"...In The Right Measure..."
Following on from his New
Wave groovy debut album "Jesus Of Cool" in 1978 (called "Pure
Pop For Now People" in the USA on Columbia Records) - the former Brinsley
Schwarz Bassist and front man Nick Lowe and his band of Rock 'n' Roll reprobates
(Rockpile) needed a follow-up - and preferably one with a big fat hit like
"I Like The Sound Of Breaking Glass".
Back from a US tour where the
support act foursome of Nick Lowe (Bass and Vocals), Dave Edmunds and Billy
Bremner (Guitars and Vocals) and Terry Williams (Drums) regularly slaughtered
the crowd for mainliners - Lowe and his ageless 32-year-old all-singing
all-dancing rockers spent the next two months on the graveyard recording-shift
alongside Dave Edmunds who was simultaneously putting down Swan Song's "Repeat
When Necessary" LP in the same place (Eden Studio in Chiswick, West
London).
An arm-twisted Nick was then
directed back by Columbia's A&R executive Gregg Geller to an old 1974
Brinsley Schwarz tune called "You've Gotta Be Cruel To Be Kind". The
song was recorded after the final "New Favourites..." LP sessions as
the group was winding down (it first appeared on a 1988 compilation LP in
Britain) and Geller felt Cruel and its incessantly catchy chorus had the chops
to be a radio-friendly winner in the USA. With Rockpile in tow, Lowe recorded
the shifty little brute with a yawn only to find that Geller’s A&R instinct
was very much on the dollar when the song launched the "Labour Of
Lust" LP – especially Stateside.
His second studio LP came in June 1979, the Columbia 3-11018 single following in July, and helped by a quirky promo video featuring Nick and Carlene Carter’s wedding and its superb UK-LP-only B-side "Endless Grey Ribbon" enticing American collectors, the "Cruel To Be Kind" single and video combined to push sales on the chipper album - eventually seeing it climb to a very healthy No. 12 LP spot in America (no mean feat in those days). Released in his native Blighty in September 1979, the Radar ADA 43 single did the same, ramming the well-received Radar LP up the charts – also to a No. 12 high.
His second studio LP came in June 1979, the Columbia 3-11018 single following in July, and helped by a quirky promo video featuring Nick and Carlene Carter’s wedding and its superb UK-LP-only B-side "Endless Grey Ribbon" enticing American collectors, the "Cruel To Be Kind" single and video combined to push sales on the chipper album - eventually seeing it climb to a very healthy No. 12 LP spot in America (no mean feat in those days). Released in his native Blighty in September 1979, the Radar ADA 43 single did the same, ramming the well-received Radar LP up the charts – also to a No. 12 high.
As Geller's liner notes
wittily imply on Page 9 of the booklet - Nick's been singing Cruel To Be Kind
(in the right measure) ever since. Which brings us to this hugely likeable
reissue – details first…
UK released 15 March 2011 -
"Labour Of Lust" by NICK LOWE on Proper Records PRPCD077 (Barcode 805520030779)
is an ‘Expanded Edition’ CD Reissue and Remaster with One Bonus Track. It will
allow fans to sequence both the UK and US LP configurations and plays out as
follows (39:03 minutes):
1. Cruel To Be Kind
2. Cracking Up
3. Big Kick, Plain Scrap
4. American Squirm
5. Born Fighter
6. You Make Me
7. Skin Deep
8. Switchboard Susan
9. Endless Grey Ribbon
10. Without Love
11. Dose Of You
12. Love So Fine
BONUS TRACK:
13. Basing Street
Released June 1979 in the UK
on Radar Records RAD 21 and also June 1979 in the USA on Columbia Records JC
36087 - the UK and US LPs both had eleven tracks each but with different
configurations. The British variant had "Endless Grey Ribbon" as an
exclusive (Track 2 on Side 2) whilst the US LP had that song replaced with
"American Squirm" as their exclusive cut (Track 4, Side 1). All songs
written by Nick Lowe, except "Cruel To Be Kind" which was a co-write
with Ian Gomm, "Switchboard Susan" by Mickey Jupp (credited as
"Switch Board Susan" in the USA) and "Love So Fine" which
is credited to the four in Rockpile – Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner
and Terry Williams.
To sequence the UK LP from
this CD use the following tracks:
Side 1: Tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6
and 7
Side 2: Tracks 8, 9, 10, 11
and 12
To sequence the US LP use:
Side 1: Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
and 7
Side 2: Tracks 8, 11, 10, 5
and 12
The three SINGLES around the
album were:
UK - "American
Squirm" b/w "What's So Funny 'bout (Peace, Love And Understanding)"
October 1978 on Radar Records
ADA 26
The B-side is an Elvis
Costello song credited to Nick Lowe and His Sound, but it's actually Elvis
Costello and The Attractions and is unfortunately not on this CD.
