The Delete BinA select few musicians have had several successful careers and could have made their names with any one of them. Among these musical heroes, Nick Lowe stands as a figure among figures. For his part, Lowe could have been solely known as a stalwart bass player and singer with pub rock champions Brinsley Schwarz and later with rock n’ roll revivalists Rockpile and roots rockers Little Village. Gifted with a sonorous baritone and a deft hand at choosing cover songs to perfectly suit that voice, he could have been a straight-up crooner, an interpreter of classic country, rhythm & blues, and traditional pop.
Nick Lowe certainly could have rested on his reputation as a primo producer of the punk and new wave era. He was in the booth for landmark albums by The Damned, Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, and others. And of course, if he’d just been a songwriter, he’d still be venerated. On that front, he took everything from those various contexts that make up his unique career to create some of the greatest pop music of its kind across decades. Here are 20 examples of great Nick Lowe songs that stand as a mark of his irreplaceable musical signature.
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What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?
First appearing on the 1974 album The New Favourites of … Brinsley Schwarz, Nick Lowe’s anthem to the titular virtues was a tune he considered to be his first original statement as a songwriter. The Brinsleys single flopped. But the song was later given a boost by Elvis Costello who laid down his impassioned take during the Armed Forces album sessions in Lowe’s charge.
The strength in the song is its directness, which was unfashionable when such sentiments perhaps felt passé in the era of jaded glam-rock artifice. Maybe this is why it failed to thrive at the time. But the song’s enduringly resonant message continues to be relevant today in an era of seemingly unprecedented uncertainty, fear, and deep-seated disappointment that the world still isn’t a much better place than it is by now.
Listen: What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding (Brinsley Schwarz version)
So It Goes
Originally a solo single paired with the excellent “Heart of the City” as its B-side, “So it Goes” melds Phil Lynott-style toughness to Sixties beat group jangle. Its tearaway sound spearheaded the stripped-down, punkish rattle from artists on the Stiff Records label where Lowe would become in-house producer. This song helped to give that very label a boost as its first release in 1976, later appearing on 1978’s Jesus of Cool, aka Pure Pop for Now People.
“So it Goes” is full of chiming guitars and with world-weary lyrics delivered in Nick Lowe’s slightly grouchy lead voice. It remains a celebratory mix of clashing musical forces distilled to their base ingredients. This makes the song a product of an era and timeless enough to sound as if it were written yesterday, too; a recurring attribute in Lowe’s work.
Listen: So it Goes
I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass
Full of bassy bounce, funky rhythms, and jittery piano lines, “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass” provided Lowe with a top ten UK hit in 1978. It reflects Bowie-esque textures and (perhaps unconsciously) his song title “Breaking Glass” from 1977’s Low, a record that Nick Lowe cheekily referenced earlier still on his own EP, Bowi. In any case, “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass” is a singular song in Lowe’s catalogue.
This is due to how unlike it is to his other work. On it, Lowe lays down a feel and a groove rather than a set of clever lyrics set to an undeniable melody. This is not to say those latter elements are lacking. But this is a song for the feet and not the head, demonstrating facets of Lowe’s musical personality beyond his pub rock roots.
Listen: I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass
Marie Provost
This grisly story of old Hollywood is featured on the aforementioned Bowi EP, later to appear on Jesus of Cool. This is a sad tale of lost fame and death; a silent movie actor who falls into poverty and obscurity in the age of the talkies, dying alone and turned into a doggie’s dinner thanks to her hungry little dachshund. This is thematically unexpected territory. But the subversion of expectations certainly doesn’t end there.
Nick Lowe turns this terrible tale of tragedy into a downright cheery song full of doo-wop style backing vocals and a truly soaring chorus. All that creates a vital wait, what?? experience for the listener by setting the happy go-luckiness of the chorus against its morbid lyrics. The combination is a dark-humoured masterwork, undercutting expectations while preserving its opposing comedy and tragedy in perfect balance.
Listen: Marie Provost
Born Fighter
A highlight on 1979’s Labour of Lust, “Born Fighter” is an anthem for the determined and possibly the contrarian. As such, this song is set to a single-minded, willful chug, driven by charging drums which lend more of a gallop than a backbeat. Along with furiously strummed acoustic guitar, a wheezy harmonica solo ties it to Sixties London R&B as much as to American country rock.
