40

OK, I'm back with his next five songs of my favorites which will take it down to number 40. So without further ado, here is...

45. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - The Journey
This is the longest track from the last film score by these two. This is the third for a full length movie. They have also made music for documentary's and theater's in the last five years. Cave has been doing more of these than anything else. I'm enjoying these more than say Grinderman project or even the last Bad Seeds' album and I'm not going to say anything about his dirty joke book. This really should be listened to as a whole album and I think these work totally great without the movies too. The Journey as a track has elements included in it which runs all the way though the whole score. Also did you know the "Ethnic" percussion was played by Paul Clarvis here but the year before he was the main man who did the crazy drumming beats for The Dark Knight film on those mad Joker theme songs?
Find it on: The Road (Film Score) 2009 or White Lunar (Compilation) 2009


44. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Hallelujah
This is the real beginning of the Nick Cave and Warren Ellis collaboration. Both worked together in the 90's with Ellis official joining The Bad Seeds in 1997 on the previous album the Boatman's Call. Ellis only co-wrote two tracks on this album but by the end of the decade both of them could be joined at the hip. Amazingly Ellis' violin takes over this album. Hallelujah as the third song in sets it up the rest of the record. Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing backing vocals on this album but they sing the final verse here. Please note this is not the same song as the famous Leonard Cohen track which Jeff Buckley did in the mid-90's, two completely different songs.
Find it on: No More Shall We Part (Album) 2001


43. The Boys Next Door - These Boots Are Made For Walking
Back to the very start of Cave's career with his most earliest cover. The song was original written by Lee Hazlewood and recorded by Nancy Sinatra who took it to number one in the United States and United Kingdom Pop charts. This is from a re-release by Aztec Music but originally came out on vinyl back in 1978. Suicide Records only ever released one album which was called Lethal Weapons (not anything to do with the Mel Gibson movies). This was way before The Boys Next Door debut album, also before Rowland S. Howard joined the band too. It's way more New Wave than pure Punk and you can tell how much Howard added to this band later but here that is not a bad thing because I think this is by far the best version of this song and there have been a lot of covers. The album features two more Boys Next Door songs and six other late-70's Melbourne bands and all new liner notes which is a great read. So it's well worth getting the whole album.
Find it on: Lethal Weapons (Compilation) 2007


42. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
This is an odd one I have to admit but I love it so much I can't go past it. Cave did this in 1986 which is two years before Marc Almond's more famous version. The song was written by Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook and originally recorded by David and Jonathan and then Gene Pitney did his one in 1967. Off-course Marc Almond and Gene Pitney did a version together which went to number one in the UK in 1989. Anyway I'm supposed to be writing about the Cave cover which I find just so much more sincere and stripped of all the usually pop slime that it's covered in. It's so unlike anything Cave's done before this and with the simple three piece band arrangement with Mick Harvey on piano, Barry Adamson on bass and Thomas Wydler on drums. It's just perfect like this and proves that some times less is more but being the third track from the end of the album it's almost always just totally forgotten by everyone.
Find it on: Kicking Against the Pricks (Album) 1986



41. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Death Is Not The End
To finish up with the cover songs this is one of the last he ever did with the Bad Seeds as a group (plus a few friends too). A Bob Dylan song from his 80's forgotten songbook which was the last song on the Murder Ballads album. I really didn't think much of the record but this is so great. Also the only song from that album which made it into my list here, Murder Ballads is over rated as a whole album. Anita Lane, Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey, and Shane McGowan with Cave himself and his bandmembers guitarist Blixa Bargeld and drummer Thomas Wydler all each sing a verse but the real surprise to me is Wydler's singing vocal which I would like to hear more of. It was recorded in Melbourne with Brian Hooper on bass and it's just a beautiful way to finish such an disappointing and silly album. This song is so different and unlike anything else on the album, it really seems out of place.
Find it on: Murder Ballads (Album) 1996


40. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Brother, My Cup Is Empty
Well, this has to be Cave's ultimate drinking song so I have to include it here. This was recorded in California after him leaving Brazil where he was living for a few years. I remember him saying he was sober for a little while before arriving there but as soon he got off the plane he said something like with all the sun and girls everywhere it was just a 24 hour party so it was like "Fuck this" and he started heavily drinking again. So this track would have to be Cave's anthem for getting pissed plus it would make a wicked shot game song too.
Find it on: Henry's Dream (Album) 1992


Top photo from Herald Sun with Nick Cave looking back on his past at the exhibition of his work at the Arts Centre in Melbourne.

