Song · Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“The Ship Song” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
From the album The Good Son (1990)
“The Ship Song” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds appears on 30 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1990 and 2025. It was first released in 1990 on the album The Good Son. Its best result is #7 on the Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1990. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #51 alternative song of 1990 and #1,352 alternative song of all time.
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"The Ship Song" opened the campaign for The Good Son, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' sixth studio album, when Mute put it out as the lead single in March 1990 on CD, seven-inch and twelve-inch. Cave wrote both words and music himself, and it's a slow, stately ballad sung with a tenderness that stops you cold. Victor van Vugt recorded it, Gareth Jones mixed it, and John Hillcoat directed the video.
It only scraped to 84 on the UK chart, but its reputation has done nothing but grow: in 2001 APRA named it among the 30 finest Australian songs ever written, and Mojo later placed it at number five among Cave's 30 greatest songs.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 19 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1990 | 50 |
| 1990 | 7 | Studio Brussel Flanders, Belgium | Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1990 | 30 |
| 1993 | 22 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 1993 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
Also listed as: Ship Song.
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