Added: 5 years ago
From: danielhouse
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  • Cave Nick -10 Depeche mode + 10 Amen

  • @flamekat2002 maybe. Then again Nick Cave was never a great singer: far from it, and I still seem to like his stuff better than a 101 excellent singers. I'd call it it kind of good and terrible. Either way, I contend it has character and conviction which may be the most important qualities to have.

    Or maybe just being a miserable alcoholic helps the appreciation along.

    Raise a glass if you have one.

  • @flamekat2002 word. I agree, nick didn't sing too well on this one this time!

  • OMG! GENIUS! I FREAKIN' LOVE Nick Cave.

  • This is amazing

  • Please listen the Cover by ''clitoris less cunt '' :) Son house - John The Revelator

  • ok this is fuckn great. it cant get any cooler but so much cool hurts my hea

    d

  • This song, in all incarnations, fascinates me.

  • I have never heard such off key singing by back up singers.....fuckin tone deaf!! brutal I can't even listen to this....

  • @AddictedToTheStones

    I doubt it's not... non - intentional. I'm sure they sing that way on purpose. Most of Cave's work is like that... sort of fucked up on every level, even musically. It adds to the eeriness ( how do you spell that? ).

  • Wow, I love this never heard it before. Unfortunately seems impossible to buy the track in the Uk short of paying £58 for the CD set. I'm obsessive but not quite that obsessive! Thanks for posting, am listening repeatedly....

  • Even white boys have the blues...the blues owes a lot to European religious hymns even if it gets it unique form from African rhythms and scales and the terrible experience of African-Americans under the conditions of slavery and Jim Crow.

  • DM version is the best!

  • @PrinzeschenKitty the DM song isn't a cover, but it was inspired by the original.

  • @RabSimpsonDotCom  thanks

  • yes jack white and nick cave are "white boys" but who the hell in popular black music is keeping this tradition alive today? good thing someone is. i never realized how much nick was indebted to the blues masters, i used to just think it was boring old man music kept alive by eric clapton...then i got into nick cave and he led me to go back and learn about son house, j lee hooker, blind lemon jefferson, blind willie mctell, skip james etc.

  • @swann46

    You spelt 'mentally' wrong. Who is really mentally challenged here.

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  • @brettmatthewson nick cave's 1 of those artists like tom waits or dylan where his voice is so unusual, it's unsettling, you either are obsessed and become part of his cult following or, for many others, its an obstruction preventing that from liking his music.

  • holy cow...why do people get their knickers in a twist? the old blues guys had no problem copying each other...and this version rocks as does the original, as does the Son House version as do any number of covers of this song...blues is not and was never meant to be embalmed like mummies in a museum...its a living tradition for god's sake!

  • Nick Cave once again shows more soul than a cathedral full of the faithful.

  • It's nice that Cave likes old sanctified blues like this but why on earth does he feel it incumbent upon him to attempt to perform it? Why doesn't he just stick to his own material and leave unsullied the magnificent recordings of Blind Willie Johnson, Son House etc?

  • Great version, God I like love music theory...Thats why if you play we will listen unless is noise sounds....This is simply GREAT...go N.C. and the BAD SEEDS

  • wow, that was probably the most out of tune, slow, anoying cover iv ever heard ever!!!!! 

  • Great version of one of the greatest songs of all time.

  • big original version.

    bye

    

  • The backup singers are doing homage to the woman who sang with Blind Willie. And, Nick just rocks this.

  • i love his voice soo much ..........sigh

  • Intonation of the lead singer, and backing vocals, is not correct...Are these people proffesionals?

  • This is truly terrible . A white boy trying to sing the blues ?

  • @rich107s hooray for being an ignorant prick!

  • @rich107s haaaaa, the blues has nothing to do with colour, yes maybe the black man found the blues first, when you realise music and blues can be found world wide in many different ways you'll be a better music fan, listen to bands like the white stripes and the black keys early stuff, untill then dont speak of white boys trying to play blues

  • how the fuck can you say that?!

    it is much like just a preference dude.

  • This is great, but Depeche Mode's John the Revelator is MUCH better.

  • horrid

  • i love nick cave but that's pretty spot on, audlpiper & blackblues1984. funny.

  • Let this a lesson that just because you can doesn't mean you should.

  • what the fuck?

