Cave dropped out of school in 1977 to pursue music full time. It was during this time that he developed an addiction to heroin, which he later overcame. His first success as a songwriter and musician came with The Birthday Party, a proto-punk band that covered tunes by Lou Reed, David Bowie and Alice Cooper. The band moved to London where they gained a cult following thanks, in part, to Cave's provocative live performances.

Cave formed and fronted The Bad Seeds in 1984 and performs with them to this day. The band has recorded 14 albums, which, to quote critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Steve Huey, has allowed Cave to "explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock and arty post-punk."^[1]

Cave also records with Bad Seeds' members Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos as Grinderman.

Cave's career extends into the literary and film arenas as well with the novels And the Ass Saw the Angel and the screenplay for The Proposition.

• 1984: From Her to Eternity
• 1985: The Firstborn Is Dead
• 1986: Kicking Against the Pricks
• 1986: Your Funeral… My Trial
• 1988: Tender Prey
• 1990: The Good Son
• 1992: Henry's Dream
• 1994: Let Love In
• 1996: Murder Ballads
• 1997: The Boatman's Call
• 2001: No More Shall We Part
• 2003: Nocturama
• 2004: Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
• 2008: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!