Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Song of The Week: "Endless Sleep," Nick Lowe

Listen - Nick Lowe performs Endless Sleep.

Here is a gentle, beautifully restrained song that is as somber as the winter solstice night is long. And we're talking a Greenland winter solstice night! This song, Endless Sleep, is from Nick Lowe's debut album, 1978's Jesus of Cool (poorly renamed Pure Pop For New People for the puritanic US Market).

It's a busy day for me, and, let's be honest, the song says everything that needs to be said. Thus, no more words. Enjoy over a beer in the dark of night. Blue light and incense optional.

The flipsters.

4 comments:

  1. Cover of a song originally done by rock-a-billy artist Jody Reynolds in 1958. Written by Reynolds,but also credited to Dolores Nance,a pseudonym Reynolds sometimes used, the song topped out at #5 and sold over a million copies. Reynolds also charted the same year with the nearly as haunting, "The Fire of Love". The song would provide the title of the Gun Club's first album in 1981 and would later be covered by them on their second album 'Miami'.

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  2. Not so fast Mr. JBC-15. The Jody reynolds song, Endless Sleep, is an entirely different song. Different lyrics, different melody, different song. It's a very cool, Crampsesque song, but it is not this Endless Sleep.

    I do want to correct myself and point out that this Nick Lowe composed song originally appeared on a 1977 EP, Bowi, and then was on Jesus of Cool's deluxe reissue, but not the original vinyl pressing in either the US or the UK.

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  3. I think you may have got me there. How did I remember this one wrong? I stand corrected and embarrassed.

    Ok, how about this: Nick Lowe's "Bowi" EP is named such as a spoof on David Bowie's then current album "Low".

    And make sure you check out "Fire of Love"!

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  4. Saw Nick Lowe at the Barns last year, solo acoustic. He's great in that setting- very funny too.

    This song reminds me a bit of the late Vic Chesnutt, or maybe it's the other way around.

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