The Sick Bag Song Audiobook By Nick Cave cover art

The Sick Bag Song

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Sick Bag Song

By: Nick Cave
Narrated by: Nick Cave
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.44

Buy for $17.44

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

The Sick Bag Song chronicles Cave's journey with his band, the Bad Seeds, on a 22-day North American tour. Inspired by John Berryman's Dream Songs, it is an epic exploration of inspiration, creativity, loss, love and death.

The book blends poetry, lyrics, memories, musings, flights of fancy and journal entries. The Sick Bag Song began life scribbled onto airline sick bags acquired during the internal flights taken by Cave during the tour. To some degree a companion piece to his feature doc 20,000 Days on Earth, The Sick Bag Song further explores and develops the mystique of Nick Cave.

©2016 Nick Cave (P)2016 Canongate Books Ltd Music

Critic reviews

"About as rock'n'roll as you can get...The Sick Bag Song is shot through with fantasy, fiction, apocalyptic musings and tall stories." (The Sunday Times)
"An epic narrative poem about his travels across North America...Cave is experimenting with a new literary form - a mash-up of prose, poetry, song lyrics and autobiography." (New York Times)
"The Sick Bag Song provides a window on Cave's honesty...Part tour diary and part free-ranging rumination on the business of performance. Capture[s] the mind-frazzling disorientation of 'the road'" (Guardian)
All stars
Most relevant  
I was mesmerized.. I recommend listening in the evening with candles .. joining Nick Cave on his journey

Enchanting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It took me nearly 4 hours to listen to this because I kept rewinding to hear all of the parts that struck me again and again. Now I just want to listen to it all over.

Wow. Just wow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved listening to Nick Cave read this book to me. It was the best.

Yes, Nick Cave, read to me!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Nick Cave’s writing and words are that of divine illumination, horror, grief and hope. This short little book accompanied me through a gloomy early spring Saturday and soothed all the raw nerves, heartache and fear that the last 2 years have brought to us. Thank you Nick for your beauty in the form of your written word.

The voice of a high priest speaks

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It is a real gift when you get to hear the author read their own work. Because their reading will always have a special verve. This is one of the many things that makes The Sick Bag Song wonderful to listen to. This is an incredible mix of prose, poetry, musings, lyrics, creative workshop, travelogue, and linear story. This is something truly special that defies categorization. I loved every second of it.

Author's and their work

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Nick Cave is scooping the brains out of my decapitated head. My guts are exposed my heart is in my hands and the most amazing fucking unfold behind my eyes. Thanks Nick Cave

_

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Nick Cave is a rock star?, a poet? writer?. He's an ARTIST no matter what medium he choose's to indulge in. This peace has such a range of emotions while remaining on tone. THAT TONE is where the heart of the book is lies.

Surpassed my expectation, while aiming for the sky

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.