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Nick Cave has praised the fans who delivered their cover versions of classic Bad Seeds hits on his ‘Bad Seed TeeVee’ platform last weekend.
The musician launched the 24/7 video service back in April, and has since been broadcasting a range of rare and unseen footage from the Bad Seeds’ archive on a loop.
Last week, Cave took to Instagram to request his followers’ participation in the project, announcing: “Bad Seed TeeVee will be playing non-stop cover videos submitted by fans on a loop this weekend from Friday 10am BST until Monday 10am BST.”
In a subsequent post on his RedHandFiles site, Cave praised the fan renditions and revealed his favourites as part of a competition linked to the event.
He wrote: “I was absolutely blown away. Seriously. The cover versions were awesome. Many of them, as far as I am concerned, were glorious advancements on the originals. Maria Højrup’s gorgeous Bright Horses, the operatic Avalanche, Saint Agnes’ chilling and superior No Pussy Blues and Asa’s Loverman-riot, the absolutely epic Galleon Ship and the super-disturbing Jack the Ripper, that seriously great Higgs Boson Blues from Ladyship Warship — wow, the rendition of Wild Rose (finally in tune), and the beautiful Covid-harp version, the Watching Alice snuff video, Paul at the piano playing Push the Sky Away, the kid singing We No Who U R on the acoustic guitar in the Clash t-shirt, and many other lovely versions of this song.”
After praising a multitude of other covers, he went on to single out two fan renditions that had a lasting effect on him.
“But there were two songs, both off Ghosteen that, for me, stopped time itself. The deeply moving version of Spinning Song by Ilya Gruzdev, with its extraordinarily affecting home video footage, was such a strange, bold and emotional elevation of the original. I loved this. Watching it, well, it was very hard for me to keep my shit together,” he wrote.
“And the other song, Waiting For You by Juldiz, with its incredibly haunting video, felt like it was attached by the tips of its fingers to the very edge of the world and could float away at any moment. It really was one of the most beautiful and precarious musical moments I have heard in a very long time. It was a performance that emerged deep within the song itself, on that delicious brink of collapse where so much great art lives, beamed from a million sorrowing miles away. Unbelievably beautiful.”
Cave concluded: “Like I said, I was very affected by what I saw this weekend. We all were, I think, based on the love and support from the Bad Seed community in the comments section of the Vortex. There have been a lot of cover versions of my songs over the years, but rarely have I heard them played with such honesty, understanding, creativity, conviction and pure heart. This stuff is the real deal and exactly what music should be about. Thank you all so much. It was an honour to be a part of it.”
This comes after the ‘Ghosteen’ musician recently surprised fans by launching a new range of official merchandise. The ‘Cave Things’ online store contains lyric sheets, prints designed by Cave, T-shirts and Warren Ellis plectrums and bags.
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