I have once again had the opportunity to see live a musician whom I would love to have seen forty years ago, but for some reason didn't. This time it was Nick Lowe, or 'Nick Lowe, Nick Lowe' as he is known to anyone who listened too much to the 'Live Stiffs' album in the mid-seventies. He was every bit as good as I had expected and I don't think that's just the nostalgia talking. He performed songs from a number of his incarnations, with perhaps just a hint of bias towards those which lyrically resonate with his increasingly aging audience. This Johnny Cash influenced number for example:
And then for those of us who did indeed remember the brides when they used to rock and roll, there was this Chuck Berry homage:
But Lowe's songwriting skills run to more than mere pastiche. After he played the next song to a silent and reflective City Varieties, he expressed a wish for a world in which its message was no longer required:
My absolute musical hero, glad he is putting himself about a bit! And indeed that last song sadly never loses relevance. I only 'found' him early 90s, 'The Impossible Bird' from then is a fantastic album. Being a much more flippant sort myself, my favourite song is probably 'Lately I've Let Things Slide'. Glad you liked him!
ReplyDeleteHe sang that one. Of course he could have made an equally brilliant set list (or two) from the stuff he left out.
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