Taking Sides: Nick Cave vs. Michael Jackson

michael

Oh, and Nick Cave wins by fucking light years, of course.

jackson

I have massive love for MJ & I'm sure he'll win this poll here but Nick Cave's a better lyricist and songwriter any day, and also sets a sterling example for others by not having sex with children.

yes cave does have one up on michael in that regard i suppose

but, i want you back!! come on!

He did have a 20-year heroin habit though!

"I Want You Back" is like srsly top-5-all-time for me! Still, an honest vote is for Nick Cave, MJ basically trades on 4 great albums worth of material followed by one of the most precipitous drop-offs in the entire history of music. Nick Cave wakes up in the morning with the thought that his best work lies ahead of him. Michael Jackson got rich & shifted his creative interests toward how best to silence the parents of his victims.

turning into a discussion of personal faults again

Nick Cave wakes up in the morning with the thought that his best work lies ahead of him.

He may wake up thinking that, but I'm not sure it's true! For me he peaked around Your Funeral My Trial, which was a long, long time ago. Obviously he'd done good things since then, but still...

(That said, my Michael Jackson cut-off point is probably Off The Wall, even longer ago.)

I really like some of the NC's/bad seeds' stuff I know but MJ is involved in several of the best ever music you can play at a party (and not even mentioning how much I loved him as a kid) ! That said, right after "thriller", there's not much left for me (maybe a bit of "bad").

Nick Cave also a much, much better live show, even once you factor in MJ's dancing

"Remember the Time" is a jam.

Birthday Party over MJ any day

Jackson 5 vs. the Birthday Party would be another good poll.

A Jackson/Cave duet would be pretty great. Maybe if Nick ever does Murder Ballads II

Christ, not even close.

They did both peak in the early '80s, though. But Cave got a lot more ridiculous a lot sooner after that (which is saying something, obviously.)

Plus, MJ lives (and brings to life in his music) the creepy pathologies that Cave has made a career out of method-acting. (Michael sings better, too. Don't think I've ever seen Nick dance; not sure I want to.)

And oh yeah, Michael rocks harder. So him.

And if that's not good enough:

Last Nick Cave album to make my Pazz & Jop ballot: Kicking Against The Pricks, 1986.

Last Michael Jackson album to make my Pazz & Jop ballot: Blood On The Saddle: History In The Mix, 1997.

The titles both rhyme. But MJ stayed great longer. And I overrated that NC album in the first place.

A less lopsided battle, maybe:

Scratch Acid vs. Musical Youth

nate dogg

what would be more enjoyable? Cave covering 'Jam' or Jackson covering 'No Pussy Blues'?

cave has eaten jam, at least

xp Actually, obviously, on his 1997 album, Michael left a pool of blood on the old dancefloor, not the saddle, as I implied above. (And I will give Nick credit for more strongly inspiring psychobilly cowpunk bands, for whatever that's worth.)

Nick Cave also a much, much better live show, even once you factor in MJ's dancing

I have never seen or waych NC live but considering that, at his peak, MJ was among the best performers ever (his singing/dancing from the J5 to "thriller" is just mindblowing), I have some difficulty with this statement !

as different as two live acts can be, surely? MJ the king of the stadium in the late 80's/early 90's.

Nick Cave wakes up in the morning with the thought that his best work lies ahead of him.

The hair dye must have seeped into his brain and made him delusional then. Hard to think of a more boring artist than Nick Cave these days.

Michael sings better

I sing better than Nick Cave!

a collabo is making more and more sense to me- Nick Cave sings "Ben" backed with MJ covering "The Carny"

I think MJ can't sing/dance anymore, that said.
but I guess the point of the TS is to compare them at their best.

Plus, MJ lives (and brings to life in his music) the creepy pathologies that Cave has made a career out of method-acting. (Michael sings better, too. Don't think I've ever seen Nick dance; not sure I want to.)

OTM. I don't understand Cave, like, at all.

a collab produced but will i am. just writing this makes me sick...

sounds more like a timbaland joint

Xpost: I don't understand MJ at all. Seriously. And I've had to put up with his music since the mid-70s.

Please accept my sympathy

there's not a single track by MJ/J5 that you like at all ?

Plus, MJ lives (and brings to life in his music) the creepy pathologies that Cave has made a career out of method-acting. (Michael sings better, too. Don't think I've ever seen Nick dance; not sure I want to.)

OTM. I don't understand Cave, like, at all.

― I'm crossing over into enterprise (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 14, 2009 10:33 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm not going to pick nick cave or michael jackson cause fuck that, but are you dudes seriously making this same fucking stale argument that was retarded when it was first made 3,000 years ago? like are you going to pick ted bundy over robert deniro because he lived the creepy pathologies that deniro acted out in taxi driver?

Plus, MJ lives (and brings to life in his music) the creepy pathologies that Cave has made a career out of method-acting.

not real sure this is a virtue. do you like actual murderers better than people who write convincingly about them?

basically you're saying nick cave is worse because he didn't actually rape children

would vote for literally anyone over nick cave

HITLER vs nick cave

This is really tough! Like way tougher for me than Morrissey v Prince.

