On the cover of his solo debut album Jesus of Cool, Nick Lowe is pictured in six ock & roll get-ups -- hippie, folkie, greasy ock & roller, /p>
ew wave hipster -- giving the not-so-subtle implication that this guy can do anything. Nick proves that assumption correct on Jesus of Cool, a record so good it was named twice, as Lowe's American record label got the jitters with Jesus and renamed it Pure Pop for Now People, shuffling the track listing (but not swapping songs) in the process. As it happens, both titles are accurate, but while the U.K. title sounds cooler, capturing Lowe's cheerfully blasphemous ock & roll swagger, Pure Pop describes the sound of the album, functioning as a sincere description of the music while conveying the wicked, knowing humor that drives it. This is pop about pop, a record filled with songs that tweak or spin conventions, or are about the industry. Only a writer with a long, hard battle with the biz in his past could write "Music for Money" and much of Jesus of Cool does feel like a long-delayed reaction to the disastrous American debut of Brinsley Schwarz, where the band's grand plans at kick-starting their career came crumbling down and pushed them into the pubs. Once there, the Brinsleys spearheaded the back-to-basics pub rock movement in England and as the years rolled on the band got loose, as did Lowe's writing, which got catchier and funnier on the group's last two albums, Nervous on the Road and New Favourites of Brinsley Schwarz.
In retrospect, it's possible to hear him inch toward the powerful pop of Jesus of Cool on the Dave Edmunds-produced New Favourites, plus the handful of singles the group cut toward the end of their career -- it's not far cry from the Brinsleys' stomping cover of Tommy Roe's "Everybody" to the shake and pop of Jesus -- but even with this knowledge in hand, Jesus of Cool still sounds like an unexpected explosion as it bursts forth with blindingly bright colors and a cavalcade of giddy pure sound. Lowe is letting his id run wild: he's dispensed with any remnants of good taste -- well, apart from the gorgeous "Tonight," the only time the album dips into allads -- and indulged in a second adolescence, bashing out three-chord rockers and cracking jokes with both his words and music. This reckless ock and pop works not just because the tracks crackle with excitement -- not for nothing did Nick earn the name "Basher" in this period; he cut quickly and moved on, the performances sounding infectious and addictive -- but because it's written with the skill that Lowe developed in the Brinsleys. He knows how to twist words around, knows how to mine black humor in "Marie Provost," knows how to splice "Nutted by Reality" into a brilliant McCartney parody, knows how to pull off the old Chuck Berry trick of spinning a tune into two songs, as he turns "Shake and Pop" into the faster, wilder "They Called It Rock." That latter bit picks up a key bit about Jesus of Cool -- it's self-referential pop that loves the past but doesn't treat it as sacred. It is the first post-modern pop record in how it plays as it builds upon tradition and how it's all tied together by Lowe's irrepressible irreverence. It's hard to imagine any of the power pop of the next three decades without it, and while plenty have tried, nobody has made a better pure pop record than this...not even Nick (of course, he didn't really try to make another record like this, either).
.okay... my first post... post-new-mog...I was supposed to help with testing the new MOG but I got absolutely creamed by work... (feeling really guilty about it...) ...but the place looks great!... now to take it for a test spin...Nick Lowe should be in everyone's record collection... he's the guy other musicians dig... Not only did he hold the door open for punk music, he's also given us a lot...
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Nick Lowe's "Endless Sleep" is a seriously depressing song about the possibility of suicide. I'm not sure many people take it seriously ... Lowe was an often-ironic artist, after all. "Endless Sleep" is largely forgotten ... it showed up first, as far as I can recall, on the EP Bowi, my vinyl copy of which barely played, it was so scratchy right out of the sleeve. It has since turned up on a co...
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2008 marks the 30th anniversary of Nick Lowe's seminal 1978 album Jesus of Cool. The album, released in the U.S. as Pure Pop for Now People, marks the beginning of one of the most storied and influential solo careers in pop music and marks the true emergence of a songwriting monolith. The album is a literal compendium of 25 years of pop music history. Here, the sweet melodies of pre-Beatles pop...
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Thanks to everyone who's been putting out good vibes for my father.Saturdays operation wasn't exactly a success, the doctor had to go back in on Monday and even then he's been experiencing some complications, I'll probably be taking him back to the emergency room tomorrow. He's not in any pain, so that's good, but something says we may have to look into a medical malpractice case because this m...
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Classic lyricsClassic popWay cool, jesus coolThere are so manny nuggets on this release, it boggles the mindA re-get for sure
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It's my theory that if you're reasonably preoccupied with music - in other words, if you're like practically everyone here - over the years you've developed your own idiosyncratic patterns for buying and listening to music. I used to buy one album (vinyl, then CD) every week or two, play it to death, then move on to the next one. Nowadays I find more pleasure in waiting a month or two, then dev...
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.okay... my first post... post-new-mog...I was supposed to help with testing the new MOG but I got absolutely creamed by work... (feeling really guilty about it...) ...but the place looks great!... now to take it for a test spin...Nick Lowe should be in everyone's record collection... he's the guy other musicians dig... Not only did he hold the door open for punk music, he's also given us a lot...
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So, next February sees the release of the 30th anniversary edition of Nick Lowe's debut album Jesus Of Cool. When first issued in the US back in 1978 it was under a different title, namely Pure Pop For Now People, the J-word being thought as too inflammatory in some parts of the country.I'm now trying to put together a list of other albums whose titles were altered in foreign territories. Thing...
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The musical equivalent of seeing other people would be a fun topic, too, but it's not mine now. I imagine that many people who end up in bands do so partly because at some point in their lives they saw some terrific shows that made them want to get on stage, give other people an equally terrific experience, and get their own kick out of doing so. So why are there so few songs about seeing other...
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I keep getting e-mails from Yep Roc plugging Lowe's 30th anniversary release of "Jesus of Cool", so I relented - and spun the copy I already have. Great melody on this track from Lowe's 1978 pop-fest, shows the Dave Edmunds influence for certain.
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I’m going to be in Europe for four weeks, so I’ve got to squeeze a bunch of years into one edition. If you’re dying to read the entries for the individual years, they’ll show up every Friday on my “real” blog, which allows post-dated posting.1976:1. The Ramones, "Blitzkrieg Bop." A sonic blast to introduce a new generation of rock and roll music, "Blitzkrieg Bop" can lay claim to kick-
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Nick Lowe's "Endless Sleep" is a seriously depressing song about the possibility of suicide. I'm not sure many people take it seriously ... Lowe was an often-ironic artist, after all. "Endless Sleep" is largely forgotten ... it showed up first, as far as I can recall, on the EP Bowi, my vinyl copy of which barely played, it was so scratchy right out of the sleeve. It has since turned up on a co...
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"I just bash it down and tart it up later." This was Nick Lowe's philosophy regarding production while doing double duty as in-house producer and recording artist during his tenure with Stiff Records. It's also this approach that gave him the nickname "Basher", and as in-house producer at Stiff, Nick did indeed bash'em out. Stiff Records was formed in 1976 by Graham Parker's manager, Dave Robin...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Music for Money |
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| 2 I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass |
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| 3 Little Hitler |
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| 4 Shake and Pop |
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| 5 Tonight |
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| 6 So It Goes |
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| 7 No Reason |
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| 8 36 Inches High |
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| 9 Marie Provost |
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| 10 Nutted by Reality |
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| 11 Heart of the City [Live] |
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| 12 They Called It Rock |
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| 13 Rollers Show |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Jesus of Cool")
