Archives for September 2018

Certain Songs #1335: Nick Lowe – “Skin Deep”

September 30, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Labour of Lust
Year: 1979

My favorite song on Labour of Lust, and along with “So It Goes,” my favorite Nick Lowe song period, “Skin Deep” is a yet another incredibly cynical look at love and sex.

It’s also a perfect microcosm of what made Rockpile such a great band: songs that had great basslines, powerful drum parts, weird harmonies, and floated on mattresses of acoustic guitars with electric guitars serving as decoration or stingers.

Certain Songs #1334: Nick Lowe – “American Squirm”

September 29, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Labour of Lust
Year: 1979

Nick Lowe had a pretty fucking great 1979, even beyond the success of “Cruel to Be Kind.”

Not only did he record and release two albums with Rockpile — his own Labour of Lust and and Dave Edmunds’ Repeat When Necessary — he also found time to produce his fourth Elvis Costello album in three years, Get Happy!!, all of which was part of his D.I.Y. aesthetic, a philosophy that has stuck with me to this day.

Certain Songs #1333: Nick Lowe – “Cruel to Be Kind”

September 28, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Labour of Lust
Year: 1979

Why “Cruel to Be Kind”??

Without dismissing it as a song — it’s a great pop song on every level — out of all of the great power-pop songs floating around in 1979, how is it that “Cruel to Be Kind” became a massive hit, peaking a #12 not just here in the U.S., but also in the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand?

Certain Songs #1332: Nick Lowe – “Heart of the City (Live)”

September 27, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Jesus of Cool
Year: 1978

So let’s get even more convoluted, shall we? While I prefer the U.S. Pure Pop for Now People to the U.K. Jesus of Cool, I definitely prefer the live version of “Heart of the City” that showed up on the later to the studio version on the former.

Why? While the studio version of “Heart of The City” is perfectly fine — it was recorded at the same session as “So It Goes,” so there was definitely magic in the air — it’s lacking a key component found in the live version: Rockpile.

Certain Songs #1331: Nick Lowe – “So It Goes”

September 26, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Pure Pop for Now People
Year: 1976

Yes, I realize that Jesus of Cool is a much better album title than Pure Pop For Now People, but I will argue to my grave that the U.S. configuration — which added “Rollers Show” and used the studio version of “Heart in the City” instead of the live one — is far superior to the original U.K. edition, especially in terms of sequencing.

And that’s because Pure Pop for Now People almost instantly justifies its title by leading off with “So It Goes,” a serious contender for the greatest power pop song ever recorded.

Certain Songs #1330: Nick Lowe – “Let’s Eat (Live)”

September 25, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Live Stiffs Live
Year: 1978

One of the first indie labels to be established in the U.K. as punk rock started exploding, Stiff Records almost instantly established a formidable stable of musicians who for the most part weren’t quite as noisy as the Sex Pistols or The Clash, but were certainly indebted to the sudden musical freedom that came in the wake of punk.

Establishing a tone with their very first single, Nick Lowe’s immortal “So It Goes” (which I’ll be writing about tomorrow), Stiff Records alternated cheeky marketing — “If it ain’t Stiff, it ain’t worth a fuck! — with seriously groundbreaking music.

Certain Songs #1329: Nick Drake – “Pink Moon”

September 24, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Pink Moon
Year: 1972

For the longest time, Nick Drake was just one of those names that popped up on lists of cult artists of the early 1970s, a guy who I never quite got around to listening to, and nowadays, Nick Drake is someone who I’ve listened to, but mostly still haven’t quite come around to.

And in between all of that, of course, is one of the greatest collisions of crass commercialism and pure art that has ever existed: the Volkswagen “Pink Moon” commercial.

Certain Songs #1328: New York Dolls – “Human Being”

September 23, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Too Much, Too Soon
Year: 1974

For reasons that are lost to the mists of time, I purchased the New York Dolls second album, the perfectly titled Too Much Too Soon about a year before I purchased New York Dolls.

Why I didn’t buy them in order is now lost to the midsts of time, but of course, by the early 80s, the Dolls were essentially known as an influence on the punk rock of the time, and David Johansen was beginning to distance himself from his past with his ever slicker solo albums, and Johnny Thunders was distancing himself from everything with heroin.

Certain Songs #1327: New York Dolls – “Trash”

September 21, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: New York Dolls
Year: 1973

“Trash” was released as part of a double-A side with “Personality Crisis” in 1973, and while the latter song was too unruly by half, it seems to me that in an era with AM hard rock singles like “We’re An American Band,” “Smoke on the Water,” “Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo” and “Takin’ Care of Business,” there was no reason that “Trash” couldn’t also have been a chart-topper.

But, of course, it wasn’t: there wasn’t going to be any world-conquering for the New York Dolls, except perhaps posthumously, and even then, it seems to me that out of all of the proto-punk forerunners — The Velvets, MC5, Stooges — their story is the one that I actually know the least.

Certain Songs #1326: New York Dolls – “Frankenstein (Orig.)”

September 20, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: New York Dolls
Year: 1973

You could never ever get away with a song like “Frankenstein (Orig.)” today.

Not because it’s particularly offensive or dirty, but rather in the past few decades, we’ve all come to understand that “Frankenstein” was the doctor (and pronounced “fron-ken-steen” as well) and referring to the monster as “Frankenstein” is just inaccurate, and even borderline offensive. Monsters have feelings too!!