Last night after work I walked up the street to the Great American Music Hall. I know I've been there once before, although it was years ago when I saw Bill Champlin perform.
This time Nick Lowe was performing. Oddly, I think I'd only seen him perform once before, although I've met him briefly in person twice. Last night it occurred to me, however, how stupid I've been for not seeing him more often.
Even this time was a near-miss, as once again I was ticketless and the show was sold out. Fortunately someone was offloading several spares and I was able to secure one. I was very glad, as it was a very good show.
I think the last time I saw him (at a free concert on the beach in Asbury Park sometime while I was in high school) he was backed by a band. This time it was almost entirely a solo acoustic set that covered both his latest tracks and some of the other notable, and at times irreverent, songs he's done over the last 30 years. I was happy to recognize quite a few of them, including a song with some of my favorite lyrics ever, "All Men Are Liars."
His latest album is called At My Age, and at his age his musical personality seems a bit more mellow than it used to be. But although that meant some of the older songs had different arrangements than on their records, it's not really a criticism. I found myself enjoying just how gentle this tall, lanky English gentleman's serenade really was.
I do wonder, though, if his perspective may have shifted over the years with regards to his older songs. The one from which I titled this post, "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding," became a big hit for Elvis Costello when he covered it. "But everyone thinks I was being serious when I wrote it," I once heard Nick Lowe chuckle in an old interview.
Last night, though, when he closed his set playing it, I think he might well have been.
Comments (7)
I like his hair.
Posted by Rick Lax | October 7, 2007 7:55 PM
Posted on October 7, 2007 19:55
What *isn't* funny about peace, love, and understanding?
Posted by Mike | October 10, 2007 8:04 AM
Posted on October 10, 2007 08:04
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Posted by jo | October 10, 2007 10:10 PM
Posted on October 10, 2007 22:10
Geez...just when I thought you only listened to the mediocre stylings of Huey Lewis you start to show some real taste...
Posted by Anonymous | October 11, 2007 11:28 AM
Posted on October 11, 2007 11:28
You do realize, don't you, that Nick Lowe gave Huey Lewis his first break.
And that Huey and the News produced and backed him on "I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll."
And that HLN covered "When I Write the Book" on their last album.
And that the second time I ever saw Nick was backstage at a Huey Lewis concert?
(My point being that when you bash Huey, you also bash Nick quite a bit.)
Posted by Cathy | October 11, 2007 1:10 PM
Posted on October 11, 2007 13:10
And you do realize that most of the New Wave musicians that ran in the same pack as Huey Lewis and the News in the early days have gone on to do something more than mere glorified pub rock? Not only has Nick Lowe produced lots of tremendous artists, but he's also explored country, blues, and folk as genres. I hardly need to detail the intense musical explorations of Elvis Costello or Joe Jackson, both of whom have grown as composers and musicians by working with elements of jazz, country, classical, opera, folk, salsa, and reggae. Both Difford and Tilbrook of Squeeze have worked with Aimee Mann and Michael Penn, among others.
It just seems to me that your slavish devotion to Huey Lewis robs you of the freedom to expand your repetoire. Mind you, I would say the same to the people who believe that the Beatles wrote the greatest, most experimental songs of the rock era...
Love what you love. Just don't love it at the expense of finding MORE to love.
Posted by Anonymous | October 16, 2007 10:17 AM
Posted on October 16, 2007 10:17
The point is generally well-taken, but I don't think it's fair to call it "slavish." First of all (and there's a post to this extent somewhere, but I can't find it right now) wrapping myself in a HLN-cocoon in recent years was largely a defense mechanism to the enormous psychological buffeting of the Great Change. I really wanted to stick with something familiar. I really needed to. Nonetheless, I'm ready to emerge from that cocoon, but at the same time I'm grateful that there was so much material there for me to enjoy that I don't feel that I've been musically malnourished in any way, even if I had only indulged in HLN music during this period.
And the truth of the matter is that I didn't. I did see other people and like other people. Paul Thorn, for instance. And, yeah, I heard of him because of the HLN connection. But it seems unfair to hold that against him. His music is totally different, with different sets of influences.
The reality is that HLN make a terrific starting point for discovering all sorts of music. There's many, many people I've heard and enjoyed that I've come to because there had been some connection to the band. Friends, relatives, maybe a Newsman played on their record, or maybe it was just someone some Newsman said he liked. Through this band I've been exposed to a lot of quality music over the years. It's been varied too, with the only common denominator being that it was something aligned to my general tastes.
Lacking ready access to a turntable, and my cassette dubs having mostly worn out, I've been detached from a lot of the music library I'd built for myself in my teenage years. (For instance I remembered the other day how much I missed listening to my Nick Lowe collection, to the point that I just bought a greatest hits CD just so I could get something on my iPod soon.) It has in it everything from Bruce Hornsby and Bonnie Raitt to Nick Lowe and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
And funny you mention Elvis Costello... You know on his first album, My Aim is True, he was backed by Clover, HL's former band. Huey himself didn't play on it, but News keyboardist Sean Hopper did. In a few weeks there's going to be a benefit concert in San Francisco where Elvis will reunite with Clover to play all those songs as part of its 30th anniversary. I've got tickets to that...
The other thought I want to mention is that I don't think I would have any appreciation for any music were it not for being a HLN fan. Neither of my parents listened to the radio when I was young, and I'm the elder sibling. Popular music was something I had to discover on my own. Were it not for HLN to motivate me I think I would have been limited to familiarity with only those acts who had once appeared on the Muppet Show... This band has been a fantastic key for me to enter into this world of artist-driven popular music, to get curious and care about it. Indeed, I think it's likely I would have been a musical dullard without them.
Posted by Cathy | October 21, 2007 10:07 PM
Posted on October 21, 2007 22:07