Added: 3 years ago
From: caro8680
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  • hauntingly good ;)

  • Great version, indeed. I did like Cash's cover as well. Just a great song.

  • I have no idea where this comes from but it makes me cry and want to search out other versions.

  • Those who say that Nick Cave cant sing is just trolling the internet

  • great

  • How can he perform so bloody well on lives ?

    If only his records were better...

    The simplicity of the live music missing several instruments and with that pure voice

    full of feelings just overtakes me every single time.

    I m amazed nick.

    thank you for singing for us

  • Goosebumps and shivers are in order here.

  • It's just "good" Until.. you reach the last line. Then you get hit with chills and suddenly really "get" this song, it's meaning, and imagery.

    -

    This should be weaponized.

  • This version is so haunting. Johnny Cash's version's good as well.

  • dam nick, you sure your not a god lol just so ........your amazing !

  • Wow. I mean...Wow.

  • Love this version. The song is so inredible that to hear him sing it without the orchestral back up gives an honest and intimate expression of the heart renching message.

    Some of us are on the mercy seat everyday. We sacrifice our lives every day because we choose to follow Yahweh. So we are hated and our lives are threatened, we are tortured, harrassed afflicted. To follow Yahweh you have to be sitting on the mercy seat.

  • I created an account purely to post this comment.

    This version is fucking amazing.

  • There should be no disagreement as to who's version of this song is best. Nick wrote and recorded it in the early '90s and John liked it enough to record it as well. A great honour. There have been many versions recorded over the years and the song is now larger than the writer or the performers.

  • Every story is original just like every time Nick Cave sings this song. It is all an evolution of the story, to take its shape and what we hear here we will never hear again. Its a moment in time, just glad someone captured it and shared it

  • Yo ripredblack read the comments. That response was to someone else. Been a Birthday party fan, Bad Seeds fan, and a solo Cave fan for 27 years. I know who fuckin wrote it.

  • Cant get into Cash or Cave.... this music is depressing. My opinion.

  • Oh my god. I've never really listened to Nick Cave, but my friend kept insisting he was fucking amazing. I am SO glad this is the first song I stumbled upon. It's been so long since a piece of music has floored me like this.

  • I like Cash's version, but I also like Cave's version....

    There only one way to sort this...

    .....FIIIIGHT!!!......

  • One of the best - if not the best - poem ever written by an Australian.

  • @Ragozine77 One of the great poets of the last 100 years

  • I am a huge fan of both Cash and Cave. I still have to vote for Cash's version. Can you imagine if these two would've ever gotten together? Talk about some emotion.

  • @chrisb4nu Agreed. I mean, they covered one Hank Williams' song together, but they should have sang this one instead.

  • Im agree the best version, thanks for sharing!!

  • this is the sort of shite he would have hung misMSeLf over you sad bastARDS UNLESS YOU R OLD AND THIS IS COOL

  • @hardcorelizards Guess I am old and uncool then.....

  • @hardcorelizards do you have dyslexia or something?

  • Amazing version, Check out "Will Miles Mercy Seat cover" great rendition!

  • I got to see him do this version live at The Park West in Chicago. It was just him and his piano....it was excellent! That whole night was kick ass!!!

  • Nick Cave is one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

  • Two Words: Perfection & Godlike!

  • Got see Nick Cave live in Australia in 2005 and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life - such a powerful and tender singer and such stage presence. Think I must listen to at least one Nick Cave or Grinderman song everyday! My favourite being Opium Tea. But OP is right, this is (or must be) one of the most amazing versions of this song I've heard. The emotion in his voice and the strings in the background are super-powerful.

  • he really has managed to bottle raw emotion here. Stunning.

  • Dude I am not gonna knock Cash, but you are smokin crack if you think his version is better.

  • @711scrilla - There's room in the world for both interpretations as each has its strengths. Cave's is more a dramatic reading of it and very effective in that respect, but Cash's sounds more like a guy who's really on death row and who tells you what's coming down as it's happening to him--it's raw and immediate...and REAL.

    Johnny's voice seems to speak from experience. It's like he's really lived this sort of thing, rather than is just acting out a part in song. And he got better as he aged.

  • @Galantski Nailed it. 

  • @711scrilla - I don't spoke crack and I stand by my points. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm not going to diss you for having it.

    Please note that nowhere do I say Cash's version is better than Cave's (I only use the word "better" to express my view that in some ways Cash became a better singer as he aged, not to compare singers).

    I merely explain why Cash got through to me more. While typing this I listened to Cave again, and there's no denying the power of his performance.

