Nick Lowe C/D?

the rest of mr. lowe's output, though, i could take or leave.

"Cruel to be Kind" is his classic tho. The only time he was on TOTP, iirc. I'm also partial to "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass".

The "Bowi" EP is great, I believe that's the one where he covers the Sandy Posey song? Of course "Jesus of Cool"/"Pure Pop" and "Labour of Lust" are classics, total classics. His later stuff up until "Party of One" isn't as good but they're quite listenable.

I think it was Curtis Stigers? who covered "Peace, Love" on that ST; Lowe made a lotta money off of it. The Brinsley version of that actually is not as good as Costello's. Brinsley Schwartz was uneven--the only great one is "Nervous on the Road," an album I've always loved. "New Favourites" is weird, sort of like Pablo Cruise goes to New Orleans. The keyboard playing is what drags down those albums, actually. Would I be wrong to say that "Nervous" is the greatest pub-rock record (which, I admit, isn't really saying all that much...)?

"marie prevost"

what a weird song, it's actually quite punk in sentiment (too punk for me, i think)

I've never been able to sit through his song on the video compilation of Tony Wilson's 'So It Goes' music programme.

Anyone heard his new one, "At My Age"?

From the rolling county thread (though apparenly only three songs are actually covers on the new album, not all of them? Something like that):

n the first few tracks I tracked through on the new Nick Lowe apparently-all-covers-of-songs-I-never-heard-before album: How flat his voice has become over the years. Not sure why I expected otherwise; haven't paid close attention to the guy since 1979 (guess I've listened to a couple albums in the interim to write quickie reviews, but they're long gone from my memory banks), and my assumption has always been that he turned dullard years ago. Well, he still is one. Albeit a tasteful dullard, apparently. And one whose vocal chords have done what most vocal chords do in 28 years. For whatever it's worth, the song choice seems okay (and even his flatness seems passingly pleasant.)
-- xhuxk, Sunday, 22 April 2007 01:42 (2 months ago) Link

(Another possibilty: Yep Roc simply brings out the dullard in people. See: Ian Hunter above.)
-- xhuxk, Sunday, 22 April 2007 01:45 (2 months ago) Link

Haven't heard those particular albums, but might well be the hazards of being a pub rock label, in the sense that pub rock is basically a geezercore thing, though it involves youger art-rowdies too: I like Th' Legendary Shack Shakers and Chatham County Line on Yep Roc, and John Doe too, speaking of geezercore. Ian and Nick seem pretty insular, basically, so at this point the dullard might not need much bringing out.
-- dow, Sunday, 22 April 2007 03:32 (2 months ago) Link

I don't think Yep Roc is much involved in production.
-- dow, Sunday, 22 April 2007 03:41 (2 months ago) Link

Yeah, most likely not (though I wonder if the blandness is part of what attracts the label to these sorts of oldster projects in the first place?)
-- xhuxk, Sunday, 22 April 2007 12:37 (2 months ago) Link

dunno about Lowe's voice these days, or how Yep Roc can make anyone sound bland, can believe it's true from the evidence of a lot of their stuff.

-- whisperineddhurt, Sunday, 22 April 2007 14:21 (2 months ago) Link

Oops, that first post should have started something like "Biggest surprise in the first few tracks..."

Anyway, I'm still not sure what anybody sees in Nick's post-Labour of Lust music, but I guess it's nice he still has his supporters.

couplea good ones on Dig My Mood. there's one good CD's worth of material post-partum. Party of One is actually really good. but don't confuse him with Lloyd Cole.

Nick The Knife is his best album, but, yeah, I'll agree that you can take or leave the rest.

Better than Pure Pop or Labour of Lust??? That's crazy talk, Alfred.

Little known fact I've never made public before: I actually reviewed Nick the Knife for my college paper at the time, along with Lindsey Buckingham's comparably overrated first solo album. Nick's wicked wit had pretty much been depleted by then, as near as I could tell, and the powerpop was losing its power and pop both. Not sure he ever gained any of it back, but periodic spotchecks since then suggested he didn't, much.

Well, if it's not his best, it's my favorite. There's a good balance of yuks and heart on Knife, something he couldn't achieve before and hasn't since ("Stick It Where The Sun Don't Shine," "Let Me Kiss Ya," "Too Many Tears")

I met him one time, backstage after a gig. One very nice bloke.

