From Bob Dylan to Nina Simone: Nick Cave’s 10 favourite love songs
“I don’t particularly believe all love is doomed,” Australian artist Nick Cave began. “But I guess, one is usually kinda suffering from some aborted love affair or association, rather than being at the peak of one. I think it’s fairly obvious that a lot more suffering goes on in the name of love than the little happiness you can squeeze out of it.” With words like that, the idea of everyone’s favourite post-punk artist curating a list of soppy ballads seems an unlikely one.
However, the former snarling frontman of The Birthday Party isn’t always looking at the idea of love with such cynicism, “Love is a state that I would like to exist in continuously,” he once said, and it is this sentiment most Bad Seeds fans will associate with Cave, given the more recent releases from the band. “If you took love out of the equation, I wouldn’t know what else to write about,” he also commented.
Responding to a question about love put to him by two people put to him on his fan-led platform Red Right Hand Files, Cave was asked about what he believed love to be and, more specifically, if he has a certain list of love songs that hit home to him. In response, Cave subtly detailed the progress of his Bad Seeds record and, in turn, linked that to the feeling of love in itself. “It’s the early hours of the morning, here in Los Angeles, and I can’t sleep,” the Bads Seeds singer writes. “I’ve been in the studio all night, working on new songs. The melodies and words are running around in my head, so excuse this letter if it’s kind of scrambled.”
He continues: “You asked about love, Mack, and maybe that’s what love is right there—maybe songs are the parlance of love. Maybe that’s what we have conceived them for—to give a voice to this strange, inscrutable feeling that tears away at us, all our lives. I don’t know. Maybe some songs are the embodiment of love itself and that’s why they move us so deeply. They are simple, plainspoken, incendiary devices that bomb the heart to pieces—something other art forms can’t do with the same sudden and frightening precision.”
When introducing his favoured love songs, Cave says: “Here is a list of ten of my most treasured love songs—old, sad songs mostly, and sentimental too, that have travelled with me through the years, holding sway over my world and never failing to rescue me. They are just small unassuming love bombs, but dear Luiza, as important as anything can ever be.”
With Bob Dylan, Nina Simone and Elvis Presley referenced by the Bad Seeds frontman, you can see his full list below, with the words of Cave echoing the sentiment: “The love song must be born into the realm of the irrational, absurd, the distracted, the melancholic, the obsessive, the insane for the love song is the noise of love itself and love is, of course, a form of madness,” he added.
Nick Cave’s 10 favourite love songs:
- ‘To Love Somebody’ – Bee Gees
- ‘My Father’ – Nina Simone
- ‘I Threw It All Away’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘Comfort You’ – Van Morrison
- ‘Angel of the Morning’ – Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts
- ‘Nights In White Satin’ – The Moody Blues
- ‘Where’s the Playground Susie?’ – Glen Campbell
- ‘Something On Your Mind’ – Karen Dalton
- ‘Always on My Mind’ – Elvis Presley
- ‘Superstar’ – Carpenters
You can stream them all in the playlist below.
