Nick Lowe Is The Jesus Of Cool!

Nick Lowe has been making great music for so long that we often take him for granted. Over a career that has spanned nearly forty years, Lowe has released around a dozen albums of consistently entertaining and adventurous songs that venture into sounds of pop, rock, country, and all things in between.

As member of early-70s pub-rock pioneers Brinsley Schwarz, Nick Lowe earned a reputation as a snappy songwriter with a skill for turning a phrase. The band’s roots-rock sound never caught on far beyond the streets of London and Camden Town, however, and Brinsley Schwarz broke up in 1975 after recording five now highly-collectible albums. The independent spirit of Brinsley Schwarz, combined with the band's part in convincing British pubs to feature live music, paved the way for the back-to-the-basics movement of punk rock and helped spawn the legendary class of '77 that included the Damned, the Clash and the Sex Pistols.

Lowe had a direct hand in shaping both punk and new wave, working for Stiff Records as a producer on important and influential records from talents like Graham Parker, Wreckless Eric, Elvis Costello, the Pretenders and the Damned. During this post-Brinsley period, Lowe also toured the U.S. as part of Dave Edmunds' band, opening for Bad Company. Lowe released an initial single – "So It Goes" – on Stiff in 1976, and would subsequently launch his solo career in earnest in 1978 with the release of Jesus of Cool, a whip-smart collection of pop-rock gems that welded contagious melodies with Lowe’s often-demented lyrical tales.

Because the album’s original British title was considered too “edgy” and controversial for the United States, Lowe’s debut album was released stateside under the wonderfully descriptive title Pure Pop For Now People with different sequencing and songs. Under either title, the album won no little amount of critical acclaim. Although it has sadly been out-of-print for better than a decade, this situation has recently been remedied by Yep Roc Records. The label has reissued Jesus of Cool in a 30th anniversary edition with its original schizo cover art and track sequencing, with a wealth of bonus material and a swanky package that includes a nifty annotated booklet with liner notes and lots of photos. The entire package folds out into a cool stained-glass cross-type thingie in keeping with the whole "Nick Lowe is the Jesus of Cool" theme.

What has made Jesus of Cool a cult favorite for three decades, though, is the undeniably entertaining music contained within. Lowe's talents aren't contained by any single pigeonhole, and musically the songs here run the gamut from the hard-edged martial minimalism of the anti-industry "Music For Money" and the twisted '50s-styled rock ballad "Little Hitler" to the whimsical casual vandalism of "I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass."

The swaggering "Shake And Pop" features a Jerry Lee-styled piano-bashing as its musical signature, while the song's lyrical doppelganger, "They Called It Rock," is an equally breathless exploration of the rock & roll lifestyle, supported this time around by a rollicking rhythm and stabs of Duane Eddy-styled guitarwork. "So It Goes" is a popish new wave roller with an infectious chorus and a bit of vocal gymnastics by the good Mr. Lowe.

The finely-crafted power-pop construction and lighthearted vocals of "Marie Provost" barely cover the dark humor of the song's sordid subject matter. "Nutted By Reality" offers up a funky bass groove and lively rhythm before dropping into an unlikely bit of McCartneyesque pop surrealism. A live version of "Heart Of The City" is a driven slab o' rootsy rock with squirrely guitar, rapidfire vocals, and a perfect bash-and-crash drumbeat.

There are a number of gems thrown in amidst the ten bonus tracks afforded this deluxe edition of Jesus of Cool. The uber-groovy instrumental "Shake That Rat" is a Dick Dale inspired walk on the beach while "I Love My Label" is a delightfully tongue-in-cheek observation of recording industry expectations. The Phil Spectorish "Halfway To Paradise" is an understated, '60s-style flight-of-fancy with delicious harmonies and lofty instrumentation. The fan-tastic "Rollers Show" is a fab slice of teen-beat adoration for the Bay City Rollers, delivered with a Britpop beat and a heart of gold. An original take on the classic "Cruel To Be Kind" is faster-but-slighter than that found on Labour Of Lust, but no less fetching with its beautiful pop sheen.