The 4 CD box, -The Doings-, is terrific. The first two discs have almost every track you need from his best period, the third disc has the choice cuts from his lesser albums and the fourth disc has great live stuff.

So Christgau gives both '70s albums A's, then EVERY '80s album a B+ (besides an '89 best-of that gets an A-), then there's an A- in 1990 and then an apparent dropoff. (So basically, Nick became just another sincere roots guy, more or less, right? But wasn't being insincere what made him great at first?)

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=nick+lowe

keep beating that drum

He's never more sincere than when he's joking around. Dig My Mood was a real snooze.

the Brinsley Schwarz stuff is better than his early solo records anyway

Classic for Kippington Lodge alone!! :-)

a quick cut&paste from Tapestry of Delights (for anyone wanting to know):

Personnel:
BARRY LANDERMAN keyb'ds, vcls A
NICK LOWE bs, vcls A B C
BRINSLEY SCHWARZ gtr, vcls A B C
PETER WHALE drms A B
BOB ANDREWS keyb'ds, vcls A

CD:
1(-) KIPPINGTON LODGE '67-'69 (K 1P) 199?
NB: (1) is a bootleg containing all their 45 cuts plus BBC session versions of Younger Girl and Shy Boy.

EP:
1 Rumours/Lady On A Bicycle/And She Cried/Shy Boy (EMI NUT 2894) 1978

45s:
1 Shy Boy/Lady On A Bicycle (Parlophone R 5645) 1967
2 Rumours/And She Cried (Parlophone R 5677) 1968
3 Tell Me A Story/Understand A Woman (Parlophone R 5717) 1968
4 Tomorrow Today/Turn Out The Light (Parlophone R 5750) 1968
5 In My Life/I Can See Her Face (Parlophone R 5776) 1969

A late sixties pop group from Kent who evolved into Brinsley Schwarz in the early seventies. Schwarz and Lowe had earlier played together in school bands prior to forming this Tunbridge Wells - based venture in 1965. Their most successful 45 was Shy Boy, a Tomorrow song written by Keith West, but they never did get any hits. Their final 45, In My Life was a Beatles' track. Landerman departed to Vanity Fare and was replaced by Andrews but in October 1969 with a change of style came a change of name to Brinsley Schwarz. Whale dropped out of the music business at this stage but the other three stayed on in the new and much hyped band.

Musically they dished up pretty straightforward pop and two of their better efforts - Lady On A Bicycle and Rumours were both produced by Mark Wirtz.

Compilation appearances include: Turn Out The Light on Justafixation (CD); Rumours and Lady On A Bicycle on Not Just Beat Music 1965-70 (LP), British Psychedelic Trip, Vol. 2 (LP) and Great British Psychedelic Trip, Vol. 3 (CD); I Can See Her Face on Psychedelia, Vol. 3 (LP), We Can Fly (CD), Hen's Teeth, Vol. 3 (CD) and In The Beginning (LP); Shy Boy on A Teenage Opera - The Original Soundtrack Recording (CD).

I recently got Nervous On the Road/New Favourites. I was plesantly surprised, as I never really got into much pub rock before. He was a strong songwriter since the beginning.

Hasn't cut loose on "I Knew The Bride" since about 1978 sadly.

At least he didn't go the route of making alt-country children's music, like some.

Really want to read the Will Birch bio.

Last time he cut loose on stage was probably when he was alongside Elvis Costello.

Happy Birthday!

love

A low-key favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHZzdHHLiTo

I actually just found a good $3 copy of Nick the Knife. forgot how good that record is...the dodgy stuff comes after. idk when is a good time to get back on the bus though. I've heard "Impossible Bird" but I don't remember a thing about it.

but yeah - "Raining Raining" on Nick the Knife is such a great tune. its something McCartney could've wrote

"The Convincer" wouldn't be a bad place to test the waters IMO, it's appropriately named.

I drove through Indian Queens lately, it's in Cornwall and really not very attractive.

Nick the Knife was weird. Believe it came shortly after Rockpile broke up iirc, so there was a little bit of a letdown and loss of momentum, but yeah, probably not that bad in retrospect.

