"I'm a long distance romancer
I keep trying 'til I get an answer
Gimme gimme one more chance
She's a greater little operator"
I didn't know it was written by Mickey Jupp!
So I was reading today's "Los Angeles Times" and there was an interview with Nick Lowe. Wherein he said he never wanted to record "Cruel to Be Kind," that his A&R guy at Columbia, Gregg Geller, made him. That he just threw off the vocal.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2026-03-26/nick-lowe-biggest-hit-cruel-to-be-kind-was-almost-never-recorded
And that turned out to be Nick's biggest hit in the U.S., assuming you can call something that was an alternative FM staple a hit. Then again, years later Elvis Costello's version of Nick's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was included in "The Bodyguard" soundtrack and that sync has provided a living for Lowe all these decades later (which he claimed in a prior interview). Once again kids, when the big bad businessman tells you to sell your publishing rights, just remember, you never know when you'll get lucky. And this luck is not built into the multiple they're paying you today, because it's unforeseen. Life is short, but it's also long (of course if you're aged, your mileage may be different).
But what I did not know was that "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was originally recorded by Brinsley Schwarz, when Nick was in the band. I knew Nick's history, but you've got to know that pub rock never broke in America, some of the records were ultimately released over here, but none got airplay. I actually bought Ducks Deluxe...do you remember Ducks Deluxe?
And did you see that Andrew Bodnar of the Rumour died? Back in January, but the obit was only in "The Guardian" a week ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/30/andrew-bodnar-obituary
Now the thought was that Graham Parker was going to have a renaissance after Judd Apatow included his songs in "This Is 40," but that didn't happen. Just like Jonathan Richman didn't break through after he and his music were featured in "There's Something About Mary," which was an iconic picture of the era. But Richman never got the traction Parker did, he's still unknown by most. But for a minute there, Graham was up front and center, with the hipsters during his Mercury tenure, and then the press when Clive Davis snatched him up and paired him with Jack Nitzsche and the album "Squeezing Out Sparks" was released. People say that's the apotheosis, but I never agreed with that, it's really all about the first two, "Howlin' Wind," produced by Nick Lowe, and "Heat Treatment," which was produced by Mutt Lange before we knew who he was, before his breakthrough with AC/DC (along with one track, "Back Door Love," produced by Lowe). Now all these years later, I've got to admit that "Howlin' Wind" is better, but I loved, loved, LOVED, "Heat Treatment"...two songs especially, the white reggae "Something You're Going Through" and the anthemic closer "Fool's Gold."
But the true breakthrough was Elvis Costello and "My Aim Is True," which came out in 1977. Now although Nick Lowe was the producer on all of Costello's albums from the first through "Trust" (where he shared credit with Roger Bécherian), it's the first that stands out for me. Because it lacks the Vox organ of the later albums, the backing group was not the Attractions, but Clover...which featured John McFee, now of the Doobie Brothers, and Sean Hopper of Huey Lewis and the News (Huey was in Clover, but not on the Costello album). The backup did not detract from the lyrics, Costello's delivery, which on subsequent albums it tended to do, the band was competing with Costello, even though I know most people don't agree with me.
SO, Elvis Costello was the new wave breakthrough. As big as the Ramones are today, at least on t-shirts, punk didn't triumph until Nirvana in the nineties. And sure, there was a new wave scene in New York, but Blondie didn't really make it until 1978, after leaving Private Stock and working with Mike Chapman at Chrysalis, and even though their debut was entitled "Talking Heads: 77," it wasn't until the RISD band worked with Brian Eno on their second album, "More Songs About Buildings and Food" that they were taken to the river in 1978.
So, wherever it started, the new wave was seen by most people as an English thing. And after Costello broke down the door, Stiff Records followed up with Ian ("Wake Up and Make Love to Me") Dury and Lene Lovich and Wreckless Eric and England had not been so hip since the sixties. Skinny ties, short hair, the antithesis of the bombast of the headbangers and corporate rockers.
And at the center of all this was Nick Lowe.
Like Graham Parker, his music didn't really fit in, but his name was on all the records and when his first album came out, we bought it. But I always preferred the second, "Labour of Lust," it was less precious, a bit more in your face.
Yes, "Labour of Lust" started with "Cruel to Be Kind," but it truly took flight with the second track, "Cracking Up," with its descending line and irreverent vocal. That's one thing about Lowe, he had a sense of humor, he oftentimes delivered his tunes with the wink of an eye, and you've got to be smart to be funny, Lowe radiated intelligence, but unlike those before him, he didn't lead with it, he didn't lord it over us.
And after "Cracking Up" came "Big Kick, Plain Scrap."
But the song I liked just as much as "Cracking Up," they being the two best on the LP, was "Switchboard Susan."
"Switchboard Susan, won't you give me a line"
You've got to know, even back in '79, switchboards were in the rearview mirror, they went out the window along with prefixes... Forget area codes, our home number in Connecticut started with "Forest," you had to dial FO before the rest of the numbers. And on TV, we always were told to dial "Murray Hill"...
"I need a doctor, give me 999"
This was a regular theme back in the day, before acts were brands, when they saw themselves as the other, outcasts, with emotional problems.
"When I'm near you girl, I get an extension
And I don't mean Alexander Graham Bell's invention"
A good turn of the phrase, but a bit obvious for Lowe.
And then at the end:
"Hey babe, you're number's great
38-27-38"
This always seemed a bit base for Nick, but now that I know the song was written by Mickey Jupp, it all makes sense. You remember "Juppanese," don't you? Another Stiff act with a sense of humor.
Well I just learned today that Jupp's version of the song was produced by Nick Lowe, and his band Rockpile provided the backup. But Jupp considered it "sh*t from top to bottom" and Lowe got Mickey's permission to add his vocal to the backing track, and voila!
And it's the instrumentation that puts Lowe's version of "Switchboard Susan" over the top... It's the lead guitar work that echoes, adds a coda at the end of the chorus. And repeats with a solo later in the number. It's a thin sound, but it feels so right, it's like the instrument is answering the lyrics, commenting on them, the guitar adds meaning.
And that solo, it's almost like out of the circus, but it's perfect for the whole number, because it's FUN!
Now ultimately Mickey Jupp saw the error of his ways and recorded his own version of "Switchboard Susan," and it's good, but it doesn't have those guitar tweaks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E83UP0wIgs
And I knew the Searchers did a cover, but I never knew Gary Brooker did one too:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7E4XpvvX7ohGix2fOsDO7D?si=22f4df1731474d7e
But even crazier, my old friend Per Gessle redid the lyrics in Swedish for his band Rockfile, before Roxette:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVtdzC02tIk
So can Mickey Jupp live off of "Switchboard Susan"?
Well, the stunning thing is Mickey Jupp is still alive, he's 82. And he's still making new music, when so many superstars of yore have given up.
As for Elvis Costello, he's now respectable. However, if he used the n-word today like he did back in that bar in '97, would he pay the same price as Morgan Wallen? Even crazier, it's the Costello fans who have contempt for Wallen, who won't forgive him.
As for Nick Lowe... He married and divorced Carlene Carter and then slowly faded into the woodwork. He's made more records, for ever more indie labels, and he goes on the road now and again, but he can go to the grocery store unnoticed. He could walk the fields of Lollapalooza and I don't think anybody under the age of 40 would recognize him.
But if you were around back then, you've never forgotten him.
Sure, he was behind the board on some great albums, but he also recorded some great tracks.
Like "Switchboard Susan."
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.