  • @711scrilla - I don't spoke crack and I stand by my points. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm not going to diss you for having it.

    I didn't say Cash's version is better than Cave's. I used the word "better" to express my view that in some ways Cash became a better singer as he aged, not to compare singers).

    My comments were merely to explain why Cash got through more to me, not to convert others to accept my view. I listened to Cave just now and it's a powerful performance, for sure.

  • @711scrilla - I stand by my points. I didn't say Cash's version is better than Cave's, and only used the word "better" to express my view that in some ways Cash became a better singer as he aged, not to compare singers.

    Cave's is a powerful performance, but Cash got through to me more--doesn't make it better. There's no "right" opinion, just some people being affected more by one than the other version.

    BTW, Did you know they were fans of each other and recorded songs together? Check it out!

  • @711scrilla - I stand by my points. I didn't say Cash's version is better than Cave's, and only used the word "better" to express my view that in some ways Cash became a better singer as he aged, not to compare singers.

    Cave's is a powerful performance, but Cash got through to me more--doesn't make it better. There's no "right" opinion, just some people being affected more by one than the other version.

    BTW, Did you know they were fans of each other and recorded songs together? Check it out!

  • @711scrilla I did like Cash's version best, until I heard this one!

  • @711scrilla What does this have to do with Johnny Cash? Cash COVERED this song. Cave WROTE it. Nick Cave KILLS it here.

  • @711scrilla But the "Live Seeds" version is rawer, meaner...Better...

    

  • Cash's version is better..........

  • this song makes me feel like I have a fever on my skin and a chill in my core... I can feel a velvet agony as I listen to it...

  • I can't sing along to this song. The images hit me so hard, even when it's slow like this, but when the song accelerates I almost start to thrash - I can't stand the emotion that's welling up in me. I need to scream, need to whimper and jerk around or I'll explode. Nick Cave takes my breath away.

  • I hope you are trolling.

  • wonderful. thank you. coldplay sucks.

  • Thumbs up if you believe his should need a Coldplay cover. I mean that they can do talk, why not? Would be epic, and second only to this one.

  • my life would be incomplete without Nick Cave. This is a stunning version of an already amazing song

  • Beautiful!

    

  • Incredibly powerful! Thanks uploader

  • Incredibly powerful!

  • twenty years ago i watched a vid. of Nick, a liveconcert, at my friend's place.

    And it blew me away. I think i'd never heard such a drama sung and brought so soulful. After that i never payed any attention to this fellow.

    And now.......now as i hear this i feel like being a stupid arse. I cannot describe the intensity this song 's doing to me.

  • Wow, stunning version, there's nothing he can't do. Thanks for posting

  • thanks so much for sharing this!

  • I hear Ellis/the Dirty Three behind this version - that violin is unmistakable!

  • It is grand to find another modern example of a soul of passionate performance, a romantic one, juxtaposed to Mr.Pop's.

  • There is so much emotion in this song,  in lyrics alone there is a world of emotion. It's no surprise that Nick cave writes books and film screenplays too, he has so much emotion to release that song is still not enough, he is a God when it comes to expression of emotion

  • its nicks child guess he can dress him how he likes

  • I like this version better than any of the studio ones.

  • really like nick cave but this version is too much empathic ans pathetic.

  • whats the problem?

  • omfg i have been listening to this song for 20 years, then I hear this version. its like discovering god, losing your virginity, watching yr first child being born. need i go on. an amazing orgasmic stupendous sound of angels crying. nick cave i love you.

  • @kendalandy maybe you went over the top there =)

    but hey, i know what you mean!

  • pfff..... Nick Cave!

  • @nelijamihajlova PPPFFFFF...........nelijamihaj­lova ! What the fuck are you?

  • wow great version

    

  • yay! Still picture clips on youtube! stop jerking off and put up some decent clips ffs!!!!

  • Yeah, the sound quality isn't the best, but, damn, that's a really great reading of the song!

  • Damn! I've heard this song on the Tender Prey album probably a million times. And yet I'm crying right now. That was the most moving, haunting, beautiful performance I've ever heard.. Wow. Thank you.

  • Whoa - gives the narrator a new perspective, regret oozes(is that a word) from this one - great version!

  • Großartig!!!

    

  • Großartig!!!

  • Best version you say? The sound quality is crap!

  • @OndineV Best version will not necessarily to do with sound quality ! And this is the best version I've ever heard ! Nick Cave isn´t for everybody,sorry...