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  • Kate &Anna McGarrigle and Lily Lanken on backing vocals

  • Well, he is saying Who's that writing, because y'know, those are the lyrics. Also he's Australian the accent slips through sometimes.

    People who generally like Nick Cave usually fall into two groups. Those who like his more accessible ballad style and those who like his more gospel/shanty style songs which are more of a holdover from his Birthday Party days but a bit more toned down.

  • @TheBarghest i'd have to say i generally fall into the second group, cause i love the birthday party, but i really love all nick cave's stuff

  • Yeah, same here. I just enjoy his stuff that's similar to this more. Like Six Strings, Up Jumped the Devil, Black Crow King, Well of Misery, his cover of Black Betty, etc.

    Those sorts of songs just always resonated more with me.

  • Well, i like it. I don't think Blind Willie Johnson would disapprove of this.......

  • wooo hoooo...low down raw soul rifffs and nicks damn gorgeous strong voice!!

  • 'cuse me, i know there are alot of Nick Cave fans, but come on, this was god aweful! Wauw he sang the song so weird and so out of tone, it was false and really really bad...

  • Yeah dude. Half the time it sounds like he is saying Who's that writin? JONAH the Revelator" Ridiculous.

  • Good soulful version of Blind Willies original lyrics.

    Interesting that of all gospel songs this one has been done by so many different artists. Is fate trying to tell us something?

  • @melovegorillaz Yes. That this song is AWESOME.

  • Cave brings his own style to music. If you are a teenie bopper music lover then no this is not for you. Nick sings with passion, conviction & soul and brings his own personality to everything he does. He is a music king. If you are new to Nick Cave's music try "As I sat sadly by her side" and "Into my arms" to ease yourself in - then try out "The Mercy Seat"!

  • +1

    you're right

    the one who has never heard the Mercy Seat has no sense of what music is...

  • Interesting comment. Unusual, helpful and intriguing.. Because of the way you phased your comment. I will check them out. in the order you suggested... ;¬)

  • He sing almost the entire song in one single tone.

  • hmmmm???

  • I love this song performed by one of the the greatests.... I'm with most of you, you could enjoy DM's version much better while drinking out with friends or as a performance itself... but Nick's version is one to be much appreciated, for it's far more profound!

  • This song is by Blind Willie Johnson? I bet Son House came first...

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  • Blind Willie was the first artist to ever record the track, in 1930....Son House recorded his version in 1960, 30 YEARS later!!!

  • No :)

  • but the good is at the second time is geting better and better:......

  • i really respect mr. nick ,but DM version is much better like for me:)-not this song cave!P:)

  • I agree that the DM version sounds better; however, if you pay attention to the lyrics, the Nick Cave version is much different and probably much truer to the original. Depeche Mode took the name for the song and the basic melody, but changed the lyrics, which changed the intention of the song to make it more poignant for our current political situation.

  • Had the Depeche Mode version for a while, Nick's version makes me wanna listen to it again... the backing singers sound like the girls i saw in 2005 Alexandra Palace gig, and yes they can sing, but they complement his voice and style of music...just my opinion, is all.

  • this version is so great! Love Nick Cave's voice.

    But still Depeche Mode had made a wonderful version of their own. :))

  • WTF.. Depeche Modes version is GREAT.. This is just weird :/

  • The music sounds good. The singing however not so much. Sounds like drunken Kareoke night. He's not in key and the back up singers are even worse.

  • Have you ever listened to blues music?

  • @singlecoillove Those backup singers happen to be folk legends The McGarrigle Sisters: Anna (joined here by her daughter, Lily Lanken) and the late Kate (mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright). Nick Cave has sung with them a number of times (they appear as backup singers on the album No More shall We Part). I know their voices are an acquired taste, but this is far from karaoke. This is a very personal rendition of a classic by people who have a deep love and appreciation of the blues.

  • Nick cave is awesome in this, those backup singers sound like crap though and i don't care about their repuation in music, they're 2 people singing out of tune. Whatever they've done in the past has little to do with that.

  • This shit is not easy to understand.....

    The tone of the back up singuers is just perfect the way it is.....

    Not even to talk about the raw passion that Nick puts in his voice.....

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  • I love the reverb on the guitar. This is cool. Son House sang John the revelator but it's a lot different.

  • why do people hate this?

