THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (24): Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Ship Song

In 1989, Nick Cave was living in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  He was looking to turn his life around after a long period of drug addiction. The move had come after he had fallen in love with Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro. They would, in 1991, get married and have a son.

It all meant that his mind was in a completely different place than it had been during the writing, recording and touring of the first three Bad Seeds albums.  Instead of heading back to Europe, and running the risk of falling back into bad habits, he summoned The Bad Seeds along with Victor Van Hugt, his producer of choice, to Sao Paulo to begin work on what would become The Good Son, released in April 1990.

Nick Cave would later say that the album was a reflection of how he was feeling at the time.  He was happy in Brazil, and he was in love.  The dark and often despairing nature of the previous albums was replaced by a sound that was more gentle in nature.   History shows that this feeling of contentment didn’t last too long.  The relationship was over by 1993 and the couple divorced in 1996.   The music would take different turns again through the 90s….until the next time he fell madly in love.  But let’s leave Polly Harvey out of today’s story.

The first of the new songs to emerge from the sessions on Brazil was greeted with a sense of disbelief among Cave devotees, particularly those whose fandom went all the way back to The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party.   A soppy ballad? What was the world coming to??

mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Ship Song

These days, it is regarded, and rightly so, as one of his finest compositions.  It is also testament to the skills of the Bad Seeds, who in this instance were Kid Congo Powers (guitars), Blixa Bargeld (guitars), Mick Harvey (bass) and Thomas Wydler (drums), that they could magnificently deliver a song, and indeed an entire album, which was so far removed from what they were used to.

The b-side to the single, which was issued on 7″, 12″ and CD, was perhaps an early indication that Nick Cave would, in the fullness of time, get involved in composing music for films:-

mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Train Song

The Ship Song didn’t reach the Top 75 on its release.   The Good Son spent one week in the album chart at #47.   It would still take a few more years before Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds enjoyed the commercial success that many contemporary critics believed was their due.

JC