  • ...Why have I never heard of this man? I just heard "Darker With the Day" on Pandora and loved it...Started listening to him and came across this....masterpiece. Again, why have I never heard of this man!?

  • @rock0n316 possibly because he doesn't really seek to be know, back in 97 he told mtv to take him out of their voting list, he lives to write his poetry and lives a very private life

  • @connwilliamsmedia Yeah, I read about that...Well, I'm glad to have come across his music and will definitely be looking more into it!

  • @rock0n316 look up grinderman his side project, if you haven't already

  • Some of the best lyrics I've ever heard.

  • yuck!

    

  • I love both Nick Cave and Johny Cash's version, Nick Cave is an amazing song writer, wow

  • Reworked and given new life. I love it.

  • i saw him 3 or 4 times live but this is the first time i hear the mercy seat this way. It's great

  • Just figured out... maybe Nick's narrator has to die in order to be revived. Somehow. Just like trees and all die every autumn, and they come out in spring again. Life and death in cycles of time. Death may seem strange at first thought but, given the situation of our narrator here, it might be seen as the only way to achieve salvation. The body dies so that the soul can live again. Like a moth that tries, &tc. - maybe I should ask my nurse about it =)

  • where can I find a clean not live version of this song?

  • Compared to The Red Paintings version, this is rubbish!

    still a good song, just he does it no justice.

  • @sonatamartica Don't you know that he wrote the damn thing?

  • @sonatamartica

    The Red Paintings would LOL at you saying that. I've seen them live and they're a good band. But to compare them to Nick Cave is stupid. Nick Cave has written more amazing songs than they've written songs, period.

  • @sonatamartica He fucking wrote this song you moron. you really should listen to the original recording off of "Tender Prey." Red Paintings... whatever. fuckin' emo crap.

  • @sonatamartica your ass got told

  • Fucking. Brilliant.

  • This is my autumn song. Definitely. Watch the leaves falling off the trees. Golden leaves, sweet desolation. Smell the breeze of the new season. Moist air, shy rain. Mountains looming out of the fog in the distance. Get seated in my fav armchair with a glass of red wine, warm taste, with Nick singing his master song in the background. Melancholy and happiness, out of time. When I die I want it to happen in that very situation. Would be perfect.

  • @MrBaptl

    FYI:

    "The Mercy Seat"  is the electric chair...

  • @JacKass00001

    I know that and now realize how ironical my comment is. Unwillingly so though. Anyway I do know what this song is about, but still it means much more to me than just debating the electric chair issue. Makes me think about life and death, truth also, the duality of all things, guilt and conscience, virtue, many things. What reminds me of autumn is the musical tone of the song in this particular version. I don't really know why. I just did what I told and felt it was perfect.

  • @MrBaptl

    If U want more autumn settings just look for John Cale, Chrissie Hynde and Nick..

  • @JacKass00001 I knew that i had nightmare about this after the first time i heard this

  • Awesome.........!

  • In early 1986 guy at a record store in Phoenix Arizona, Trax in Wax, gave me a mix tape of Nick Cave and the Birthday Party. Tupelo, Mutiny in Heaven, Zoo Music Girl, Hamlet (pow,pow,pow), Jack's Shadow........I was hooked. The following winter I was at St. Andrews in Detroit when I saw Nick sing the Mercy Seat live for the first time....I was blown away. He gets better every year!

  • Just a great song both versions by Cash and Nick

  • Nick Cave The Mercy Seat (the best version i've ever heard!).

    Check this version @ Lowlands festival - 2005. There is much more power in it, which I prefer. But it's a question of what you more like.

  • Truly is one of the greatest!!!

  • This IS one of the most beautiful versions of this song... Thanks for sharing!

  • This IS one of the most beautiful versions of this song ... Thanks for sharing!

  • @Dentonexmachina: Hind refers to hind leg or hind quaters, essentially behind you.

    I would interpret this as like 'the devil on my heels' ie something bad following you, haunting you or hanging over you.

    Cheers!

  • truly wondrous

  • You can find a download on google if you search Nick Cave live in Portugal and then the date. ( February 25, 2004 )

  • Amen caro8680!!!!

  • As for the 5 people that "thumbs down" this video, deserve to sit in the mercy seat..

  • one of the only men that can reroute songs, change them, and still make it completely brilliant. long live the king of songwriting and long live the men who play with him. i've never come across such a talent that can put you through every emotion know to man in one song.

  • @theartofnotbeingseen very VERY well said.

