Nick Lowe

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For the comic book editor, see Nick Lowe (comic books).

Nick Lowe (born Nicholas Drain Lowe, March 24, 1949, Walton-on-Thames) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer who records and performs in a number of different musical styles; along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica. He currently lives in Brentford, London, England, UK.

1 Career
2 Discography
3 References
4 Audio samples
5 External links

[edit] Career

Lowe began his recording career in 1966 as a member of Kippington Lodge, founded with his friend Brinsley Schwarz, which released a few singles on Parlophone. Three years later Kippington Lodge had changed its name to Brinsley Schwarz and its musical focus to country- and blues-rock. Lowe's best-known songs from the Brinsley Schwarz era are "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding," which was a major hit for Elvis Costello in 1979, and "Cruel to Be Kind," a song the other band members rejected but was later a solo hit for Lowe.

After leaving Brinsley Schwarz in the mid-1970s, Lowe began playing in Rockpile with Dave Edmunds. In August 1976, Lowe released "So It Goes" b/w "Heart of the City", the first single on the Stiff Records label where he was in-house producer (the label's first EP was Lowe's 1977 four-track release Bowi, apparently named in response to David Bowie's contemporaneous LP Low) . On this and other labels, Lowe would go on to produce The Damned's Damned Damned Damned and many albums by Elvis Costello, including My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, and Armed Forces. His early 'rough & ready' production style earned him the nickname Basher (as in 'bash it out now, tart it up later'). Upon moving from Stiff to Jake Riviera's Radar and F-Beat labels, Lowe became extremely selective in his choice of production tasks.

Because the two main singers in Rockpile had contracts with different record labels and managers, albums were always credited to either Lowe or Edmunds, so there is only one official Rockpile album, which wasn't released until the waning days of the collaboration—1980s Seconds of Pleasure, featuring the Lowe songs "When I Write The Book" and "Heart." However, two of the pair's most significant of solo albums from the period--Lowe's Labour of Lust and Edmund's Repeat When Necessary-- were effectively Rockpile albums (as was Carlene Carter's Lowe-produced Musical Shapes album). Rockpile's demise was hastened by a number of conflicts between Lowe's and Edmunds' respective managers, not Lowe and Edmunds themselves.^{[citation needed]}

Lowe's best-known song from this era is probably "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)" (the verse structure and topic adapted from Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell", but adding a chorus section to Berry's verse-after-verse format). On the 1977 Live Stiffs compilation with a pickup group called Last Chicken in the Shop, he virtually sneers out his contempt for all concerned; in 1985, fronting Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit on the album The Rose of England (album), he hasn't changed the words, but the tone is entirely different, even affectionate (the song was produced by Huey Lewis, while his band The News played on the track).

Lowe was quoted as saying that he had "escaped from the tyranny of the snare drum"^{[citation needed]}, when explaining his move away from regular pop music that would get played on mainstream radio.

Other well-known Lowe songs include "(I Love The Sound of) Breaking Glass," "All Men Are Liars," and "Cruel to Be Kind,", co-written with Ian Gomm and originally recorded with Brinsley Schwarz, a re-recording of which was his only US Top 40 hit, reaching #12 on the Billboard charts in 1979. "Cruel to Be Kind" would be covered years later in single format by The Connells.

In 1979, Lowe married country singer Carlene Carter, daughter of country singers Carl Smith and June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash. He adopted her daughter, Tiffany Anastasia Lowe. The marriage ended in the mid-eighties, but they remained friends, and Lowe remained close to the Carter/Cash family. He played and recorded with Johnny Cash, and Cash recorded several of Lowe's songs. Lowe's first son, Roy Lowe, was born in 2005.

After the demise of Rockpile, Lowe toured for a period with his band Noise To Go and later with The Cowboy Outfit, which also included the noted keyboard player Paul Carrack. Lowe was also a member of the short-lived mainly studio project Little Village with John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Trevor Whittaker, and Jim Keltner.

