Nick Cave recommends his best songs for new fans
Despite being one of the more acclaimed songwriters of the past 40 years, not everyone knows who Nick Cave is. The legendary Australian singer never really had a hit single or major viral-worthy song across his career, instead catering to a dedicated crowd of in-the-know fans and curious onlookers. Plenty of casual music fans know who Nick Cave is in the general sense, but his music can still be a curious beast to take on.
Not least of all because the beast is massive: four albums with The Birthday Party, 17 with The Bad Seeds, two with Grinderman, and a whole host of soundtracks with Warren Ellis being just the basics. People come to Cave’s music through all different ways and means, and the most recent seems to be through The Louis Theroux Podcast.
After the British-American journalists interviewed Cave, a new fleet of fans began wondering where they should start with the enigmatic singer’s vast discography. Cave himself heard the queries and decided to give some directions on his recent update at The Red Hand Files website.
“It seems that a whole lot of uninitiated people have come to The Red Hand Files this week, following my interview with Louis Theroux,” Cave writes. “I am afraid that I don’t think I am the right person to help you navigate my music though. My relationship to my songs is too entangled with their personal history, and I have no clear understanding as to which are the good ones and which are not.”
“For instance, I think that ‘Brompton Oratory’, which was recorded in one take on a Casio I found in a junk shop, is a way better song than ‘The Mercy Seat’, which took months to write, weeks to record and had multiple ‘producers’ mix it,” Cave says. “For a whole lot of despairing reasons, I think Ghosteen is, by any metric, the best album the Bad Seeds have ever made, however The Bad Seeds song I love the most is probably ‘Sad Waters’ from Your Funeral, My Trial — I cried at its slippery beauty when I first played it to my then girlfriend, Elisabeth, as we sat on her bed in Schöneberg, Berlin.”
“I think the song, ‘From Her To Eternity’, is probably the best early Bad Seeds song, primarily because of Blixa Bargeld’s extraordinarily eccentric guitar playing, although perhaps Blixa’s most inspired moment was his blood-curdling scream at the end of ‘Stagger Lee’,” Cave claims. “I think ‘The Spinning Song’ lyrics might be as good as I can do, although I have a soft spot for the amphetamine-fuelled lyrical lunacy of ‘The Curse of Millhaven’, as does my wife, Susie; I think, in hindsight, that I probably agree with journalist, Matt Snow’s, wounding summation of The Firstborn is Dead as “lacking dramatic tension”, but I think the song ‘Scum’, which I wrote about him in response, is a high point in the Bad Seeds’ catalogue of infamy.”
“I think the oscillator solo on ‘Red Right Hand’ is the best thing on Let Love In, but — controversially — I don’t think ‘Red Right Hand’ is the Bad Seeds’ greatest achievement; and for a whole lot of complex, nostalgic and defensive reasons, I would prefer to listen to the album Nocturama than Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! any day of the week,” he continues. “I could go on! I think that ‘Shoot Me Down’ should have been put on the Nocturama record and ‘Babe, I’m on Fire’ should have been left off. And so on and so forth.”
“But all this is highly subjective, super-confusing and completely debatable, and I know that actual Nick Cave fans out there, who have a long and hard-earned understanding of my music, would disagree with much of this stuff,” he writes.
“So, I wonder if those fans could help us out by writing in with a 15-song playlist of the Best of Nick Cave, and perhaps you could add your age, just for interest’s sake,” he says. “I’ll then put some of the playlists up on The Red Hand Files. It would be a lovely act of kindness to Aotearoa, Daphne and Adrian to welcome them and give them some idea of where to start.”
“All this is a long way of saying a big hello to all of you new Red Hand Files subscribers and, hopefully, future Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds advocates! Welcome! We are happy to have you here!” Cave concludes.
For what it’s worth, we have our own comprehensive playlist featuring work from across Cave’s eclectic career. Check that out down below.
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