The band in support is Rockpile in all but name, with bandmate Dave Edmonds’ lead guitar solo being a rockabilly jumble of kinetic energy as the song tumbles toward its finish line. All around, “Born Fighter” is both a classic rock n’ roll rebel song and something outside of anything that’s come before or since. Its scrappy, pun-loving lyrics are just the cherry on top.
Listen: Born Fighter
Cruel to be Kind
His biggest and most recognized hit, “Cruel to be Kind” made waves on North American AM radio, sliding by on its considerable charm into the top twenty. Like “What’s So Funny …”, it emerged from Lowe’s time with Brinsley Schwarz, written with bandmate Ian Gomm. Lowe only considered it as a B-side-worthy leftover until Columbia Records convinced him to re-record it as a single.
As pop radio was transitioning from old wave to new, this tune fell somewhere in between as a tale of love’s power to confound as much as inspire. Considered to be Lowe’s one-hit wonder in North America, the song opened the door for him to write material outside of expected styles into the 1980s and beyond. Meanwhile, it made a lasting impact on generations of musicians, covered by acts including Letters to Cleo, Marshall Crenshaw, and Wilco.
Listen: Cruel to be Kind
Raging Eyes
One of the areas where Nick Lowe excels as a songwriter is his ability to create sympathetic, lovable characters inside of three-minute pop songs. “Raging Eyes” from 1983’s The Abominable Showman is one of his best. It’s a portrait of a girl whose sheer bloody-mindedness becomes the source of her charm – and power. During this period, Nick Lowe had decided to be just as determined when it came to his art.
By the early Eighties, he leaned into his passions in writing and laying down songs in a distinct old-school vein, this one being a Buddy Holly-like throwback right in the middle of the age of synthpop. There’s something distinctly punk rock about this tune, perhaps springing from its defiance of the trends. Other than that, “Raging Eyes” is one of his most rocking tunes, just bristling with nervy affection.
Listen: Raging Eyes
Half a Boy and Half a Man
Continuing to reflect a retro vibe before that approach was fashionable, Nick Lowe laid down this Chuck Berryesque rocker. “Half a Boy and Half a Man” is another character song, this time focusing on one of dubious appeal. The song shimmers with 1960s beach party energy, featuring Paul Carrack’s jubilant organ that offsets lyrics about a flawed man-boy, and possibly about flawed manhood in general.
Lowe’s pursuit of vintage rock n’ roll by the early-to-mid-Eighties was reflective of his savvy, knowing that his career as a mainstream chart-topper was over anyway. Appearing on 1984’s Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit, this song reflects a kind of liberation, finding a writer ignoring the path of least resistance and forging ahead on his own. This song certainly showcases him as a gifted singer who delivers scathing irony with sweetness and charm like no other.
Listen: Half a Boy and Half a Man
The Rose of England
The title track to his 1985 record, “The Rose of England” is a power-pop song that sounds like it made a stopover in a Texas honky tonk. This tune featuring the last appearance of Lowe’s Cowboy Outfit demonstrates how Nick Lowe’s propensity for country rock shines just as brightly when moving beyond a self-consciously retro approach and into a modern, if not musically fashionable context.
Lyrically, this song is a joyous-melody-meets-fateful-story concoction that contains a mother’s lament for a child sent to war. The big-boned guitar hook is pure country gentleman, accompanied by cascading saloon-style piano to counterbalance the drama. If the musical style wasn’t in vogue for 1985, its anti-war and anti-nationalism theme certainly was, suggesting Ivor Novello’s song of the same name while spiking its patriotic sentiments with fatal irony.
Listen: The Rose of England
Lover’s Jamboree
Defiantly turning up the dial on twang, “Lover’s Jamboree” from 1988’s Pinker and Prouder Than Previous is a countrified slice of roots rock that shimmers with lingering new wave energy. The rollicking piano and stinging guitar breaks seal the deal on that front alone. If a song can be called a knees-up party tune with shades of hope for world peace, surely it’s this one.
“Lover’s Jamboree” brims with wild abandon in an era when Nick Lowe began to slip off of the cultural radar. It’s full of zest and verve with a sardonic streak even as he sings about something in the air that’s kicking back despair. This is one of the songwriter’s catchiest tunes and among last of its kind as Lowe ended a certain phase of his career before he vitally retooled his sound in the 1990s.