"American Squirm" wasn't released as a 45 in the USA - is on the US
LP only.
UK - "Cracking Up"
b/w "Basing Street"
June 1979 on Radar Records
ADA 34 - B-side was non-album and is the 'bonus track' on this CD
US - "Switch Board
Susan" b/w "Basing Street"
October 1979 on Columbia
1-11131 - "Switchboard Susan" was the A-side in the USA instead of
"Cracking Up"
UK - "Cruel To Be
Kind" b/w "Endless Grey Ribbon"
September 1979 on Radar
Records ADA 43
June 1979 USA on Columbia
3-11018 with same songs
US fans would not have had
the B-side as it only appeared on the UK LP
You get a gatefold card-sleeve;
the Barney Bubbles cover artwork on a picture CD, a 12-Page booklet with new
liner notes from Canvey Island/Pub Rock aficionado WILL BIRCH with added notes
from Columbia's then A&R guy GREGG GELLER. In-between are repro photos of
very cool period memorabilia like the 'I Made An AMERICAN SQUIRM' button, the
Survival Kit promo pack, Radar Records track promo trinkets, the "Cruel To
Be Kind" UK 7" picture sleeve, a billboard add for the album, US tour
shots, unreleased proof artwork for Barney Bubbles sleeves and loads more. The
read is witty, informative and more than tinged with the huge affection Lowe,
Rockpile and the album are remembered with. Tasty.
But best of all is a Remaster
by Columbia Records Audio Engineer supremo VIC ANESINI - a man who has twiddled
the knobs on The Byrds, Nilsson, Santana, Elvis Presley, The Jayhawks, Stevie
Ray Vaughan and oodles more. I mention this because the album was always a
low-fi audio affair to me and in truth it generally remains that way. But
Anesini has done a clean transfer and the oomph the tracks so desperately
needed is in evidence - even if it isn't as much as you would have hoped for
(Anesini also did the "Jesus Of Cool" album reissue for Proper
Records).
Co-written with fellow Pub
Rocker Ian Gomm, the album opens on the knock me back down winner that is
"Cruel To Be Kind" and Terry Williams' drum kit is suddenly Everly
Brothers clear as the band kicks in. When asked to contribute to a tune to the
"Labour Of Love: The Music Of Nick Lowe" 2001 CD compilation, none
other than the sorely missed Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers did "Cracking
Up" – and from the I don’t think its funny anymore lyrics – you can so
hear why. I love the Dave Edmunds doubled-vocals on the chorus. And again the
Bass and Drums of the drugs song "Big Kick, Plain Scrap" is indeed
kicking and not monkeying around (great remaster, even on the flanged vocals).
Edmunds again adds so much to "Born Fighter" on the vocal and guitar
front, as does Huey Lewis (of The News) on loan from Clover giving it some mean
Harmonica.
The US album had
"American Squirm" slotted in on Side 1 and it must have felt weird
(or thrilling) to have a Brit say "I made an American squirm and it felt
so right…” The song also featured Elvis Costello on Vocals and Pete Thomas of
The Attractions on Drums. A sort of dry run for "Basing Street", the
almost hurting quiet in "You Make Me" features Nick strumming a
barely perceptible acoustic – love making our hero weak and confused (a good
excuse really). Things go back to beat city with the catchy-as-a-cold
"Skin Deep" where Nick is belly to belly but unfortunately not eye to
eye (love that guitar work from Edmunds, subtle and effective). Other cool ones
come in the shape of the Rockabilly swinging "Without Love" (all by
himself in the heartbreak sea) and the final slice of Rockpile chugging in
"Love So Fine" – a track I always felt would have been a far better
single than "American Squirm". And I must rant and rave about the B-side
"Basing Street" – a bare bones acoustic tale of ugly inner London
misery that used to slay me every time I flipped the single. I played this
sucker to death, the half spoken lyrics, the sort of Johnny Cash unplugged
feel, the tale of a cut homeless 17 year old, something about its eerie
loneliness used to affect me and to hear it now so clean and clear is frankly
even a little jarring.
"Each time I see her, I
can't wait to see her again…" – Nick Lowe sang on the lyrically clever
"Love So Fine". I suspect so many of us have felt the same about his
first two albums and this Remaster only hammers home our initial faith. A
gentleman and a scholar and that's just the left leg. Fab stuff and then some…