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50 Greatest Nick Cave Songs: the Intro & from #50 to #46

Hello again and welcome to my third blog. Today I'm going to start the beginning of my 50 greatest Nick Cave songs. I saw Uncut magazine just the other day with their top 30 tracks which was very predicable and even boring at times so I didn't buy it but maybe will later on. Off-course the number one song was The Mercy Seat and number two is Into My Arms which does seem right I guess. An interesting thing is both songs where written at different times but he was in rehab. It just makes you want to get him addicted to drugs and booze again just you can throw him into rehab and get another truly great song out of it (that's a joke).

Grinderman's new song Heathen Child even made it into uncut's top 30 which I have to say it's not that good. So for the above reason and few others I'm going to do my own. It's going to be fifty tracks too, sorry but I couldn't cut it down to just thirty. Also I've not included anything from The Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds because I've heard all these songs hundreds of times and that would be a good place to start but this blog is kind-off for where to go next. It's going to be alternative, or different kind-off greatest songs. I never really liked the hit singles anyway of course these are my choice, so you whoever you are, reading this might disagree but this is my blog and nothing stopping you doing the same or just commenting below. I'm going to break them into the next few or more blogs because I'm going to write a little about each song like with the reason why or just a bit about it. Writing out a big list would be a bit boring and this is supposed to keep me writing.

50. The Boys Next Door - Sex Crimes
To start with is one of those totally forgotten, or was it ever remembered in the first place? But it was his earliest song to be recorded, it was rejected by the time of their debut album but really this could be a Grinderman song if you know what I mean. Sex Crimes is a 1978 demo on this double CD Inner City Sound which seems now to be deleted. Also included on this is Rowland S. Howard's first band Young Charlatans original previously unreleased Shivers, plus 45 other early Aussie punk songs, so it's worth trying to find a copy of it.
Find it on: Inner City Sound: Australian Punk & Post-Punk (Compilation) 2005

49. Nick Cave - Shine On Me
I going to included three covers at this point before I really get going. Cave has a long list of songs he's reworked to make his own but these can't be higher because they're just covers. I only got three more cover songs after these too cause he's such a prolific songwriter there is no reason to have anymore so these half a dozen are my all time favorites. The first is the oldest song going all the way back to 1930 originally on Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music and preformed by Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers. Cave's version was recorded at his Meltdown Festival in 1999 but not released until mid-2000's.
Find it on: The Harry Smith Project: Anthology Of American Folk Music Revisited (Box-set) 2006

48. Nick Cave - Here Comes The Sun
Well magazines like Uncut have The Beatles and their members on their covers with stories and write-ups about them until the cows could all be arrested for home invasions. Surprisingly this is Cave's only time he's been on the cover of this magazine. So with that in mind the greatest Beatles cover in my opinion is by you guessed it, Cave. In the early 2000's he recorded two Beatles covers Paul McCartney's Let It Be and George Harrison's Here Comes The Sun from Sean Penn's film I Am Sam but you could get both songs on the single, or if you could find the 20 track European edition with more Beatles covers than you could possibility want.
Find it on: Here Comes the Sun (Single) 2002


47. Nick Cave, Julie Christensen, Perla Batalla - Suzanne
He's recorded and preformed more Leonard Cohen covers than anyone else from his debut album as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds to various tribute albums and shows. These songs have been Avalanche, Tower of Song, I'm Your Man and he also did Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On with Lou Reed and Jarvis Cocker one time and with Rufus Wainwright and Teddy Thompson another time which both those versions remained unreleased. But the best has to be Suzanne which was the first track on Cohen's debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen way back in 1967.
Find it on: Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (Soundtrack) 2006


46. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Idiot Prayer
Right, now back to his own songwriting with one of the last songs on the album which critics dub his greatest, I wouldn't because it's good but not his best. For most of the album the band The Bad Seeds as a whole don't play together on these songs, it could be his solo album, almost. They're on Idiot Prayer with all seven members playing here with only Jim Sclavunos missing out which is no great loss really. You could say this is the first of many of Cave's depressing songs I've picked here which could really be the sub-title to this list. Not that that is a bad thing to me it makes him even better or should I just say the greatest songwriter of our time.
Find it on: The Boatman's Call (Album) 1997


Top photo by Jason South, Nick Cave at Melbourne Art Centre's Nick Cave — The Exhibition in November, 2007.

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