LOL n/a said it first & better, xpost

I am assuming Birthday Party is not in (or Jackson 5).

Michael Jackson sale at JC Penney's! Boys' pants ... half off!

Seriously though, this thread might be better served as a repository of Michael Jackson paedo jokes.

HITLER vs nick cave

― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:55 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude it's generation vice donchaknow.

xpost: nope, MJ/J5 is/are a complete mystery to me. Just not my thing, and it's not for the want of exposure. Haven't been able to get beyond mild irritation. I'm well aware that I'm in the minority, but I'm sure I'm not the only one.

But then, isn't the point of the thread that this is a completely absurd comparison to make?

i'm not going to pick nick cave or michael jackson cause fuck that, but are you dudes seriously making this same fucking stale argument that was retarded when it was first made 3,000 years ago? like are you going to pick ted bundy over robert deniro because he lived the creepy pathologies that deniro acted out in taxi driver?

The difference is that Ted Bundy hasn't written any good songs.

ha ha ha you're an idiot

Well, he does.

Again, this thread was merely meant to lampoon another thread (specifically the Morrissey vs. Prince thread). Much like that comparison, there really aren't any common threads between MJ and...er... NC. It's not meant to be taken so dead seriously. Nick Cave and Michael Jackson are very different artists who make very different music from each other, generally tailored to very different demographics. It's a pointless comparison.

... but Nick is still better.

... and never molested anyone.

... that we know of, at least.

lol i spelled barrel wrong

That's the least of this thread's problems.

Of the Michael Jackson proponents, how many like the majority of his musical output, and how many like a few songs or albums including the band he was in as a kid and dislike Nick Cave? It seems like there are folks saying MJ is great, and others saying MJ had some good songs, which is more than Nick Cave had.

xp Max: Would it be scraping further down to say "I vote for Nick Cave because he is better looking"?

at this point i think anything goes

I do wonder what a Michael Jackson-Mick Harvey collab would sound like.

It'd certainly sound different.

"including the band he was in as a kid"

nick cave >>> michael jackson

BUT

jackson 5 >> boys next door

LOL one thing I do like about this thread is the concept of "Gothic corn" which I don't think I will stop chuckling about for awhile, here.

http://www.moplants.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/indian%20corn.JPG

spot the goth!

Thriller & The Birthday Party cancel each other out with true greatness.

Jackson 5 definitely deserve some major props... far more than Boys Next Door (who I like plenty).

Latter ear Jackson and Cave do little for me, but there's no doubt that Cave has maintained sanity and relevancy over time.

But when you really get down to it, only one of these two can sing.

I can't even vote on this.

And by "latter ear" I of course meant "latter era". As far as I know, MJ's ears are the only original part of him remaining.

You were probably thinking about an ear of corn. In fact, according to this website, the term "comes from the Gothic word for 'husk of corn' which was ahs".

xp ian: the goth corn is the one on the far right, right next to the reggae corn.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

This poll is closing tomorrow.

Oy. Thank God!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Yawn.

Thank goodness.

Pathetic.

according to the lovers of polls, this settles the question

The question being: Are ILM poll-takers tasteless morons? The answer: Most certainly.

We tasteless morons also like to dance.

(I'm particularly impatient with Nick Cave after watching his performance in the Leonard Cohen "I'm Your Man" thing: he needed a wet mop in his face)

the fact that this wasn't 5 to 1 sorta disappoints me.

I imagine if mj didn't have 'character issues' people realllly wouldn't have any excuse

i kinda want to do a jackson vs killing joke now, just to see AINYC's reaction to the results.

you have teh big balls if you do.

i'm not gonna lie to you, i have trouble sitting

Hooray!

how different would this exercise be if Quincy Jones had produced Nick Cave?

And Blixa Bargeld had played guitar for Jacko?

Considering the artist's respective sales, I reckon the Goth vote held up pretty well.

Preferred Cave well before MJ's 'character issues' started to show, don't need an excuse. Up for Cave's Quincy Jackson album though. Blixa/MJ, not so much.

They played this one at the goth club some weeks back and I was like "man, these people know how to choose a particularly stellar all-time-best Nick Cave song". You folks who like Tom Waits, I want you to look me in the eye and tell me why you don't like this.

So when is there going to be a Crime and The City Solution vs. Nick Cave poll?

Aww...actually I don't know if I even owned a Crime & The City Solution record. I did own one of those ex-Bad Seeds records, but I don't think it was them.

Is Alex in NYC 14?

I don't like Crime and the City Solution as much as Bad Seeds, but These Immortal Souls are on-par.

Is Alex in NYC 14?

Reverse the digits.

Michael Jackson sucks and, therefore, you suck for liking him.

I wasn't wrong.

what would be more enjoyable? Cave covering 'Jam' or Jackson covering 'No Pussy Blues'?

― Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 15:12 (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cave has eaten jam, at least

― Old Big 'OOS (AKA the Cupwinner) (darraghmac), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 15:13 (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you would just like to point out that you have been otm in this thread