Listen: Lover’s Jamboree
I Live on a Battlefield
After 1990’s Party of One, Nick Lowe was in a bit of a wilderness period. That is, until Curtis Stiegers’ version of “What’s So Funny …” appeared on the gajillion-selling The Bodyguard soundtrack in 1992. The infusion of attention and royalty money enabled Lowe to carve out a niche for himself as a classic pop elder statesmen on his critically-acclaimed The Impossible Bird album in 1994.
“I Live on a Battlefield” is a standout track on that album, written with Paul Carrack; a tale of struggle and loss so artfully realized that it’s easy to miss how harrowing it is. Lowe returns to a more direct approach to lyric-writing on a song depicting romantic torment akin to the Battle of the Somme, no less. He does so while honing his skills as a melodist and arranger with a finely-tuned sense of economy.
Listen: I Live on a Battlefield
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Shelley My Love
Nick Lowe is the author of some breathtaking love songs. This is one of his best, also featured on The Impossible Bird; a low-lit, after-hours croon that demonstrates his keen ear for making every note and every lyrical syllable count. His performance displays a level of emotional candour that Lowe hadn’t previously achieved, with the irony and dark humour of the past at a distance.
One of the qualities heard here is how real and grounded the lyrics are, delivered with such tenderness and care so as to make them more than just products of craftsmanship. His voice makes them entirely believable. His skills as a vocalist, always dependable before, level up on this cut to make him a unique and artistically formidable singer of great import. He would only get better from here.
Listen: Shelley My Love
The Beast in Me
Having married Carlene Carter in 1979, Nick Lowe became Johnny Cash ’s son-in-law. Up all night trying to pull a primordial version of this very song together in time for Cash to hear it, Lowe’s voice was purportedly weak and weedy while the Man in Black himself, extended family in tow, attended the tune’s informal front-room debut the following day. Despite some initial embarrassment, Nick Lowe eventually whacked this song into shape over the years to make it one of his best.
One can hear the spirit of the man for which it was written in the lines, with Nick Lowe’s own voice having matured to the point where he could sing it himself with such amazing gravitas; another indication that he’d graduated from being a good vocalist into a great one. And Johnny Cash would record it, after years of humourously ribbing Nick Lowe by inquiring how’s that song coming along?
Listen: The Beast in Me (Nick Lowe’s version) | The Beast in Me (Johnny Cash’s version)
Lonesome Reverie
By 1998’s Dig My Mood, Nick Lowe’s approach to lean into his propensity for old-school pop music had ceased to sound like he was resisting or even ignoring the trends. “Lonesome Reverie” taken from that fine album is proof positive that Lowe sounding like a traditional pop and country-soul singer in 1962 was more about finding his happy place as an artist than in being consciously defiant of the mainstream.
That sense of happiness and comfort comes built into this lament of loneliness that sounds as breezy as can be. And as far being contemporary or not, this song provokes another insight; that human emotion and struggle haven’t changed very much across eras. Reflecting human experience well can carry a song more than any one style or production trick ever could. That’s certainly conveyed here on a tune that sounds like it’s always been around.
Listen: Lonesome Reverie
You Inspire Me
Nick Lowe established himself as an appreciator of classic soul and country music for years before he wrote and cut this tune that displays his equal affection for Tin Pan Alley pop. Flush with gentle vibraphone, brushed snare, and murmuring piano, “You Inspire Me” is a languid love song that goes beyond mushy outpourings and into feelings and sentiments which are far more substantial.
This is a love song that moves past youthful fervour and into lived-in comfort. A leveling up in the art of love song writing for Lowe, “You Inspire Me” is about how great it is to feel supported rather than a being celebration of desire. Musically, it exemplifies Lowe’s ear for an arrangement that stays out of the way of the song and is in turn attentive to its needs as in any seasoned love affair.
Listen: You Inspire Me
Let’s Stay in and Make Love
Setting a vivid scene that anchors the whole, “Let’s Stay in and Make Love” is an amourous proposition suggested by its narrator just before embarking on a night out with his special girl. The song is a sweet and comforting seduction in a life of crowded social calendars, inviting listeners to feel every emotion its characters feel, which we are hard-pressed to refuse.
Appearing as the outgoing track on 2001’s The Convincer album, this song is lushly arranged while also holding to that same approach to instrumental economy. Its strength is in its amazing depth and scale that is never overwrought. Additionally, Lowe pulls off a powerful gambit; delivering an original song that sounds like a cover version, this time with a melody imbued with the spirit of Sam Cooke who should have lived long enough to sing it.