  • very good song. but the cover of "goethes Erben" in german is much better,....

    check it out,...... goethes erben - sitz der gnade

  • this song is absolutely brilliant!...amazing dark poetry...i don't think such a scene could be better described...not surprised at all that johnny cash would cover this...

  • For all the fine songs this briliant man has written this must be the best. The perfect tale told in a perfect pysho/hellish voice. This is the truth.

  • mmmmm, best version is a cover by Stromkern. check it out.

  • I forgot... The cover from "Goethes Erben" is called "Sitz der Gnade" that may help searching... :)

  • There's a great german cover of this song by "Goethes Erben" whis I liked very very much, when I was younger... Give it a try (it would be better, you speak german :)

  • wow wow wow

  • sick breath of my hinde would be a fart to me lol

  • cant see the video but Nick is absolutely on fire. genius

  • totally the best version ever my heart bleeds when i hear this

    thnxs nick

  • jesus crist of what

  • I saw this version in Melbourne,Festival Hall,t'was absolutely stunning,thanks.

    Great sound btw

  • @thehappynihilist hell no! however, cash made it sound like from an old dying man..ain't no better but different

  • @thehappynihilist I actually like the version on the "Live Seeds" 1994 album much more than both Nick's studio version and single version from Tender Prey, as well as the Man in Black's. It's superior to all of the above in my opinion.

  • This version, without doubt, gave me the single-most LONGEST shiver, in my own personal history of "song shivers". It lingered..caressed and touched deeper...than any moment i've experienced, within a song or with a person for that matter.

    THAT my friends, is a song.

  • This is a bit like Jamaican Ginger Cake. Just Amazing on every level.

  • If beauty were a song, it would be this. Incredibly powerful lyrics, it hits me hard every single time.

  • absolute genius, gorgeous, captivating.

  • "they are the sick breath at my hind," would be like.......a group of bad things that constantly follow him, causing him greif. that pretty much it. wow, i wish i had me a copy of king ink. however, i feel consulated becasue i have a first edition copy of "and the ass saw the angel" :)

  • boach unglaublich schöne version .... i remember the time with friends ... we celebrated this great song... in the 80s

    thx 4 that version

  • Great! Watch Eleanoora Rosenholm

  • Gonna have to buck the trend here and say that the original version is, in my opinion, pretty unbeatable.

  • @jacksonmpa IMO, the original version would be perfect if it was closer to the radio edit. I love Nick Cave and I'm probably going to hell for saying this but I'm not sure he really needed to repeat the chorus for five minutes at the end of the track >_>

  • @ramonoski

    Is that not where the power of the song is embedded?

  • You can truly feel the song in this version!

    So evolving, it has grown since the original!

    Thanks for posting caro8680

  • This is head shakingly unbelievable. Thank you for posting.

  • perfect!!!!!!!

  • indeed the best version you could hear knowing the studio version

    it's so peaceful without losing it's power

  • nope. i like the acoustic version on his b sides and rarities.

  • Probably Nick Cave is the last rock-poet. What the lyrisc! What the voice! It's genious.

  • @akivran : He is in deed a great rock-poet, but probably not the last.

  • @akivran rock poet! yes. I love the lecture he gave in Viena - the secret live of the love song.

  • rock poet! yes. I love the lecture he gave in Viena - the secret live of the love song.

  • Comment removed

  • @potisbas A poem by Charles Bukowski?! I challenge you to name it.

  • @potisbas Wrong. 100% Wrong.

  • @potisbas Bullshit! Name the poem! Nick Cave wrote this in the 80s

  • i love you

  • SUBLIME  simples

  • a tear in the corner of my eye. it DOES hurt its so good

  • i could listen t the millions of different versions of this song al day and never get bored... thanks so much for posting this, absolutely beautiful version... haunting.

  • caro8680 thank you so very much for posting this. it's so good it hurts.

  • As a songwriter I put him second only to Dylan. And he's a Jim Morrison style crooner, how divine!

  • I totally agree with you.

  • I disagree Cave and Dylan are completly differntly diferent song writers, nick is is post goth, Dylan is County. It's like comparing the johny cash version of the song, is lovly in its own way, his old voice and and the god frearing in his voice set it aper. This is completly diferent

  • I'm speechless.

    <3<3<3<3<3

  • Masterful songwriter...the best ever. He touches and connects with my soul, in depths never reached by anyone or anything ever before.

  • epic....

  • you must be joking

  • @ cornelwaugh

    while johnny cash's COVER is as good, it's not better

    you clearly don't listen to music