A haunting and gorgeous original by Nick Lowe. Lowe’s ex-father-in-law Johnny Cash’s cover is probably the most famous version of this song, but there’s something I find a lot more compelling about this one. Was used to great effect on an episode of “The Sopranos.”
Girl group harmonies … fuzzy guitar … heavy bass/drums … farfisa organ … muddy Nick Lowe-style wall-of-sound production … sounds like heaven to me. The video has nothing to do with the lyrics, by the way.
Can you sense a theme here today? Sorry, but I’m just really digging late 1970s English variety power pop this lovely afternoon. Rockpile was a “supergroup” for the power pop era if there ever was one: Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner, and Terry Williams. And their album managed to squeeze into the US Top 40 back in the day as well. Too bad Rockpile didn’t record a follow-up, though according to Wikipedia, Lowe’s “Labour of Lust” and Edmunds “Repeat When Neccessary” and “Tracks on Wax 4” were technically Rockpile albums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTkhBuNdMgY&feature=related
Written by Elvis Costello, but covered way better by Dave Edmunds in 1979. Those vocals, those harmonies, and that wonderfully sloppy late 1970s production style endemic of Costello and Nick Lowe from the period. A song that proves that even acoustic guitars can rock just as hard as electric ones.
Dave's Strange World 