They have NICK CAVE polls now? I want one!: The ILM Nick Cave Poll Voting Thread (#106 in a series)

covers should be a side poll

I was thinking about making a list and suggesting that

I would appreciate it, he has so many good originals that I have no room for the covers

some covers he does are so good that he completely makes them own. "wanted man" is his "all along the watchtower".

Love his cover of Disco 2000.

(Forgot he did two! The slow one obviously.)

One my fave covers, Nick & Warren going all Grinderman on the Gatlin Bros for True Detective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttPMvXBOAaI

having a separate covers poll would be great!

ok The Abbatoir Blues Tour is their best live album for sure, it's touring their best album, not as muddy as live seeds, the band is in top form (that version of "red right hand"!), and there's great backing vocals!

Would be totally up for a cover's side poll. His delivery of "Long Time Man" was the first time I got anything but macho posturing out of a kill-my-woman song. I felt the lack of control the character had over his emotions, the heartfelt regret, the acceptance of personal evil.

Now that I think about it, when the song clicked for me, Cave created same chill I felt during a "scared straight" session in high school where they brought in some inmates to talk about their experience, and after an hour of hearing these well-spoken if haggard men talk about life inside, they revealed their crimes. One of them had killed his wife and kid during a freebasing binge.

"Mutiny in Heaven" created a similar chill on first listen. I've gotten it from Jubilee Street. At his best, he transcends theatrics.

Man, I just had a magical memory moment. I put on "Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus," which the streaming service began with "Abattoir Blues." First, I have no idea why but I always listened to "Lyre of Orpheus" first; maybe based on where the CD was slipped in the sleeve? Second, because the service played that album second I had moved on to washing the dishes, but then I heard the flute that starts "Breathless" and I suddenly remembered I put it on a mix of really pretty songs for my wife to listen to when she was pregnant and ready to give birth to my first daughter (who is now 16). I hadn't heard the song in years. Very special.

An additional point about Mick Harvey's essential role: that he would unfussily take whatever position in the band was vacant at the time. Tracy's in jail? Okay, Mick will do bass and we'll have one guitar. Everyone hates the drummer enough that he's staying in Australia this time? Mick will be the drummer for, oh, three years. Barry Adamson has got a solo deal? Mick can be the bassist for five years. The Triffids have split up so Martyn Casey is available? Back to guitar and organ and writing string arrangements for Mick.

Yeah, Harvey's ever shifting roles are fascinating. Were he more than a competent vocal presence I think his solo albums would be pretty impressive.

oof i may be too close to the deadline to relisten to the catalog or deliver a ballot but i'm very happy to read all of these positive posts about abattoir blues/lyre of orpheus in a row, that record was huge for me in my senior year of high school/freshman year of college

that same year of college i got heavy into no more shall we part and i still love every song on that record even tho it could and should be shorter yes

the results will be interesting as it seems like there are quite a number of millennial ilxors voting in this ... I also realized that I don't have Tender Prey on my iPod, which might actually be my favorite? (see also: records that were huge for me in high school).

still wondering if we can do a covers side poll

yeah somehow i have every album but The Good Son i had it on cassette & wore it out, no idea why i never got it on cd wtf

(xpost)

I give us permission to do the covers side poll

not 100% sure how a covers side poll would work, given you can obviously choose covers for the Bad Seeds & non-Bad Seeds polls (which will ideally give us an understanding of how we rank/ interpret them)?

happy to accept separate lists of covers if we want to go down that path though.

there's just so many good originals! thank you for accepting my list

yah the covers poll idea is to free up lists (and listening) for all originals this time. I'm happy to run one separately after this is over, if that's simpler?

yeah, let's have this main poll be originals only, and then do a separate covers poll - and I nominate sic to run it!

only problem there (which may not be a problem) is that there are already a couple of covers (not many) that have crept into ballots for the main polls so far. i guess we're ok for me to take those out?

I would suggest that those voters be allowed to revise their ballots and replace the covers with other songs

good call -- I'll put the word out.

there are several edge cases of course - Henry Lee and Stagger Lee are probably valid for either poll

btw Cave has managed to release another new album since I posted that list eight days ago

(an opera written during lockdown: a libretto of 12 litanies for composer Nicholas Lens)

i think it's fine to include covers in the main poll anyway, just that there's enough to highlight them separately too since. if any are able to place in the main poll, let them

agree, would prefer to also include covers in my main poll.

ok sweet! to avoid ongoing confusion, we'll include covers in the main polls. I don't think this will really take anything away from a dedicated covers poll once we're done.

yup. i'd love to vote in a dedicated covers poll later.

yeah that seems like the reasonable approach. I can make the followup a hybrid listening thread / poll for variation too.

Were (Harvey) more than a competent vocal presence I think his solo albums would be pretty impressive.

(I've bounced off his singer-songwriter stuff to the tiny degree I've tried. I wonder how much it's his understated vocal personality, and how much that he just thrives better anonymously arranging / playing / producing most of other people's projects. Outside of the Bad Seeds/Birthday Party he's maybe done a plurality of the members' side projects: playing most of the instruments on the early Crime & The City Solution records and staying in the band throughout that version's lifespan; producing and playing nearly every recording Anita made; working on Rowland's two solo records; drumming and pianning on occasional adjunct Seed Brian Hooper's latter solo records. As well as other absurdly long-running relationships as unheralded sideman/arranger, like playing on all but two PJ Harvey records, and most of her tours, since before her one song with the Seeds; working on Bambi Lee Savage records and gigs for thirty years... Plus the Serge Gainsbourg records* landed better with me, where he's writing the lyrics and the arrangements and playing all the instruments and doing most of the singing but it's all in service of someone else's authorship!)

* the two '90s ones, I haven't heard the more recent two.

Harvey’s final Gainsbourg album is a treat.

Roughly a week left to vote!

gosh I really better start listening to Nick Cave again, right? but he's never been a casual listen for me, so it's hard!

Cave turned up as one of the questions on University Challenge last night. Teams only just recognising the Mercy Seat. Young whippersnappers omigosh.

narrowing down my current shortlist of ~30 tracks to 20 is going to be very very difficult, his catalogue is really ridiculous in how consistent it is.

Cave turned up as one of the questions on University Challenge last night. Teams only just recognising the Mercy Seat. Young whippersnappers omigosh.

Also a specialist subject on Mastermind.

keep missing Mastermind.
When was the show. this week or a couple of weeks ago or what.
I came in for teh 2nd round this week and had gone to see it at teh timmeslot I'd expected it to be in last week only to find it had shifted forward half an hour. & before taht had just forgotten it was on each week from the start of this season.

Mastermind was last night, second contestant.

right, which one was 2nd. couldn't tell from 2nd round.
would guess from those i saw that it was the guy who didn't do very well.

Guy in the blue check shirt.

it looked like he was a bit taken aback by how badly he did.

Maybe he's a fan of the other Nick Cave and was confused by all the questions about music.

Ha ha!

Really loving the string arrangements on “The Good Son” this listen through

I revisited The Boys Next Door ‘Door Door’ album this afternoon & half the album is gonna be on my sideprojects ballot lol

i listened to it a ton in my uni days, brings back so many memories.

one thing i will say for Nick & all of his bands is that the music always has such ~great~ texture, even way back w Boys Next Door.
talented cunts the lot of them!

and def sing the praises of producer/maniac/wild genius Tony Cohen (RIP) - he worked on almost everything from Boys Next Door through No More Shall we Part (which is even more amazing considering how nuts he (and they) were through a lot of that early period)

ballot sent!

20 songs was brutal, i already hate my ballot lol