Ahh nice I think I actually spotted The Convincer in the used section, if it's still there I'll pick it up

kinda dig a (semi) famous musician letting his hair go white like that. I feel like I'm headed in that same direction by the time I'm that age.

Nick the Knife is all over the place but song for song it's pretty strong. IMO it's got more memorable tunes than the next 4 or 5 albums combined. he's such a cornball lyrically though

OTM. Seems like he got less and less interesting until the "comeback" of Party of One.

I take it back, sort of. Really, really like Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit.

xxxp Not bad, it's got some highlights like a good version of "Heart" (not better than Rockpile's but for a stripped down solo recording, it's very good) and "Stick It Where the Sun Don't Shine" is a great rip-off of the "Green River" guitar riff.

Rose of England is a favorite, and hilariously the one track I never liked (the inferior re-make of "I Knew the Bride") convinced the label to put it out. IIRC they rejected the album for having no hit singles, then Huey Lewis (a good guy even if his records aren't) got the idea of producing "I Knew the Bride" and sticking it on there, believing it will sell the album. Lowe was deeply skeptical, especially since the song was about seven years old at that point, but Lewis said something like "who plays it though? Great record but not a lot of people know it, so let's do it." And he was right!

I like it more than Party of One, but both are pretty good albums. Impossible Bird is probably his best once since Jesus of Cool and Labour of Lust - I always got the impression it was the first one in a long time (maybe ever) where he seriously didn't care about making $ and just did something he'd enjoy without any commercial considerations, thanks to that Bodyguard money.

I bought Party of One as a boomer-friendly teen in 1990 and...didn't get it. Still don't. The Dave Edmunds mix improves on Lowe's increasingly muddled self-production.

I'm a fan of Nick the Knife! His last consistently funny album.

btw I checked: "I Knew the Bride" (1985) earned honest-to-goodness heavy rotation on MTV in the fall of '85.

One of the things that helped the '85 "I Knew..." is that it sounded exactly like a new Huey Lewis track with Lowe singing, and audiences were hungry between Sports and Fore!.

Exactly

xp Hungry in '85? Shit man, wasn't Back to the Future enough??? They even had a track on We Are the World to kick off the year!

Huey Lewis. Back to the Future. We Are the World. That's like a trifecta or eightiesness.

Hot take: "All Men Are Liar" is a bad song.

*Liars

I think it's a fun novelty song, but IIRC Lowe regrets the Rick Astley lyric. (I don't listen to his records, but I think Astley is supposed to be a genuinely nice guy - I'd leave him be.)

This is my favorite track off Party of One. The keepers have all been anthologized on Quiet Please - unless you want a deep dive into his catalog, you can probably skip it if you've already got that compilation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biv8XSH8PSs

Mine is "Rocky Road," which he'd try to duplicate on his Serious Records later.

I kind of got off the bus after "cowboy outfit", I could see where it was going and it wasn't for me.

This is my favorite track off Party of One

It's pretty charming that Nick Lowe still brings travel wash on his tours so he can wash his own clothes.

"It costs a small fortune to have a pair of socks laundered in most of these hotels," chuckles Lowe (74) down the phone from New York.

That windfall from The Bodyguard was big, but I'm certain it went a LOT further thanks to his modest living.

Also, he was great last night and joined Elvis for the encore, appropriately "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love & Understanding." When he talked about Elvis reaching out to him to open his tour, he jokingly translated that into "warm up the crowd as they come in and find their seats," but it was a very enthusiastic reaction to both him AND Los Straitjackets (who played two fast-paced instrumentals as well). Audience was equally enthusiastic when he came back and he clearly enjoyed being on stage for that number.

Elvis's show was one for the fans - a lot of deep cuts (including three from Hey Clockface) that were often substantially different thanks to the rare addition of a horn section. The highlights were mostly things like "The Comedians" (first time I ever heard him play a song from that album), "Poisoned Rose" (which seemed to sway like a gospel number), "Blood and Hot Sauce" (which was worthy of Randy Newman's Good Old Boys), and the Hey Clockface numbers, though an unplanned "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" was pretty great too. Strangely his voice was hit or miss where on certain numbers any issues he had in the previous number would miraculously disappear. This was most noticeable when he had to sing high notes - on some numbers his voice would crack and struggle, and on others he would completely nail it. Maybe he just needed some water (which he kept on stage)?

