Season 403 : Exploring the Cave and Beyond

My contribution this week is an original inspired by a book I read recently retelling the story of King Lear. In that book, the story of Lear was told from the perspective of the Fool. Indeed, in some scenes it is the Fool who is the one who causes incidents to happen that are attributed by Shakespeare to other characters.

For this Season, I put myself in the position of poor put-upon Caliban from The Tempest and imagined the story from his perspective. So here we find him sat alone in his cave after all the Milanese have left... Bewailing the loss of his one true love.

Hope you enjoy:

 
Stagolee or Stagger Lee is a US traditional song based on a real incident. I first heard a version in my teenage years but the only words I remembered was the first verse that I sing here. Nick Cave "covered" it as "Stagger Lee" in an album of Murder Ballads. I say "covered" because he wrote new lyrics setting the story about 30 years after the incident on which the original was based with Stagger Lee as an older man. The song itself has been covered by folk, blues, bluegrass and pop artists over the years and there are a wide variety of lyrics. It's basically in 12 bar form but not strictly blues. My version is more folk with a nod to bluegrass and the lyrics are a selection taken from various versions I listened to and looked up for this recording.

The video is from photos I took when we visited Niagara Falls in 2004
 
I really wanted to do another one this week, and I got to Tupelo.

It may not be Nick Cave's Tupelo, but it is A Tupelo. Featuring my brand new $15 made-in-England tin kazoo,

 
So I really wanted to play a bigger part this week tha I have done. I've been a househusband for the last 2 months (by choice) and assumed it would lead to more uke time.

Turns out there is a lot that my wife used to do before she became the breadwinner

So, rare empty house, heres a song I've been dying to play for ages, and the first verse has the word lick which rhymes with Nick which I'm lead to believe means it counts.

I would also love to hear the Bad Seeds cover this.

 
Ding, ding...winners of Season 402 have been announced. Now get back to digging caves or nicking things or whatever!
 
weegingayin brought a gorgeous cover of this, i can't hope to match his fabulousness and sensitivity, but it's such a lovely song i wanted to give it a go anyway

"breathless" by nick cave

 
One of the main protagonists in the Peaky Blinders is an Irishman with quite possibly a
Northern Ireland accent, probably Belfast.

The inescutcheon (small central shield) of the Ulster coat of arms bore a red right hand,
the symbol of the O'Neill (Uí Néill) family since the mid-17th century, although myth attributes
the symbol to King Heremon O'Neill in 1015 bc... just saying.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_...

 
Been listening to a lot of Nick Cave this week, some wonderful stuff, but still haven't found one that I think I could take on. So, it's off to Series 3 Episode 3 of Peaky Blinders for this one, from the Arctic Monkeys.

 
TheOnlyUkeThatMatters and wee_ginga_yin have already submitted beautiful versions of this song and the Sydney Opera House video is very fine. But here is my instrumental version of "The Ship Song" (1990) by Nick Cave. Tabs by R.J. Putter.
 
Nick Cage was never on my focus. None the less I'm impressed what rich source offers his oeuvre.

 
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Such a fine version Mr elmann. Enjoyed!
Mine has a few glitches because I stuck to my first take 'rule' (which I do sometimes break) - when I played it for our host this is how it came ...It's a Bob Dylan song covered by Nick Cave and Friends...


Dylan's lyrics trouble me a little as, to me, it has a hint of invitation to try death's door as a passage to something better....
I don't know if it is the end but I can tell you there is no mistaking its arrival.
 
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Here's a Nick Cave.Don't quite agree with the conclusions reached.But it's a beautiful dark song from a desperate place .Baritone with some melodica.
 
Thanks everyone.Been a pleasure to see these different approaches taken by everybody.Hope we get a few more in during the weekend countdown.Again if anyone is missed off the playlist - let me know.From my own point of view I've enjoyed digging more deeply into Nick Cave.I was quite familiar with maybe 2 or 3 albums.But there is so much good stuff I hadn't really listened to before.
Cheers
John.
 
thought you might dig on this one John.
a Shannon Lyon song kev and me recorded today.
 
Banjolele cover of a Nick Cave cover of a Bob Dylan song
but modified to be a 8 bar blues using 7th chords, and an
excessive amount of percussion and lashings of artistic license,
which renders it almost beyond recognition, but if you have to
go, then it is best to go dancing
 
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