The Ship Song (1990) – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

The Ship Song – written by Nick Cave (both lyrics and music) – was one of the first songs I ever heard by him, if not the first, back in my late teens. It’s my desert island pick from his catalogue and still ranks as one of my all-time favourite Australian songs. In fact, I just found out The Ship Song was named by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.

From the very first listen, I was floored by the raw lyrical imagery and swept away by the grandeur of its hymn-like melody. Honestly, I’m still in awe of it – even after hundreds of listens over the decades.

The tragic romance that is The Ship Song carries an almost apocalyptic air, and stands as one of his most anthemic works, right up there with Straight to You from the following album, Henry’s Dream. The video of Nick at the piano, surrounded by little ballerina-like princesses, perfectly captures the song’s strange blend of fairytale innocence and the turmoil of a ship at the mercy of a wild sea. That tension makes it feel timeless.

The music video was directed by John Hillcoat, who also directed the haunting Aussie western The Proposition – written by Cave himself – as well as The Road (2009), the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s bleak and brilliant novel, which featured here on Friday’s Finest last year.

The Ship Song appears on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ sixth studio album, The Good Son, and as alluded to above, it’s widely considered one of his finest works. Publications like Far Out and Mojo included it in their top 10 Nick Cave songs. What’s remarkable, though, is that despite all the praise it gets now, The Ship Song only peaked at No. 138 on the ARIA charts when it came out.

The following was abridged from the Wikipedia references below:

After two dark and harrowing studio albums with Your Funeral… My Trial (1986) and Tender Prey (1988), The Good Son was a substantial departure with a lighter and generally more uplifting sound. The change of mood was greatly inspired by lead vocalist Nick Cave falling in love with Brazilian journalist Viviane Carneiro, and an apparently salutary spell in rehab which purged much of the despair and squalor reflected in the previous two studio albums.

Cave later said, “I guess The Good Son is some kind of reflection of the way I felt early on in Brazil. I was quite happy there. I was in love and the first year or two was good. The problem I found was … in order to survive you have to adopt their attitudes towards everything, which are kind of blinkered.”

[Intro]
Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around
Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around

[Verse 1]
We talk about it all night long
We define our moral ground
But when I crawl into your arms
Everything, it comes tumbling down

[Chorus]
Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around

[Verse 2]
Your face has fallen sad now
For you know the time is nigh
When I must remove your wings
And you, you must try to fly

References:
1. The Ship Song – Wikipedia
2. The Good Son (album) – Wikipedia