Nick Cave has an immense and sprawling catalog. If you are new to his work, it can be daunting trying to determine where to begin. This list focuses on his work with the Bad Seeds.
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Since the late ’70s, the Australian singer-songwriter has echoed the likes of Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, with a dark baritone telling even darker tales. Cave’s grim fairy tales speak to the complexities of the human experience. Backed by the Bad Seeds, the band he formed in 1983, Cave gives his voice to fear and desire. Below are Nick Cave’s Top 5 must-listen-to songs.
5. “Tupelo” from The Firstborn Is Dead (1985)
Based on Leadbelly’s “Looky, Looky, Yonder” and John Lee Hooker’s “Tupelo,” Cave uses biblical flood imagery to tell the story of the birth of Elvis Presley amidst a raging storm in Tupelo, Mississippi—Until the King is born. “Tupelo” is the second single from The Firstborn Is Dead, which is the second album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
And black rain come down
The black rain come down
The black rain come down
Water, water everywhere
Water, water everywhere
Where no bird can fly, no fish can swim
Where no bird can fly, no fish can swim
No fish can swim
Until the King is born
Until the King is born
In Tupelo
Till the King is born in Tupelo
4. “The Ship Song” from The Good Son (1990)
The lead single from The Good Son, “The Ship Song” was selected into the Top 30 Australian songs of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association. Cave sings this piano ballad about a love so intense it can’t possibly survive. His devotion to romanticism is exposed here and the results are a call to action for goosebumps.
Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around
We talk about it all night long
We define our moral ground
But when I crawl into your arms
Everything, it comes tumbling down
[RELATED: Behind the Band Name: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds]
3. “From Her to Eternity” from From Her to Eternity (1984)
The narrator is obsessed with the weeping woman living upstairs. He wants to possess her. A murderous possession. He’s heading for calamity and there’s nothing that can stop him. He’ll murderously take her to eternity. The tension of the stabbing piano lasts for an intense five and a half minutes.
Oh, I hear her walking
Walking barefoot ‘cross the floorboards
All through this lonesome night
I hear her crying, too
Hot tears come splashing down
Leaking through the cracks
Down upon my face
I catch ’em in my mouth
Catch ’em in my mouth
Catch ’em in my mouth
I catch ’em in my mouth
2. “Jubilee Street” from Push the Sky Away (2013)
This classic piece of noir from Cave was co-written with longtime collaborator and fellow Bad Seed Warren Ellis. The woman in the story is a prostitute. She had a history, but she had no past. By the end of the song, she’s closed the curtains and transformed. Cave zooms in on her rebirth. The song references Jubilee Street in Brighton, which, according to Cave, is nothing like the seedy street in the song.
She used to say, “All those good people down on Jubilee Street
They ought to practice what they preach
Here they are to practice just what they preach
Those good people on Jubilee Street”
And here I come up the hill
I’m pushing my wheel of love
I got love in my tummy and a tiny little pain
And a 10-ton catastrophe on a 60-pound chain
And I’m pushing my wheel of love on Jubilee Street
Ah look at me now
1. “Into My Arms” from The Boatman’s Call (1997)
Cave’s best love song is a desperate plea to the unknown. He wrote it in rehab while he was withdrawing from drugs. In rehab, he attended church and one day walking through the fields from the church, he heard the melody. He wrote the words in his dormitory. Cave performed “Into My Arms” at INXS singer Michael Hutchence’s funeral in 1997. Before singing the song, he asked for the cameras to be turned off.
I don’t believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if He felt He had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms
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