The Wilderness Years 1974-1977 (1991)
Appropriately Titled Early Nick Comp
I was going to write yet another ode to the merits of Nick Lowe’s attitude on life and body of work, but The All Music Guide already did it so succinctly that I would have just ended up paraphrasing their review anyway. So, here you go… “Between the disbanding of Brinsley Schwarz in 1974 and the formation of Rockpile in 1977, Nick Lowe recorded a lot, attempting to settle on a sound. Simultaneously, he became the house producer at Stiff Records, where he became notorious for his raw, quickly produced records. That attitude shines through on The Wilderness Years, a compilation of singles, outtakes, covers, rarities, and demos Lowe recorded during those years. With the exception of Pure Pop/Jesus Of Cool, no other record captures Lowe’s sense of humor or love of pop music quite as well. Divided equally between gems and glorious throwaways, The Wilderness Years is all over the place, but that’s its charm. It has the notorious songs Lowe wrote to break his contract with United Artists (“Bay City Rollers We Love You,” “Let’s Go To The Disco,” “Rollers Show”), both sides of his first Stiff single (“So It Goes,” “Heart Of The City”), his “erstwhile Stiff advertising jingle” “I Love My Label,” terrific covers of “Halfway To Paradise” and Sandy Posey’s “Born a Woman,” plus forgotten gems like the demo for “Endless Sleep” and “Heart,” “Fool Too Long” (which was written for Dr. Feelgood), and “I Got a Job,” a song Nick claims he doesn’t remember writing or recording. In fact, Nick doesn’t think much of any of this material, but an artist isn’t always the best judge of his own work – he rarely got any better than he did here.” The Wilderness Years is out of print but gettable at Amazon (HERE). Find more Nick Lowe (along with Rockpile and The Brinsleys) in the archives (HERE).
Fool Too Long (3:05)
Let’s Go To The Disco (2:36)
Everybody Dance (2:15)
Bay City Rollers, We Love You (3:14)
Allorolla Part 1 (2:57)
Rollers Show (3:33)
Heart Of The City (2:01)
Halfway To Paradise (2:28)
Truth Drug (1:39)
Born A Woman (2:30)
Endless Sleep (4:06)
Shake That Rat (2:13)
I Love My Label (3:03)
I Don’t Want The Night To End (1:59)
So Heavy (1:53)
Keep It Out Of Sight (2:53)
Heart (3:53)
I Got A Job (3:06)
18 Comments
Search HERE
Thanks for this, and for the whole effort….much appreciated!
Hi Willard. Great post, and I wanted to add something. It’s not the greatest song in the world, but here is Paul Carrack (the man could sing the phone-book and it would sound cool) FEATURING Nick Lowe doing a song called “Wish You Were Here” Sadly,not Floyd’s. (Wouldn’t THAT have been a hoot!)
Wish You Were Here Link.
Big thanks, DonFO. What album is that tune from?
Not sure exactly. the blurb I found reads:
“Beginning in late 1981, Carrack joined up with Nick Lowe in a band that featured Lowe, Carrack, Martin Belmont on guitar, James Eller on bass and Bobby Irwin on drums. This band, referred to as Noise To Go, existed to back both Carrack on his solo recordings, and Lowe on his, similar to the arrangement Lowe had with Dave Edmunds and Rockpile in the late 1970s. Noise To Go also backed Lowe’s wife Carlene Carter on her 1981 album Blue Nun. After Carrack’s 1982 solo album Suburban Voodoo, Eller left Noise To Go, and Nick Lowe took over bass duties within the group. The group was rechristened Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit, and recorded two albums from 1983 to 1985, with Lowe as lead vocalist. The group also backed John Hiatt on side two of Hiatt’s 1983 album Riding With The King.”
Judging by the cheesiness of the synths, I put it at around 83-84 or so, but I don’t know exactly which album it resides on
Wow. I forgot all about Noise To Go… and the rest of that stuff. It sucks not remembering anything. But… it’s fun to rediscover faves all over again. That was a great tune, by the way. Don’t know that I’ve heard it before (besides all the Nicked influences, of course). Thanks again.
Well I found the year the song comes from-1982. And I found a Noise to Go session at the BBC included here for all to enjoy. So enjoy already! And it has Paul Carrack!
Nick Lowe and Noise to Go-BBC 1982 Link
Dr Robert
Very cool! Thanks.
Newman
Completely cool. Thanx………!
DonFo, you need to lay off the prescription stuff.
Tell me about it…
Willard,
Another great big thanks! Nick is the cheese! Thanks again.
Love
Newman
.. great stiff-stuff! Thanks .. ~junko
The studio version of “Wish You Were Here” comes from the album “The Abominable Showman”
Noise to Go are the band on it. Lots of cheese on this one.
I should clarify that when I say “lots of cheese” I mean lots of cheesy synthesizers. As to Rockpile and Noise To Go, I guess Nick liked that kind of arrangement—-remember “Little Village” which was Keltner, Ry Cooder, Nick, and John Hiatt, formed when they all worked on Hiatt’s Bring The Family?
I guess Nick liked that kind of arrangement—-remember “Little Village” which was Keltner, Ry Cooder, Nick, and John Hiatt, formed when they all worked on Hiatt’s Bring The Family?
I love Nick, and I love this blog which I just discovered.
Thank you for these great shares and your excellent taste and knowledge.