Friday 6 July 2018

100 Nick Cave Songs

Here are my 100 favourite Nick Cave songs, in order. They're by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds unless otherwise stated.


  1. People Ain’t No Good
  2. Girl in Amber
  3. There She Goes, My Beautiful World
  4. The Ship Song
  5. Into My Arms
  6. The Mercy Seat
  7. Darker with the Day
  8. The Sorrowful Wife
  9. Stagger Lee
  10. The Weeping Song
  11. Skeleton Tree
  12. Jubilee Street
  13. Love Letter
  14. Straight to You
  15. Higgs Boson Blues
  16. No Pussy Blues - Grinderman
  17. Distant Sky
  18. Babe, I’m on Fire 
  19. Brompton Oratory
  20. Oh My Lord
  21. Far from Me 
  22. Push the Sky Away
  23. No More Shall We Part
  24. We Know Who U R
  25. God is in the House
  26. Nobody’s Baby Now
  27. Nature Boy
  28. Lime Tree Arbour
  29. Where do We Go Now But Nowhere
  30. Where the Wild Roses Grow (with Kylie Minogue)
  31. Are You the One That I've Been Waiting For?
  32. Still in Love with You
  33. Hallelujah
  34. Jesus Alone
  35. Henry Lee (with PJ Harvey)
  36. Bring It On (with Chris Bailey)
  37. I Need You
  38. We Call Upon the Author 
  39. West Country Girl
  40. Red Right Hand
  41. Idiot Prayer
  42. From Her to Eternity
  43. Tupelo
  44. As I Sat Sadly By Her Side
  45. There is a Kingdom  
  46. He Wants You
  47. Get Ready for Love
  48. Palaces of Montezuma - Grinderman
  49. Right Out of Your Hand
  50. Magneto
  51. Hide it All Away
  52. Papa Won't Leave You Henry?
  53. Get it On - Grinderman
  54. Death is Not the End (cover, with various)
  55. Release the Bats - The Birthday Party
  56. Gates to the Garden
  57. Breathless
  58. Black Hair
  59. Stranger Than Kindness
  60. Rings of Saturn
  61. More News From Nowhere
  62. Do You Love Me?
  63. Everything Must Converge
  64. Mermaids
  65. Sweetheart Come
  66. The Carny
  67. Anthrocene
  68. Babe You Turn Me On
  69. O Children
  70. Up Jumped the Devil
  71. Wonderful Life 
  72. Finishing Jubilee Street
  73. 15 Feet of Pure White Snow
  74. Shoot Me Down
  75. The Lyre of Orpheus
  76. Wide Lovely Eyes
  77. We Came Along this Road
  78. Heathen Child - Grinderman
  79. Lay Me Low
  80. I Let Love In
  81. Dig Lazarus Dig
  82. Water's Edge
  83. Lament
  84. Messiah Ward
  85. Easy Money
  86. O'Malley's Bar
  87. Worm Tamer - Grinderman
  88. Jennifer's Veil - The Birthday Party
  89. Jesus of the Moon
  90. King Ink - The Birthday Party
  91. Come Into My Sleep
  92. City of Refuge
  93. Today's Lesson
  94. Song of Joy
  95. Nick the Stripper - The Birthday Party
  96. The Hammer Song
  97. The Singer
  98. Sad Waters
  99. Junkyard - The Birthday Party
  100. Green Eyes


2 comments:

  1. See, I consider myself a Nick Cave fan. I have a lot, if not all, of his albums, and have listened to most of them (again, not all) many times. But even with the songs whose titles I recognise, I struggle to call them to mind in enough detail to allow me to work out how to rank them. How do you hold all this in your head with enough clarity - especially with all the other artists with immense back catalogues, among whom I imagine Nick Cave is only in your top 20? Is it just a question of putting in the hours?

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    1. Well, he's definitely, these days, in my top 5. And beyond that, yes, I put in the hours with both him and Bob Dylan to get to this list. And also there's a large degree to which the whole thing is tongue-in-cheek. I will do it again intermittently but it's hard without ever-decreasing returns. I want to make a point that lots of people have lots of good songs, but it's pretty rare for someone to have 100 good songs. Cave does, I venture ...

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