Beneath all of the bluster and genius, however, Jesus of Cool is a wonderfully concise collection of songs that evince as much anger and vitriol as anything recorded by new wave's "angry young men" like Graham Parker and Elvis Costello. Unlike either of those talented artists, however, Lowe – a veteran tunesmith with better than a decade of performing and recording beneath his belt – learned how to mask his venom with a spoonful of sugar. The result is a timeless classic of true rock & roll music – intelligent, witty, clever, angry and, most of all…cool! (Yep Roc)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Jesus Of Cool from Amazon.com)

Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town

Aaah...pub rock. A uniquely British construct – albeit one based on American music styles – pub rock represented a "back to the roots" aesthetic years before punk would rear its (often times) ugly head. Make no mistake, however…punk rock was heavily influenced by the pub rock scene, and the bands of the “Revolution of ‘77” benefited greatly from the trailblazing efforts of their forebears in opening up pubs and clubs to live performances (and rock music).

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though, shall we? As reflected by David Wells’ comprehensive liner notes for Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town, a two-CD set subtitled “a Pub Rock anthology,” the origins of the so-called movement lie with the American band Eggs Over Easy. The band had traveled to England in late-1970 to record an album with producer Chas Chandler, but the coming of the new year found them stranded in the country with no record deal. Convincing the management of the Tally Ho pub in the London neighborhood of Kent to allow them to play on normally slow Monday nights, Eggs Over Easy quickly developed a loyal following.

Among the growing legion of Eggs Over Easy fans were several musicians looking for a new direction to follow. Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz attended many an Eggs Over East show at the Tally Ho, even sitting in with the band at times; other fans included ‘60s U.K. rocker Zoot Money and members of bands like Bees Make Honey and Kilburn & the High Roads. When Eggs Over Easy’s work visas expired, the band made its way back to the states, releasing a single album (Good ‘N’ Easy) in 1972 before breaking up and disappearing into the rock & roll ether.

Although Eggs Over Easy would quickly slip into obscurity, the seed that the band had planted with its Tally Ho residency took root and sprouted into dozens of bands suddenly emancipated from the constraints of expectations. Providing an attractive alternative to the prog-rock and singer/songwriter fare of the day, pub-rock represented a welcome “back to the country” vibe, bands like Brinsley Schwarz (with Schwarz and Lowe), Bees Make Honey, Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers, Dr. Feelgood and others pursuing original mixes of rock, country, blues and bluegrass, performing in receptive pubs and clubs in and around London. None of the bands got rich, or even made a lot of money, but they enjoyed playing the music they wanted to play while honing their skills, and the top-of-the-card performers made daring, original music based on old standards that hits the ears hard, even 30+ years later.

From start to finish, Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town provides a fascinating and entertaining glimpse into the world of pub rock. Kicking off with the title track, Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers sound like Gram Parsons fronting the Flying Burrito Brothers with a British accent, the song’s innocence overwhelming its tentatively twangy instrumentation. The band’s Choo Choo Ch’Boogie swings with a Western flair and jazzy undertones, kind of Cab-Calloway-meets-Bob-Wills in good old London town. Pioneers Eggs Over Easy deliver the simple, charming, countryish Runnin’ Down To Memphis, the band’s only cut on the anthology.

Fronted by Ian Dury, who would go on to become a U.K. punk icon, Kilburn & the High Roads mixed a British Dance Hall sound with Dury’s keen lyrical observations and slightly-skewed sense of humour. Kilburn’s Billy Bentley is pretty snazzy while the band’s other cut here, Rough Kids, is a horn-driven blast of fresh air with honky tonk piano and screaming guitars. Bees Make Honey could have just as easily come from Laurel Canyon circa 1971, with laid-back songs like What Have We Got To Lose showcasing delicious harmonies while Indian Bayou Saturday mixes Levon Helm and The Band with Goose Creek Symphony (?!). Perhaps the best-known pub rock band of them all, Brinsley Schwarz, is represented here by a single tasty cut, the free-flowing roots-rock Country Girl.

