Musicians naming songs of their own they consider their best / are most proud of?
Reading a lecture by Nick Cave he lists Sad Waters, Black Hair, I Let Love In, Deanna, From Her To Eternity, Nobody's Baby Now, Into My Arms, Lime Tree Arbour, Lucy and Straight to you as the songs he is most proud of.
Anyone know of any other examples? I find this interesting.
- Relevant artist taggings:
- None
Thread not appearing correctly? Click here to rebuild | Report this
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
Mark Kozelek
Has referred to Katy's Song as his masterpiece, I think. I'm tempted to agree.
That's interesting 'cos he almost seems to have forgotten/dismissed his
earlier (superior to my ears) work.
Probably agree with him.
I think he is bored of a lot of it
He even mentions it in one of his latest songs, about how people keep shouting for Grace Cathedral Park et al.
Frank Black
I remember reading Frank Black say Debaser was the most 'Pixies' Pixies song, and so probably his favourite. It stuck in my mind cause usually bands are sick of their most popular songs
Ian McCulloch
usually introduces The Killing Moon live with, "this is the greatest song ever written"
ha, what a tool
I remember him saying
something similar about Ocean Rain (maybe that it's in the top 50 of all time or something).
You're getting songs and albums mixed up I think
I think Ian considers Ocean Rain to be 'the best album ever made'
I could well be
I remember it as being the song, but it was a long time ago that I read it (in the NME).
Heard a recording via 6music
Where they play the VU's Heroin and he announces it as the first song he ever wrote.
Let's be honest.
It could be both.
bradford cox said logos was his fav atlas sound song
and it's mine too. i'm him
mine too
definitely his best song
Thom Yorke said when he listened back to There There for the first time after recording it
he thought it was the best thing they'd ever done. I wonder if he still thinks that. Cos it is correct.
He's also named How to Disappear Completely as another favourite IIRC
He's definitely said that about Pyramid Song as well...
make your mind up.
Robert Pollard thinks I Am A Scientist was the first "proper" song he'd written
Michael Stipe has mentioned Fall on Me and Country Feedback as his favourites
He's also introduced Sweetness Follows
as being Peter Bucks favourite
Bowie
put together this compilation of some of his favourites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISelect
That's a fascinating and pretty surprising list
There are some great songs there, as you would expect,but I would guess only Life on Mars and possibly The Bewlay Brothers of the 12 he has chosen would make it onto most people's list (although that medley of Sweet Thing/Candidate has always been one of my favourites).
You can't help thinking he is being wilfully obtuse. After all, for instance, if he liked Some Are that much he could have put it on the original album.
I hear Noel Gallagher's most recent album is his favourite
and that it's a shame about the previous one
I like how Harvey Milk constantly slag off everything they've ever done
while continuing to churn out the great heavy rock imaginable
greatest
Nick Cave is a pretty poor judge of his own work
if that list is anything to go by
I wonder when Omar Rodriquez-Lopez
is carrying out all the fret-wanking and experimentation these days, does he ever sit back and think "this stuff isn't as good as At the Drive-In"? I wish he did. Maybe he does.
Having seen ATDI live this year
He definitely dosn't seem like he thinks that
Interestingly
Cave's list corresponds very closely with my own favourite list of his songs. But if those genuinely are his favourite own works, why has he spent the last 5 years releasing sub-Blues Explosion wank, and why does he hardly ever play Straight to You live?
I would be interested in the context in which he picked those songs
With a couple of exceptions (From Her to Eternity for instance) they are mostly at the 'classic songwriting' end of his output, which is only a relatively small proportion of what he has done over the years. They may well be his favourite 'songs' without necesserily being his favourite recordings.
It's clear from songs like Straight to You and Into Me Arms that Cave could have been a massive artist operating on the edge of the mainstream but he didn't chose to take that path.
Personally I like the conventional ballads and the more extreme stuff, but he only makes good records when he writes good songs and he's not done that consistently since Abbatoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus in 2004.
He doesn't seem to think much of the songs he's written since either, given the list he chooses (although I don't know when the lecture was written)
Into Me Arms
Like it. You've got me singing it in a Shaun Ryder accent now.
This is the lecture in question.
http://everything2.com/title/Nick+Cave%2527s+Love+Song+Lecture
Cheers for that
Brilliant read
Pretty sure the lecture was written/given well before Abbatoir Blues
so it's not surprising he doesn't list any of his contemporary songs in it.
morrissey did a list of his favourite songs & albums
& that was pretty controversial too
can't decide if this is better or worse
than bands trashing their own work. not sure why anybody wants to hear either.
Artists Fave Songs/Albums
They should never be trusted regarding this. I remember Mick Jagger saying Out of Tears was the best thing the Stones have ever done. Also, Morrissey went through a period of picking Southpaw Grammar as his favourite solo album. Southpaw Grammar?!
grizzly bear
seemed pretty chuffed with Sun is in Your Eyes