  • Man, I love Nick Cave's stuff as a rule (MErcy Seat, Loverman, Ship Song, Lay me low etc.)

    ...but this is just not good.

  • The Mercy Seat was written by Nick Cave. It was not a cover.

  • i love this.

  • go listen to Lady Ka Ka,that should be the right stuff for ya!

  • At the start of this abomination, it says no information available on Blind Willie Johnson..... He was blinded as a child when his mother threw lye in his face supposedly cos she was angry at his father he was an amazing and pivotal blues guitarist but died alone in a house fire wrapped in news paper to keep warm... And Nick Cave is rich?? Sickening!!

  • oh - i agree - he's ugly as hell and a cocky bastard - and this is TRASH...but some of his stuff is ok....this is just awful....beyond awful!

  • not as ugly as you broken bones, and yes he is successful and talented and original, and you are not fuckwit so fuck off cause your opionion is worthless!!!

  • this was in a white stripes song little cream soda

  • messed up i ment to say cannon by the white stripes

  • ..."john the revelatoooor" is like Depeche Mode rithm...in "john the revelator"??!!??

  • Mr. Mojo rising ; )

  • Is he mocking the song?

  • Leave it to Nick Cave to make relgion sexy!! I love this song :D

  • Is he reading the lyrics as he "sings" them?

  • It's an interpretation. It doesn't have to be literal like in a bible class! The original was fantastic, and no one can take away its age-old mystique and allure. However, this is still an interesting interpretation of a great song, in my humble opinion anyway.

  • Ya got it! Great observations.

  • @2002092 are you taking the piss? the bible is a political work of (historical) fiction, any and all reading of it is interpretive. anyone taking the bible as literal is, in my humble opinion, a fucking maniac who: a) wants they're head examining and, b) is absolutely, under no circumstances, to be trusted. in my humble opinion. like you care. that is all.

  • @nanabaws Actually, I'm very irreligious but try to respect (as much as possible) those who have religious convictions. Some of these have helped to inspire great music, anyway. By contrast, you've proven that one does not have to be religious to be a complete 'fucking maniac', as you so eloquently put it. This one is not such a humble opinion, I concede.

  • Interpritation is not always a mockery

  • i think its just a seance...ummm i mean a sentence

  • ha-ha-ha... you're so funny... Cave and Morrison?

  • Very cleverly arranged, I'm loving the old warped sound like that of an old 78 and the dark undertone of his and the backup singers voices.

  • In "Profits of Doom" by Clutch he says, "who's that ridin? John the revelator."

  • Super kawałek! Bardzo klimatyczne chórki.

  • Gov't Mule does a pretty good version of this song, as well.

  • FANTASTIC!

  • You've never heard the original version of this 'wonderful song,' have you?

  • this song rules I love all versions!!

  • i deeply love his interpretation . i think is powerful . its one of the firts songs i heard from Cave and i adore it ever since. it is such a Nick Cave song ! doesnt have to be better from the other versions .. i have no comparation for it .. it is just a nick cave song and that says everything .. that says it is in some kind of way perfect !

  • Made a pretty good Australian Western, tho'....

  • Amazing

  • I really love this man...

  • nice beat

  • Are you legally retarded son? You must be!

  • No, I'm fairly certain Blind Willie Johnson's version predated Son House's. Besides, Johnson's version is the one that appears on the Anthology of American Folk Music which is what The Harry Smith Project paid tribute to.

  • I like the Blind Willie Johnson version best, by far. My brother, who is a blues guitarist, says the Son House version is the best-known in Blues circles. He knows a lot about blues history. But he didn't say who recorded it first. I think it's traditional and pre-dated all the recordings anyway.

  • Johnson wrote this song. He wrote a lot of his songs.

  • Non mon ami. This version is amazing. You guys don't accept anything that is different. And probably you haven't listened to Nick Cave that much. Anyway, if you are really a musician, you should respect artistry.

  • I think Phil Keaggy's is the best of the later covers but I don't know if his recorded version has been posted anywhere here.

  • Depeche´s song is only inspired by this traditional...I mean, compare the lyrics etc...Depeche made it a different song

  • Ps. I know that my comment sounds like something that is said by Laura Ingals from Litle House on The Prairie, but what the f..k, we all need Laura Ingals sometimes in our life.