One of the most interesting aspects of the short-lived pub rock phenomena was its inclusive nature; it was a big tent over a small scene, and everybody was welcome. Because of the honest, sincere nature of the music, old ‘60s rockers like Zoot Money, Mick Farren, Albert Lee, Stray and McGuiness Flint found a new home within the genre. Session guitar-for-hire Lee, who was also part of the unabashedly country-honk outfit Country Fever, gets to show off his six-string skills with the transcendent Best I Can. Money’s Arkansas sounds like a throwback to the hillbilly ‘50s, a low-fi production with sparse instrumentation and wickedly somber vocals. Featuring members of Manfred Mann and John Mayall’s bands, McGuinness Flint pursued a guitar-driven rock sound with just a trace of rootsy influence on the band’s rollicking Ride On My Rainbow.

Some pub rockers would go on to find significant careers in the coming punk revolution. Aside from the aforementioned Dury and Brinsley Schwarz’s Nick Lowe, the raw, stripped-down sound of bands like Eddie & the Hot Rods (kicking out the jams here with the uber-cool garage rock vibrations of Do The Monkey Man and All I Need Is Money) or the Count Bishops (best known for their haunting Link-Wray-meets-Screamin’-Jay rave-up Train Train) finding a receptive audience for their hard-rocking tunes among the Mohawk-tressed masses.

The scene also embraced bands that didn’t subscribe to the typical pub rock band’s rustic country sound. The Fabulous Poodles, for instance, didn’t really fit in anywhere with songs like the boisterous Roll Your Own or a spot-on soulful cover of the Amazing Rhythm Aces’ Third Rate Romance offering slightly-tilted guitar, off-kilter vocals and a sound that was more rock than roots. Elevated to royal status by pub rock fans, the influential Dr. Feelgood brought an R&B influence to the genre, although the band’s lone song here, Roxette, could pass for a ‘60s-era British blooze-rocker with distorted guitar and some dirty mouth harp work.

Raucous ‘50s-styled rockabilly was a favorite route for many on the scene, the Brunning Sunflower Band crossing Jerry Lee with Duane Eddy on the track Good Golly Miss Kelly while Matchbox, which would kick around well into the ‘80s, kicks out the spirited and electric Rock’n’Roll Band here. Another ‘60s-era holdover, the Pirates, evince an anarchic blue suede sound with their rocking Gibson Martin Fender (an off-the-tracks live version, no less).

Out of the 49 total tracks on Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town, there are a lot of lesser-known bands included on the anthology that nevertheless made good music and deserve mentioning, such as the Cartoons, Country Fever, Mickey Jupp and the Kursaal Flyers. Late-period pub rockers like the Tyla Gang or Nine Below Zero made more of a splash amidst late-70s/early-80s audiences loosened up by the triumphs of punk rock while others, cult favorites like the Downliners Sect or Unicorn, recorded albums that have become a sort of holy grail to collectors who prefer a little well-intentioned obscurity as they dig through the crates.

There are some obvious omissions hereabouts, most notably Ducks Deluxe, who had a unique Chuck Berry-influenced boogie-rock sound and which later provided musicians to both the Tyla Gang and Graham Parker’s Rumour; the Motors, who scored several U.K. chart hits; soulful vocalist Frankie Miller, whose oeuvre would fit firmly into the pub rock milieu; and even Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash band the 101’ers. I would have dropped the third Kilburn & the High Roads song and included a second Dr. Feelgood cut, but it would be easy to have bumped the anthology up to a third disc considering the wealth of material available.