It's funny, the first time I saw Elvis was also at the Beacon back in 2011, and that was an amazing 'best of' show - two and a half hours long, there were a handful of surprise covers (Prince's "Purple Rain," the Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing," the Rolling Stones' "Out of Time," Rockpile/Nick Lowe's "Heart of the City" and since it was Dylan's birthday a solo acoustic "License to Kill") but it was mostly his own songs. Only two came after 1986 - "Veronica" and "I Lost You" (with surprise guest Jim Lauderdale). This time was very different.

That windfall from The Bodyguard was big, but I'm certain it went a LOT further thanks to his modest living.

I remember him saying in an interview circa Dig My Mood wherein he said he'd spent it all by buying some nice shirts, eating some extravagant meals, paying his band what they were worth, self-financing the recording of The Impossible Bird, and taxes.

In video clips I saw of a recent gig Nick Lowe slowed everything down including rockers like “I Knew the Bride.” It was ok but I wanted circa 79 energy

Yeah

I can’t find it at the moment but several years ago there was an article about him where he basically said he wasn’t into hard, fast rock n’ roll anymore and that it was a product of simply aging and maturing into a different phase of his life. To drive the point home, he’s at a show watching someone else and the act plays “I Know the Bride.” So I was actually surprised when he did those old songs when I saw him soon after, but he’s definitely settled into a mid tempo groove. Works great with “Without Love” and “When I Write the Book” though. Would love a Rockpile reunion but even if they wanted to, I don’t think it can happen due to age and health. Edmunds is definitely retired.

I can’t find it at the moment but several years ago there was an article about him where he basically said he wasn’t into hard, fast rock n’ roll anymore and that it was a product of simply aging and maturing into a different phase of his life. To drive the point home, he’s at a show watching someone else and the act plays “I Know the Bride.” So I was actually surprised when he did those old songs when I saw him soon after, but he’s definitely settled into a mid tempo groove. Works great with “Without Love” and “When I Write the Book” though. Would love a Rockpile reunion but even if they wanted to, I don’t think it can happen due to age and health. Edmunds is definitely retired.

Fun one from last week:

When you play a Nick Lowe song on the Fenway organ and then find out that Nick Lowe WAS AT THE GAME pic.twitter.com/ZxLGNCJs0B

— Josh Kantor (@jtkantor) July 7, 2023

The new album is reliably good/great the whole way through. Won’t necessarily make my AOTY list but it’s sweet and pleasant.

I agree. I haven't kept up with his 21st century work, but this is a solid and enjoyable album. It may not be up there with the Rockpile-era, but it's about on par with Party of One.

Despite working with Los Straightjackets now, he's more interested in sweet and pleasant than rocking out. On the Rockpile thread, there's a few posts about how Billy Bremner from Rockpile is touring the US in October I think, and some of his gigs are close location-wise to Nick Lowe gigs.

I agree. I haven't kept up with his 21st century work, but this is a solid and enjoyable album. It may not be up there with the Rockpile-era, but it's about on par with _Party of One_.

As in that album was a standout/outlier of the later era

Visiting the Criterion Closet!

Nick Lowe is the dude. I would so love to sit around and listen to records with the guy.

His Amoeba bag was a pretty fun watch. Love the Bobby Hutcherson and Marty Robbins love.

every time I see a picture of this guy now I think it's Johnny Knoxville

this was a great watch, nick lowe chatting with matt sweeney...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SSd-iuiPLM

Another artist in the general age zone whose thread revive freaks me out.

Same

saw him a couple months ago, and although his voice isn’t what it was he started his set with “So It Goes” and the world was right.

Nick Lowe is a dude that has figured it out. His Amoeba bag is a good video too.

Lovely interview!

my first 'real' concert (i.e. one that my parents didn't bring me to) was Elvis Costello at the UC Berkeley Greek Theater ('Punch the Clock' era)... but the opener was Nick Lowe so I guess he's actually my first real concert

Oh nice. Iirc Crenshaw opening for E.C. was mine, Greek theater LA 1982?
Nick was stellar when I saw him open for Elvis 2 summers ago. Fantastic all around