In 1992, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was covered by Curtis Stigers on the soundtrack album to The Bodyguard, an album that sold over 15 million copies. Because Lowe received royalties from these sales, he suddenly found himself a millionaire. Freed from commercial constraints, Lowe has recorded more solo albums in his own very individual style to critical acclaim.

A New York Daily News article^[1] quoted Lowe as saying his greatest fear in recent years was "sticking with what you did when you were famous". "I didn't want to become one of those thinning-haired, jowly old geezers who still does the same shtick they did when they were young, slim and beautiful," he said. "That's revolting and rather tragic." Rock critic Jim Farber observed: "Lowe's recent albums, epitomized by the new At My Age, moved him out of the realms of ironic pop and animated rock and into the role of a worldly balladeer, specializing in grave vocals and graceful tunes. Lowe's four most recent solo albums mine the wealth of American roots music, drawing on vintage country, soul and R&B to create an elegant mix of his own."

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

"So It Goes" / "Heart of the City" (1976)
"Keep It Outta Sight" / "(I've Been Taking The) Truth Drug" (Dynamite Records Holland) (1976)
"The Bowi EP" ("Born a Woman" / "Shake that Rat" / "Marie Prevost" / "Endless Sleep") (1977)
"Halfway to Paradise" / "I Don't Want the Night to End" (1977)
"I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass" / "They Called It Rock" (1978) - UK #7
"Little Hitler" / "Cruel To Be Kind" (Brinsleys version) (1978)
"American Squirm" / "What's So Funny..." (Elvis Costello & Attractions version) (1978)
"Crackin' Up" / "Basing St" (1979) - UK #34
"Cruel To Be Kind" / "Endless Grey Ribbon" (1979) - UK #12
"Swith Board Susan" / "Basing Street" (US Columbia 1979)
"Burning" / "Zulu Kiss" (1982)
"My Heart Hurts" / "Pet You + Hold You" / "Crackin' Up" / "What's So Funny" (live) (1982)
"Half A Boy, Half A Man" / "Awesome" (1984) - UK #53
"Ragin' Eyes" / "Tanque-Rae" (1983)
"Wish You Were Here" / "How Do You Talk To An Angel" (US Columbia) (1983)
"L.A.F.S" / "(Hey Big Mouth) Stand Up And Say That" (1984)
"I Knew the Bride" / "Darlin' Angel Eyes" (1985)
"Lover Jamboree" / "Crying In My Sleep" (US Columbia) (1988)
"All Men Are Liars" / "Gai-Gin Man" (1990)

[edit] EPs

Bowi, 7" 45 rpm (Stiff 1977)
Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds Sing the Everly Brothers, 7" 33⅓ rpm (F-Beat/Columbia 1980)

[edit] Albums

Jesus of Cool (1978, UK)
Pure Pop for Now People (1978, US) (similar cover to above, but very different track lineup)
Labour of Lust (1979)
Nick the Knife (1982)
The Abominable Showman (1983)
Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit (1984)
16 All Time Lowes (1984, compilation)
The Rose of England (1985)
Nick's Knack (1986, compilation)
Pinker and Prouder than Previous (1988)
Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe (1989, compilation)
Party of One (1990)
The Wilderness Years (1991, compilation)
The Impossible Bird (1994)
Dig My Mood (1998)
The Doings (1999, box set)
The Convincer (2001)
Untouched Takeaway (2004, live)
At My Age (June 4th 2007)

[edit] Compilations

A Bunch of Stiff Records (One track, "I Love My Label")
Stiffs Live (1978) (Nick Lowe's Last Chicken In The Shop got two tracks, "I Knew the Bride" and "Let's Eat", on this live compilation of the Stiff Records' Stiffs Live tour.

[edit] Tributes

Labour of Love: The Music of Nick Lowe (Telarc, 2001) (Features Dar Williams, Tom Petty, and Elvis Costello, among others).
LOWE PROFILE: A Tribute To Nick Lowe (Brewery, 2005) (Two-disc, 30 song collection featuring Dave Alvin, Foster & Lloyd, Ian Gomm, among others).