The Nick Cave Top 75 Countdown (#65-61) & This Week's Statistics

Hello, my friends, old and new! I woke up feeling rather blue today. Here's hoping that this countdown will lift up my spirits.

Let's begin with our bonus track, from one of the soundtracks that Nick Cave wrote in his long and illustrious career. Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988) was the first collaboration of several between Came and Australian film director John Hillcoat. Cave not only composed the score, he also co-wrote the screenplay. This track that I've chosen has the eloquent title I Was 16 When They Put Me In Prison:

At #65 and at #64 in our countdown, there are two songs from the first ever recorded album that Nick Cave appeared on; even before The Birthday Party, we had the Boys Next Door. They released the album Door, Door in 1979, a frantic, edgy, and surprisingly catchy piece of post-punk mayhem. The song at #65 is a song that back in the early days of the Internet was considered by some to be a gay-themed song. I was researching gay-themed songs at the time - and in a chat-room, Roman Roman was mentioned. I mean, the chorus goes, "Roman Roman you're so cute / Roman Roman substitute / Please be honest please be true / Roman Roman I love you."

Doing my research, however, I realized that this is not the case. the song, a frenzied schoolyard chant that hints at the anarchic pandemonium the group could create on-stage, is a satirical take on Roman Polanski and his infamous case of statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, which forced him to flee the US and which is particularly relevant in today's climate. The last verse goes:

"Oh it was cool in May
And she was only 13
Oh it's a crying shame
Roman you looked too good
Hats off to Roman Polanski
They never gave him a chanceski
When he took down his pantski
He had nothing on manski"

Unfortunately, the song is nowhere to be found on YouTube, Vimeo, or Dailymotion. It is found on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, etc. If you are a Deezer member, you can listen to it here:

Roman Roman

At #64 is the album's opening track, The Nightwatchman. The album starts out in high gear with The Nightwatchman, replete with ringing guitar figures, a boppy punk-pop chorus (yes, those are "ooh-ooh-ooh-oohs" you're hearing), and dirty sax lines.

The song's gothic atmosphere is punctuated by the lyrics:

"Don't watch the nightwatchman
He cries a lonely tear
Locked up in his little tower
He's been there a hundred years

And he's waiting for you tonight
Don't watch the nightwatchman
He finds it hard to say hello"

At #63 is a song called Bellringer Blues. It is found on the album Grinderman 2 (2010), by the Grinderman, otherwise known as Mini Seeds. The album is a more polished and studied affair than its predecessor, but it's a more sonically adventurous, white-hot rock & roll record. Nothing really prepares the listener for Bellringer Blues, though. It sounds akin to Loop, Spiritualized, and Ash Ra meeting careening 21st-century garage rock, as distorted backmasked loops of guitar, organ, and drums drive spooky chanted vocals that churn, rumble and crack in response.

The lyrics are appropriately ominous:

"It makes slaves of all of womankind
And corpses of men
And I just don't know
And we care a little bit
We get scared a little bit
Of those two cold dead eyes
That stare a little bit
And we cry a little bit
And we get by a little bit
Let your tears
All come falling down

Put me on a big white steed!
Ride it up and down your street!
Wrapped in a crimson coat!
Sail me in a green big boat!
I'll sail around the waters for you
Kill your sons and daughters for you!
Put me on a big white horse!
Send me down to Banbury Cross!

It's OK Joe, it's time to go"

This is the Nick Zinner Remix:

Here they are, live at C-Halle, Berlin:

At #62 is a song that belongs to yet another band led by Cave: The Birthday Party. The song is the title track of their second and final full studio album, Junkyard (1982). Right from its start, nobody held back on anything, Cave's now-demonic vocals in full roar while the rest of the players revamped rhythm & blues and funk into a blood-soaked cabaret exorcism. Nearly every tune is a Birthday Party classic one way or another, from the opening slow, sexy grind of She's Hit, Cave's freaked tale of death and destruction matched by clattering percussion and a perversely crisp guitar from Howard, to the ending title track's crawl toward a last gruesome ending. One of the finest tracks from that album, this perfectly captured the band's feral punk. As per the lyrics:

"One dead marine through the hatch
Scratch and scrape this Heavenly body
Every inch of winning skin
There's junk in honey's sack again"

New York no wave legend Lydia Lunch has this to say for the song:

"I first met The Birthday Party on their first trip to New York. It was obvious Rowland [S Howard] and I were going to unleash something together. We just clicked. Nick Cave and I were like two alien sub-species shadow-boxing with our diametric opposites. Exciting, incomprehensible, chemically imbalanced. Junkyard is the most incredibly raunchy slab of pathos ever recorded. A sledgehammer of raging libido spiraling into murderous perversity. Soaked in bloodlust and riddled with the contaminants of love's dirty remains. Slick with the sticky pus of a sick twist's wet dream, it's a filthy grind of roadhouse black'n'blues spiked with punked jazz where hammering drums, degenerate bass and the razor slice of Rowland's 'six strings that drew blood' set the stage for The King to thunder, threaten and ultimately massacre any would-be contender to the heathen's sleazy throne. Ferocious. Masterful. Demented. It still gives me goosebumps.

Why does such a prolific artist have such consistently high-quality output? C'mon, it's like asking me to comment on my own insanity!"

This is the studio version:

This is a live version found on the DVD Pleasure Heads Must Burn:

Finally for today, at #61, is the title track from the album Push the Sky Away (2013), credited to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. So, unintentionally, today we've heard songs from Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman, and Nick Cave, the film soundtrack composer. That was a quick, albeit incomplete, journey throughout the man's career.

Describing Push the Sky Away in the album's press release, Nick Cave said, "if I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then Push The Sky Away is the ghost-baby in the incubator and Warren's loops are its tiny, trembling heart-beat."

The album's sequencing makes it feel like a long, moody suite. The title track rises from the ether, driven by guest (and former Bad Seed) Barry Adamson's bassline and Ellis' eerie organ, which takes the foreground. It's a paean of determination in the face of grievous loss.

This verse is about being your own person:

"And if your friends think that you should do it different
And if they think that you should do it the same
You've gotta just keep on pushing and, keep on pushing and
Push the sky away"

"Some people say it's just rock'n'roll," he concludes, "but it gets you right down to your soul." Amen. This is the studio version:

This version is live at The Fonda Theatre, LA:

Now, let's continue with last week's statistics; there was a 25% decrease in the number of weekly visits, but it was still the 5th best week of the year so far, out of 9. I'm still satisfied.

All of the week's stories did well; the Nick Cave countdown first and foremost, but it was closely followed by the Marlene Dietrich story. The Mae West story is less than 24-hours-old and it looks like it will soon reach the same levels of visits as the others.

As far as countries are concerned, France and Turkey still very much impress with their number of visits: In fact, if the trend continues, France could "steal" the all-time #1 position from the United States, which again has suffered the biggest losses, as soon as a week from now. Tick, tock, my American friends... Turkey, on the other hand, has replaced the United Arab Emirates in our all-time top 10 for the first time. My Turkish friends, you're among the big players now...

They were joined by the United Kingdom and Italy, both of which had a great week. which scored a really impressive week. South Africa did well, Canada and Cyprus did OK, while, Greece, Russia, and Germany, kept dropping.

Here are this week's Top 10 countries.

1. France

2. the United Kingdom

3. the United States

4. Turkey

5. Italy

6. Greece

7. Canada

8. Cyprus

9. South Africa

10. Germany

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, Georgia, Guadeloupe, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 28.9%

2. France = 27.4%

3. the United Kingdom = 8.2%

4. Greece = 7.3%

5. Russia = 3.2%

6. Germany = 2.0%

7. Italy = 1.5%

8. Cyprus = 1.13%

9. Canada = 1.09%

10. Turkey = 0.48%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!