Given the relative scarcity of much of this excellent music, however, and the unfamiliarity of American rock fans with most of these bands, Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town does a fine job of documenting the pub rock genre. The anthology provides newcomers with a valuable roadmap to bands worth checking out and, indeed, many of the bands mentioned here have import albums readily available. If you’re looking for an antidote to the brutal reality of what passes for modern rock these days, or if you’re a roots-rock fan thirsty for something new, I’d heartily recommend checking out the pub rock scene; this anthology is as good a place as any to start... (Castle Music/Sanctuary Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town from Amazon.com)

Nick Lowe Ages With Style and Class

Nick Lowe just gets no respect. His resume is every bit as impressive as anybody’s in rock music – critically-acclaimed solo artist and band member (Brinsley Schwarz, Rockpile, Little Village), in-demand session player (John Hiatt, John Lee Hooker) and successful producer (Elvis Costello, the Pretenders). It could be argued that the short-lived early-70s British pub-rock scene was built on Lowe’s back-to-the-basics musical philosophy, which subsequently influenced both punk and new wave. Yet Lowe continues to soldier on in relative obscurity (especially in the U.S.), his work enjoyed and revered by a small but loyal following of fans.

Over the almost three decades of his solo career, Lowe has delved into power pop (Pure Pop For Now People), new wave pop-rock (Labour Of Lust), roots-rock/rockabilly (The Rose of England) and R&B-flavored Americana (The Impossible Bird). With his 13th studio album At My Age, Lowe skews closer to his more recent work than revisiting past glories, masterfully blending lush ‘60s-era pop with Nashville-styled “countrypolitan” twang and Southern soul (think Muscle Shoals and the Memphis of Hi Records).

At My Age is a deceptively charismatic album. Upon the first spin or two, it seems somewhat unremarkable, failing to immediately grab your ears. With repeated listens, however, the album reluctantly uncovers its secrets and reveals its charms. The best way to describe the songs on At My Age is “subtle,” the soundtrack, words and vocals so damn undeniably cool that there is no need for them to SHOUT to be heard.

Unlike the vast majority of stomach-churning, migraine-inducing pop-and-rock-music today – which is tragically down-mixed, compressed, normalized and over-amped to grab the fleeting attention of a generation of iPod slingers and mp3 hoarders – At My Age has a distinctive laid-back vibe. The production by Lowe and Neil Brockbank offers sharply-defined highs and lows and a muted, understated elegance that is sorely lacking from much of this modern era’s recordings.

Where Lowe has always shined the brightest, however, is with his songwriting, and At My Age proves to be no exception. There’s nothing earth-shaking here, no revelatory moments, just finely-crafted and craftsmanlike compositions that run the gamut of style and substance. The album-opening A Better Man reminds me of a vintage Faron Young side, with a small country shuffle behind quiet, albeit forceful baritone vocals singing of the redemptive nature of love. The upbeat, horn-driven sound of Not Too Long Ago belies the tragic lost love of the song’s lyrics, the delightful vocal harmonies and James Burton-styled guitar masking the tears of a clown.

The lovely and hopelessly wry Hope For Us All sings with an Al Green heart full of soul while People Change, a tale of love slipping through one’s fingers, offers up a timeless and true pop soundtrack (yes, that’s Chrissie Hyde’s sultry wail in the background). Lowe’s rockabilly-flavored reading of the Charlie Feathers cut The Man In Love is reminiscent of both his early solo work and the twang-drenched pub-rock of Brinsley Schwarz. Love’s Got A Lot To Answer For is an insightful song of unmatched dignity with sparse instrumentation and bittersweet vocals.

The band that Lowe has assembled for At My Age is both restrained and magnificent, supporting each song with just enough foundation for Lowe to build his vocals upon. The musical flourishes are few but timely, never distracting from the lyrics and melody. It’s an odd way to perform these days, for sure, where musicians are expected to dispense with the subtlety and finesse in favor of bludgeoning the listener, but this crew treats Lowe’s performances gently and gentlemanly. Altogether, At My Age is an unexpected treat, a brilliant collection of cross-genre songs that draw upon decades of musical history to make a simple, yet magnificent statement. (Yep Roc Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy At My Age from Amazon.com)