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

in terms of where they "go" on the ballot -- it is based on which Nick entity recorded them?

for example, if I wanted to vote for Nick & Bad Seeds' cover of "Tower of Song" from the I'm Your Fan compilation -- where would that go?

I really like Nick Cave and seeing him live a few years back was one of the best shows I ever attended (out of a thousand or more, most likely).

Yet his is so prolific that despite owning over half a dozen of his albums plus some Birthday Party stuff, I still don't feel "qualified" to opine here for some reason.

But I am already mentally bookmarking the Spotify playlist that this endeavor will almost assuredly spawn.

Cover songs are perfectly alright, yes.

If the cover is credited to Nick Cave and & the Bad Seeds, put it in the with the Bad Seeds tracks (not amongst the non-Bad Seeds stuff). So yeah, organise your lists according to who the songs are credited to.

Regarding the likes of Hee Haw, The Birthday Party, Mutiny and The Bad Seed

I'm guessing it'd be advantageous to think in terms of Hee-Haw and Mutiny/The Bad Seed as compilations these days, rather than frittering away (and potentially splitting?!?) votes on, aay, Hee Haw (the EP) or whatever?

^ "votes on, say, Hee Haw..."

yes, I think we can only vote for the individual, non-merged EPs in their original incarnations. good to get that point out there before the Mutiny/Bad Seed couplings start stacking up.

what do we think about live albums? I think they could be accepted.

Have just done a spreadsheet for fun to guide my listening, and I count 67 albums/EPs all up including live ones.

I'd say yes to live albums - I might not vote for Live Seeds, but it would feel wrong not to be able to vote it.

I'd say on tracks, the slower version of "Higgs Boson Blues" from the live from KCRW collection is the much superior version of that song.

Cave & the Seeds have been probably my fave (or close to it) currently working artist for the last 30-ish yrs, so I am in now deep research/reflective mode, will advise shortly

Taking bets now, will I be the only one to rank Nocturama #1? (Half-kidding, I might not put it first but it will be top 5 for me...)

I bet I am only ballot with Did Lazarus Dig era b-side "Accidents Will Happen" in my top ten! It is a good song but I also have freighted emotions cuz it is the first thing I played my newborn daughter by dint of alphabetical order and also she was er, an um...accident?

Hello i will be participating yes yes yes

THEY’RE READY

https://2c27809e61cd41c3b4f8d8995798bc09.objectstore.eu/media/750x/0.n4qm73vhwwyxde2bhwg7m0a4i-e373ec00821f0f44711a768826763159.png

ouch all I think of when I see that pic is "Far From Me"

Maybe the only artist with a long career where I've heard just about everything, almost all of it as it arrived in shops. "Tupelo" was the revelation. I can still picture standing in the friend's apartment, ashtrays and candles, spider plant and old leather sofa, as I was holding the LP jacket, just after she said "You've got to hear this song".

Also fun that this arrives so soon after the Cramps deep-dive. Both bands sit near the center of gravity for what I've wanted from rock music. They shared members, shared wit, and have a parallel obsessiveness and care for the discarded. It's hard not to include his covers, because as with The Cramps, some of them have lead me down long listening paths.

A lot of Bad Seeds albums disappointed me, and I'd have thought my list would be 80s heavy, yet it's shaping up evenly distributed though the decades.

Also, helpful guidance here

https://thehardtimes.net/blog/we-rank-the-albums-of-nick-cave-because-we-heard-a-girl-we-like-is-into-him/

A lot of Bad Seeds albums disappointed me,

they were always a "mix tape" band for me (along with The Cure) where there were so many songs I liked, but I wasn't super stoked on any one album. It's not like they had "filler" like some bands, just that there were songs I loved and songs that were just ok.

and I'd have thought my list would be 80s heavy, yet it's shaping up evenly distributed though the decades.

Pretty certain nothing I vote for will be post-1996, so ...

his “later years” ie the past 20 years or so has some really great treasures, highly recommend listening to any from that list

also: PSA: if you blew off Nocturama and No More Shall We Part as boring like I did when they came out, they really reward revisiting imo

I am sure you're right - there are definitely songs/albums that I didn't connect with when I first heard them (this is going back 20-30 years tbh) that later I came to love, so I figure the stuff from the later years will eventually.

count 67 albums/EPs all up including live ones.

a bit fudgy because several live albums are compilations, but I'm calling this 18 live releases, not counting the Shell Shock opera that Cave wrote (the libretto), the album of which was recorded on the premiere performance.

ffs i mean it either is 67 or it isnt

lift yr game sic

:D

LOL.