  • I am thrilled about this conversation! So much hardcore fans and so strong oppinions. and !You know, just for the heck of it, i listened the versions of Son House,Blind Willie Johnson, Depeche Mode and Blues Brothers and i found out that it is this awsome song that makes everybody to try to make a version of it.They all contribute something personal to this song and i personally can`t say whitch version is the best.Never the less, beeing a Nick Cave fan, i comment it on this page.

  • if his voice wasn't so pitchy and out of tune it'd rock extremely hard.

  • Yes, he sounds pitchy and out of tune. Is it intentionall?. You know it takes balls and charisma to interprite a song so extremely awsome like that. Furthermore both the religious and blues factors make it even more " Dangerous".I like Blues Brothers allso, but you can`t make Nick to be like them, even if you put a barrel of a shotgun on his head.

  • it's definitely not intentional. if his voice wasn't shot, you can guarantee he'd have the pitch locked down.

    as it stands though, it's still powerful and the arrangement is cool. but don't think for a second that he likes his voice being pitchy.

  • thanks man thats exactly i was looking for

  • how can he read the lyrics, if he has his eyes closed nearly all the time?

  • fuck you all!!!

    this is NICK CAVE the GREAT!!!!

  • YESSSS!!!!

  • just see SONS OF ANARCHY WHERE IS THAT VERSION, NOT THIS HORRIBLE VERISON

  • Then go listen to it and comment on it and leave those of us who appreciate weirdness, individuality and diversity in music to this version.

  • Vive Le Difference!

    OK......it's not the best version I've ever heard, but it has it's own merits.

  • Sounds a lot like some of the stuff from his Firstborn is Dead album. And for those who think it sucks because he's a wealthy middle-aged white dude rather than an authentic bluesman, songs are meant to be played. And you can bet that Blind Willy Johnson (if he were not long gong) would be happy Nick Cave did a version of his song.

  • I guess nick has as much right to cover this as anyone considering nick is now a christian i believe.

  • To perform a historical blues song like this one, you don't need to be black or something, you only need to show respect of this tribute and sing it soulfully, imitating (if you have the guts) the pain that comes out of it.

    F**K the skin-color issue!!!

  • Who cares if it's a "white" or a "black" song? Nick Cave is known to have been heavily influenced by American blues--a genre which finds its roots primarily among the black community. Should he not be allowed to do this because he's white and sings in a different way? Uh. No. Of course he can, that's the beauty of cross-cultural interaction.

    Although I'm not sure just what I think of his version.

  • Sounds like Nick Cave usually sounds, He is probably not trying to sound like Blind Willie Johnson. (ironi) (Excuse me for my spelling; English is not my language..)

  • white people sound stupid singing this song, and im white

    they get the beat and rhythm totally wrong

  • It's a cover, it's not a copy.

    and nick cave knows that he's not an old black bluesman so he doesn't sing the same way

  • So you are calling out his white-ness, white man called (cough) Jamoca?

  • well im sure you may have noticed that whites and blacks have different ways of singing. im just saying that black people sound better when they sing this.

  • You'll find honey that true blues dudes don't give a f**k about ethnicity its all about the soul, pain and depth. BB King for example loves marti pellow, zoe devlin and steven seagal ALL white ;)

  • You'll find that i was only stating my opinion, and not a fact.

    I am entitled to my opinion and I am entitled to voice it how i choose.

    What you're trying to say is a fact, I merely stated an opinion...

  • No need to be defensive -- simple fact is blues ain't about ethnicity and true blues dudes 'get' this.

    What i don't get is why folks can't just enjoy good music instead of making such patently ridiculous assertions?

  • i like the song, just not the guy singing it

    in fact i watch the blue brothers just to listen to this song sometimes, i can't seem to find the guy who sang it on there on here

  • Do a search for blues brothers and john the revelator, there are a few vids up incl slide shows. That way you get to listen to a version you like and leave those of us who like this version to appreciate it in peace; without inane comments about blues being related to ethnicity.

  • i think that we dont listen to the same track! this is not bad .. is just diffrent from the original , i like it, he sings it in his unique and beautiful way.

  • DELTA GOD KING.

  • why are youtube comments the worst thing ever?

  • Because they're written by people.

  • hey, they're still better than Ebaumsworld comments.

  • There are many covers, i like the rhythmical, mostly the one on the beginning of blues brothers 2000 from Taj Mahal i think