The Song of the Day is:
Nick Lowe – “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass”
From the album Jesus of Cool (1978)
I love the sound of breaking glass
Especially when I’m lonely
I need the noises of destruction
When there’s nothing new
Oh nothing new, sound of breaking glass
Nick Lowe – Andrew Bodnar – Steve Goulding
Fifteen, or so, years ago, I made it a point to explore the music of the “Nicks”: three foreign songwriters with cool names. In the ensuing years, the always intense Nick Cave pretty much became my favorite living musician, and I quickly amassed as much of his large catalog as I could. The sensitive and doomed Nick Drake became beloved as well, but his slight career output was quickly picked up with a birthday iTunes gift card. That leaves Britain’s Nick Lowe, whom I’ve really grown to love, but am nowhere near as close to having a thorough grasp of his long career. He is cool though (he the Jesus of cool, right?) and can write a hell of a pop song. Like any great jazz musician, it’s not the notes he does play, but the ones he chooses not to play. There’s a certain amount of respect I give him for not including a sound effect of breaking glass in “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass”. Instead there’s great echoey guitar substitute and parade of memorable fills that punctuate nearly every vocal line (thanks in part to members of Graham Parker’s backing band The Rumour, who received co-writing credit). Lowe must have been in a real sour mood when he wrote this, but musically you could never tell. Lowe views this song as a half-baked idea that came together in the studio, and he pretty much refuses to play it live, especially in low key acoustic performances. Lowe’s lead an impressive career that began as a member of pub-rock bands Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile, and he then moved into production for artists such as the Pretenders, Graham Parker, John Hiatt and his one-time stepfather-in-law Johnny Cash. His most fruitful behind-the-scenes work was with Elvis Costello, for whom he produced seven of his most famous albums and wrote (and originally performed) one of Costello’s signature songs, “(What’s So Funny About) Peace Love & Understanding?”. A lot of this work was done prior to his own solo debut, this album Jesus of Cool (which was renamed Pure Pop for Now People in the US because we can’t take a joke). While this album does not include some of his more famous compositions (“Cruel to Be Kind” and “The Beast in Me”, which was popularized by The Sopranos and is ever-praised by broadcaster Marc Maron), this album is wall-to-wall textbook power pop. It also features one of my favorite Phil Lynott-soundalike songs, “So It Goes”. Lowe has released 14 solo albums, with the most recent being a Christmas album in 2013 and a tour in 2019. He’s not stated that he’s retired, but at age 71, if he were to decide that he’s ready not work so hard, that would be completely understandable.
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