So from the above (XXXXXXP), The Birthday Party LP and the Hee Haw EP are fine. But no-one should be getting into messy vote-splitting territory with the 13-track Hee Haw which collects the contents of both, yeah?

that sounds right to me, although it's gonna be tough to cram both Mutiny! and The Bad Seed into my top 5 (well maybe 10)

20 tracks might kill me but i am up to the challenge

h8 when sic is inexact

it ruins my day

posting bc this clip has been touted as nick being mean to billy corgan but tbf he’s just being Australian

also reminds me of my first interview which went about this well also

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X1LThFfA8U

those were stupid generic questions tbh and if his response is "being Australian" then that is a very sensible way to be imo ... people should be more Australian

Revisiting Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! after probably 10 years and I’d forgotten how much it rips. “We Call Upon the Author” is a massive highlight this time around.

The Birthday Party LP

this is a singles comp (with two unreleased tracks) just as much as the Hee Haw compilation CD btw

(VG and mookie: two of the four Birthday Party Peel sessions were released as EPs in the 80s, but the other two only came out on the CD compilation in 2001; I counted each of the four as an EP for chronology's sake. I ask for neither forgiveness nor absolution, merely understanding)

YOU LET ME DOWN SIC idk what to tell u dog

wait it turns out there was an Australian Tour Edition of Love Letter that had four session tracks as the b-side! that counts as a live EP! just one more and I'll have made it up to you :(

too little too late imo

this is a singles comp (with two unreleased tracks) just as much as the Hee Haw compilation CD btw

It's a complete mess but the fact it has those further tracks and was released in the same year as "Happy Birthday", "Mr Clarinet" and "The Friend Catcher" (revisiting only 2/5 of the earlier Hee Haw EP) makes it way more album-y than the later compilation.

Anyway, I dig that era and will probably vote for any album-like release that ends up being allowed.

Suggest TuPOLLo for the results thread

^^^^^^^

TuPOLLooooooooooooo

this is a polling thread

a thread in which to poll

I Had A Dream POLL

way more album-y than the later compilation

yeah fair

this is a polling thread

a thread in which to poll

otm

Hamlet (POLL, POLL POLL)

so 67 releases to choose from ? Wow. any way of conveniently making that list visible? Then I'll just say we pick from those. otherwise there'll be ongoing doubt as to what makes the cut.

I don't strictly mind a whole deluge of live albums. I figure the more obscure ones won't get much of a look-in anyway, but it's nice to have the chice.

the CHOICE

I can ilx-format up the list, sure

side projects off the top...Cave did two duets with Anita Lane on

Anita's 1988 EP Dirty Sings has at least one Bad Seed on each track: A1 is written with Barry, who also plays bass; A2 is written with Nick; B1 is a cover of Lost In Music featuring Barry, Thomas and Nick (on organ); and B2 is written with Mick, who produced the record and probably plays on everything.

Nick also on backing vocals on "Lost In Music".

He also features on "Vixo" by Anni(e) Hogan from 1985.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJZ_WW2wBZo

Nick also on backing vocals on "Lost In Music".

Yes, ta - a whole chorus of Seeds doing the hook, such as it is in that version iirc. The arrangement eschews nearly all the melodic elements in the original, leaning into the rhythm and counterpoint in the vocal lines, but so hard that Anita is basically grumbling and snarling counterpoint to herself while the blokes chant. Melody's no good to me!

(I was familiar with the Anita version before the Chic/Sledge original, and may not have returned to it since getting my disco ears)

I had always thought Nick's vocal was particularly prominent but listening again now and it indeed seems to be a chorus of Bad Seeds singing.

It's worth returning to - a perennial fave here.

abbatoir blues/lyre of orpheus is really such an immense album, possibly my favourite. the band and cave's songwriting are both at something of a peak there, incredible playing and manages to nearly summarise their whole career up to that point in its wide range of styles, while still pushing into new territory with the gospel choir which works wonders.

agreed to me it's his peak no question

argh. quote, not bold. sorry

all the poll title suggestions deserved to be in bold tbf

An Aus TV program this week alluded to the fact that "even Nick Cave" licensed a song for TV advertising. Pretty sure I never saw this ad circa 2013. And am kinda puzzled by the choice of that song to sell regional tourism, in SA, of all places.