Listen: Let’s Stay in and Make Love
People Change
Nick Lowe’s deftness at portraying a jaundiced eye on human nature remains undimmed here on this song taken from 2007’s At My Age. Through his narrator’s street smart savvy, “People Change” is a song of weary experience with just enough hurt behind its calloused message to make it emotionally complex rather than just cynical. Lowe’s seasoned voice does much to ensure the effect.
Musically of course, it’s joyous. Between strings and horns, sparkling piano, and a crisp backbeat, “People Change” is another Lowe song that escapes relegation to any one period in pop music history. Chrissie Hynde’s backing vocal is a highlight, heard here in a song by the producer of her band’s first album recorded nearly thirty years before by then. Even if people change, then there are some things like musical chemistry that stay pretty much the same.
Listen: People Change
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
“Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day” replaces the defiance in “Born Fighter” with a great and lasting devotion instead. The story is that of an impassioned lover with a mind set on love, tempered by his capacity for patience and care. This tune is way too charming to be anything other than a playful bid to a lover who’s already been won over even as we listeners are.
The song balances love’s dedication with self-doubt until it begins to occur to listeners that this song is more about building a lasting relationship over time than it is about a one-time seduction. You can practically hear the twinkle in his eye on this cut that reflects one of his best vocal performances ever. Lowe literally puts the Rome in romance on this one.
Listen: Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
I Read a Lot
On “I Live on a Battlefield” Nick Lowe describes love’s struggles and loss as trench warfare. “I Read a Lot” from 2011’s The Old Magic is quieter, gentler, and in some ways even more devastating without a foxhole in sight. This is a song about the distractions that keep one from lingering too long on their own broken heart and solitary struggles that come of being abandoned after love is gone.
“I Read a Lot” is about the everyday routine of coping with loss, filling each moment with anything to hand so as not to think about the thing that’s slowly crushing us. For such heavy themes, Lowe injects it with airiness through its spacious arrangement and his own soothing vocal. The effect is powerful, communicating the quietly desperate efforts to move on after life-changing loss has left us bereft.
Listen: I Read a Lot
Trombone
After Nick Lowe put out an excellent holiday record in 2013, someone got the bright idea to match him up with Los Straitjackets to back him on the tour. Whoever they are, they deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. The result of this completely logical combination saw Lowe revisiting his retro-rock origins as the band set him atop a surf-rock wave. Their union is something of a turnaround, with Lowe having been an influence on them first. The delight in the music shines through.
Released as a double A-side single in 2019 with the also-excellent “Love Starvation”, “Trombone” proves the point. With Los Straitjackets behind him, Lowe is still a crooner to be reckoned with on this Latin-flavoured anthem to the healing power of sad music. Later appearing on their co-headlining 2020 Walkabout record that has the band covering Lowe instrumentally as well as serving as his backing group, “Trombone” is packed with vitality and mutual affection, too.
Listen: Trombone
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Runners up and bubbling under:
- Heart of the City
- When I Write the Book
- American Squirm
- Without Love
- I Love My Label
- Crackin’ Up
- Heart
- Maureen
- I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock n’ Roll
- Faithless Lover
- It’s Time I Took a Holiday
- Lately I’ve Let Things Slide
- I’m a Mess
- I Trained Her to Love Me
- The Club
- House for Sale
- ‘Til the Real Thing Comes Along
- Love Starvation
- Blue on Blue
- Don’t Be Nice to Me
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Singer. Songwriter. Interpreter. Bassist. Producer. Band member. Solo artist. Nick Lowe has excelled at all of them and continues excel as a singular voice today, with decades of pop music history behind him. From pub rock through new wave, and into musical phases up until today, he followed his own path by leaning into what excited him as a musician and a music fan; great songs that are played and sung well and with great affection. His work is a sterling example of what happens when an artist can see their way through the clearest, weathering the storms of trends and changes, and remaining himself all the while.
To learn more about Nick Lowe and his approach to songwriting, check out this excellent 2013 Nick Lowe podcast episode from Sodajerker, with Simon and Brian chatting with him about his creative process over his decades-long career.
Otherwise, check out nicklowe.com for an overview of his music, tour dates, and other things.
Enjoy!
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