Welcome to Nick Cave Monday, a new blog where The Rumpus lets me gush about the greatest musician in the world.
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“I’ll crawl over 50 good pussies just to get to one fat boy’s asshole.”
I love randomly saying that to friends. For a moment they look horrified and wonder if it’s time to send me back to the hospital. To their relief I confirm that it’s a Nick Cave quote. “Come on, Stagger Lee, keep up friend.”
Let’s get right to it, here is “Stagger Lee” by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds:
A couple of fun notes on that video, first Nick’s shirt, “Love You, Take That.” I didn’t know that Take That was a pop band and that shirt is very limited edition available after the band broke up. The makeup artist on the set wore that shirt, and Nick asked to borrow it for the video shoot.
Also, when I first played the song in my apartment my cat flipped out and ran for cover on the part where Blixa Bargeld screams. I told Blixa about that when I interviewed him and he said, “Of course, my scream scares many animals.”
Now for some live versions of “Stagger Lee” as well as versions of this traditional song that Nick literally ripped a new asshole on.
Here are The Bad Seeds live in 2004:
“Stagger Lee” performed on a TV show with Nick’s love interest of the time, P. J. Harvey, standing by, watching her man.
Now let’s check out some other versions of “Stagger Lee,” starting with the late Amy Winehouse:
Let’s bring on the version by Mississippi John Hurt:
Yes, Nick is sick in the head for his twisted version of a traditional ballad, that’s why we love Nick.
What? You want a version recorded even earlier? Here’s Ma’ Rainey:
Another tribute to the legendary “Stagger Lee,” here is a rocksteady song by The Rulers, Wrong Emboyo, that would be later covered by The Clash:
Let’s get back to the man, Nick Cave, and the boys doing a live version of “Stagger Lee” around 2008:
Thanks for reading, watching and listening and come back next week for another edition of Nick Cave Monday.
13 responses
This makes me ridiculously happy.
Tony I salute you. And like Seth this makes me ridiculously happy too.
“…my scream scares many animals†– ha!! Last October I started a blog post a few years ago researching who Stagga Lee was, gathered together all the Stagger Lee video I could find, including a Nick Drake (natch), as well as Titus Turner, Professor Longhair, Ike and Tina, Dr. John, Bert Jansch, Woody Guthrie, Bobby V and the Crickets, etc. Did NOT know that Amy Winehouse did one. Jeeesus! Fantastic post
Sweet. Also check out Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang’s version of Stagger Lee. This was recorded not long before the death of Chris. Such a loss.
Oh man, this is the best idea.
Nick Cave Monday? You have seriously given me a reason to sort of look forward to Mondays. Epic.
NICK CAVE MONDAYS!!
THANKS !!!
a french fan
So so very very good!
Stagger lee @ LSO is the funniest version of all time …
John Hurt and Amy are great.. but white room performance is really wicked.
Hail Stagger, Hail !!!
A few years ago I was driving home and I heard The Birthday Party’s “Release the Bats” on the radio. I ended buying the album when I got home since I’d been meaning to anyway and I played that song real loud. Twenty minutes later I thought I saw a mouse on my coffee table, then it got up and started flying, because it was a bat. It flew around awhile while I hid in the bedroom, don’t know how it got out. Never saw one around here before, haven’t seen one since. Still wondering how Nick Cave did it.
Just discovered this blog. Monday’s just got a whole fuck of a lot better. Isn’t the thought of Nick and PJ positively swoony?!?
Geez I’m two years late but totally digging this! Amn entire year of Nick Cave Mondays for me to indulge in. Thank you!
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