Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tuesday Moment of Words Fail Me: Special Just Kill Me Now Edition

A recent photo of power pop deity Nick Lowe.



You know, he's kinda cute in a Sir Alec Guiness/C. Aubrey Smith kind of way; if he had been born a few decades earlier, he could have had a career in some of those 1930s British-in-India movies.

Nonetheless, there's something about that photo that I find...disturbing.

[h/t Trademark Dave]

24 comments:

buzzbabyjesus said...

For one thing it makes you feel old, because it doesn't seem that long ago he was the Jesus Of Cool.

Blair said...

He's been reduced to a rickety old man, probably passing his days sitting on his porch, yelling at kids to get off his lawn. Quite sad.

steves said...

I give him mad props for not dyeing his hair and filling his face with botox, like so many of his contemporaries have done.

Still, why do I feel old looking at that photo?

¡barangus!™ said...

Maybe because he has more than a passing resemblance to Jack Kevorkian. google it. Creepy.

FD13NYC said...

Yeah, he looks too old for a man who's only going to be 63. Not sure what kind of abuse he put his body through over time. But for the past 40 plus years, his music speaks for itself, and that certainly hasn't aged.

steve simels said...

I'd kill for his hairline, I'll tell you that for free.
:-)

Shriner said...

I think it's the Elvis Costello glasses.

It's not that far from what EC probably would look like if his hair was grey and thick.

dave™© said...

What - not even a "h/t"?

Wow...

dave™© said...

And you posted your admiration for his hairline before I could!

I'm going back to bed...

Brooklyn Girl said...

He's been reduced to a rickety old man, probably passing his days sitting on his porch, yelling at kids to get off his lawn. Quite sad.

Get back to us when you've accomplished half as much as he has.

And the picture is a goof.

Blue Ash Fan said...

Is it sacrilege, especially on a power pop blog, to ask what the fuss is about this guy? Yes, his production credits are impressive and he's had a few good songs, but honestly, I just don't get it. Pure Pop for Now People? Loved half of it. Labour of Lust? Wanted SO BADLY to love it, or even like it, but after repeated listens, the best I could muster was a disillusioned "Eh." Sorry. Don't ban me.

Still, he seems like a great guy. Always liked his self-deprecating side. Credit where credit is due.

steve simels said...

If he had done nothing more than write this, he would deserve respect from mere mortals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6hzkBihaew&ob=av2e

"Do you remember Ric Astley?
He had a big fat hit
It was ghastly"

steve simels said...

I should add that I totally love his first two albums with Brinsley Schwarz, which are totally hippy early 70s CSN sort of stuff.

steve simels said...

And here's a live cover of Nick's "American Squirm." The bass player is some guy whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels.


http://www.divshare.com/download/17089787-e0c

J. Loslo said...

Any Nick Lowe completists should check out Bill Kirchen's album Word to the Wise, for the Lowe/Paul Carrack duet on Merle Haggard's "Shelly's Winter Love." Mr. Costello makes a nice appearance on the album as well.

Come to think of it, that picture looks like somebody tried to merge Kirchen and Costello.

Jerry Lee said...

Take away the specs, trim the mane, put him in a Yankees cap & pinstripes, and he's Casey Stengel. I'm gonna Photoshop it later.

JZ said...

I was thinking he looks remarkably like Spencer Tracy towards the end of his life. I still play Labor of Lust quite often.

tommy quest said...

perhaps because he looks like a university don about to give a lecture on the relative merits of elizabethan nosegays viz-a-vie floral prints used in portraiture in post-cromwellian english landscapes?

but not the guy that wrote two songs about the bay city rollers that are more rememberable than the objects output, a hungry little doggie,rockpile, etc.

dave™© said...

Maybe it's just me, but I think Nick looks pretty good here! I'd love to see him do a turn as a "Number Two" in a "Prisoner" re-make...

EchoBmen said...

I don't particularly care to see him do a number two.

TMink said...

I am nonplussed at folks who don't see his songwriting and performing chops. Not liking his music is another thing entirely as taste is individual.

But Nick has written and IS writing great pop music. His recent stuff is wonderful to my ears and heart.

And he has not lost his bite, just listen to I trained her to love me. Here are some lyrics.

Do you see the way she lights up when I walk in the room, that's good.
And the skip in her step when we're both out walkin' in the neighborhood.
This one's almost done, now to watch her fall apart.
I trained her to love me so I can go ahead and break her heart.
If you think that it's depraved and I should be ashamed, so what.
I'm only paying back womankind for all the grief I got.
I've got the latest believin' forever I'll be true.
I trained her to love, now excuse me, I've got work to do.
I trained her to love me, and I'm gonna start working on another after this.
And when I get that one in a state of bliss, betray her with a kiss.

I mean come on, this is the only song I know that deals with this situation and these emotions. It is like a fracking Randy Newman song.

Genius to me.

Trey

portly neighbor said...

"Genius to me."
Agree.
(and about the Randy Newman)

Anonymous said...

c'mon guys, we live in a world where everything that has happened is out there at your fingertips. It's never been easier to A/B an artist with google images, youtube vids etc.

I've fallen recently for a great clip of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders at the NME awards doing "Game of Love." Look to the right and you watch another clip of 60-something (70?) year-old Wayne playing the tune on what looks like a cruise ship or small pub. The aging is all there to see right before your eyes.

TMink said...

I am really happy the old geezers got old and are making great music. Bruce ain't young, and he still rocks a tad.

This does not apply as much to Mick or Rod. Well, I am happy they are alive, but I don't buy their recent stuff.

Trey