I thought he had expressly said out of respect for his muse he wasn't going to lease songs for ads. Following that up with talking about how his music had personal associations for people like what they would want to get buried to, married to, and soundtrack other significant life events with.
Would have thought that would predate 2013 too.

the (original?) "my muse is not a horse" manifesto was about refusing to attend the MTV Awards, but I think there's a basic policy of *only* licensing Red Right Hand. it's been in TV shows since the X-Files in 1994, been the theme for multiple TV shows, been in multiple adverts, various films since Dumb & Dumber in 1994, re-recorded twice for Scream 2 and Scream 3, and was covered by Pete Yorn (instead of licensed) for one of the Hellboys because Cave felt like Scream kinda had title to it by then.

okay turns out that O Children from Lyre Of Orpheus was used in a Harry Potter movie

you have to figure he'd say yes to that, even there was otherwise a policy against licencing, just for the incongruity

i saw that Harry Potter movie in the theaters & had to contain my amusement/surprise lmao

People Ain't No Good was used in Shrek 2.

ok, I have a feeling all the votes are in?

can i ask -- and this is mildly embarrassing -- how to include images in my posts for the rundown ? I think the process has changed since I last ran one of these polls a few years back (Roxy Music or Queen).

Release The Bats was used in Kevin and Perry Go Large to s/trk the inside of Kevin's trousers
Shivers in Dogs in Space Nick singing though its a Rowland song of course.

how to include images in my posts for the rundown ?

for a quick reference, you can click "Show Formatting Help" just below the "Add a Post" box on ILX, and it'll give you the format you need. for a very sloppy "guide", i also made a couple posts the other day with images showing how to do it via imgur:

see this post, and if something doesn't make sense let me know and i can help!

yeah, Nick actually appearing in the film and singing tends to suggest he's given his approval (cf also Civil Dead, Johnny Suede, Himmel uber Berlin)

(Dogs director Loewenstein also got to use Mercy Seat in his John Birmingham Felafel adap, in two versions - and had Rowland cover Iggy)

think there's a basic policy of *only* licensing Red Right Hand

lol no

uh I still haven't voted yet, I could get you something by tonight (California time) but if I missed the boat, then so be it

Still time, sarahell ! Tonight your time is ok !
Thought you may have already snuck your vote in.

Thanks so much for your help with formatting, Karl !

thanks will do!

I'm looking forward to this. My grasp of Cave's solo oeuvre still feels patchy despite immersion last month. As a yoof I largely tuned out after Murder Ballads and not much turn-of-the-century stuff made my ballot upon catching up. Later dirges did though! I feel like I'm principally a Birthday Party fan really, but a weird one in that I really like them as a herky-jerky pop group and sometimes get a bit impatient with, say, Junkyard. So I'm anticipating a few "interesting--didn't realise that was so beloved" type moments...

I sent my ballot --

took until Sunday afternoon after all :)

OK cool, I think we're ready to go.

I'll kick this off in an hour or so.

oh damn, glad i'll be here for the very beginning! :D :D

TOO LOW

what is the most doofus nick cave fan? i am that guy in this poll, yelling out for the obvious hits

I feel like this poll must have attracted way more votes from 'strayans (ex-'strayans?) than the Go-Betweens did. Pretty sure I was joined overwhelmingly by Euro/American folk for that one, in terms of submitted ballots anyway. Then again, maybe there were just more ballots overall here?!?!

Which reminds me: I forgot to even consider voting for Tuff Monks!

The Tuff Monks is literally a piss-about jam that got bootlegged - with fifteen slots for side projects, it probably can stand to make room for more considered stuff (though I went quixotically tactical on my side-ballot tbh)

Rollout happening here btw: I ain't down here for your love or money, I'm down here for your POLL: The ILM Nick Cave Poll RESULTS Thread (#106 in a series)

Covers listening and voting thread rolling over here: TOWERS OF SONG: a Nick Cave Sings Covers listening thread and poll