I come for Nick Lowe on Dave and get Paul Freaking Carrack on piano! I consider myself a lucky SOB, I got to see Rockpile TWICE in 1981. My first show was at Magic Mountain (amusement park) and it was Rockpile w/special guest Paul Carrack. At the time I didn’t know Paul. When he did a run of his hits, then I KNEW. OMG! The second show was a small theatre in Hollywood. I don’t think it was long after that, that Rockpile disbanded. As I write this in 2023 we are coming up on the 50th Anniversary of (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, next year. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing for the R&RHoF to induct Nick on the Anniversary year? Better late than never. Also check out Sharon Van Etten’s cover of the song from 2020, if you haven’t. It gave me goosebumps and a second round of goosebumps when I saw “grandpa” in the backyard with his dog and guitar…
Anyone else notice Paul Carrack (formerly of Ace, Squeeze, Mike & The Mechanics, writer of such hits as "How Long (has this been going on)", "Tempted", and "Long Distance") on keys?
Paul Carrack is a legend in his own way, and he sings and has written many great hits, he did not write "Tempted", Difford and Tilbrook of Squeeze wrote it.
For people who are too young to remember, the Letterman show was amazing the first few years. He had incredible guests, like Lowe, not just big celebs hawking whatever they were hawking. It was must watch tv.
disagree. respectfully. I think Dave's show remained solid through its run. especially the musical guests. not just the first few years. just do a search of every musical guest from the first show to the last. 33yrs and only the first few were good? no.
I was born in ‘82 and we were a Letterman household. In ‘87 I remember my mom letting me stay up to watch the Sonny and Cher epp but little did she know I would watch from the top of the steps when they thought I was in bed.
What I noticed over the years was that musicians sounded better on the Letterman show than other shows. I don’t know why, but hearing the same song performed on a different show never sounded as good.
Great to see Bobby Irwin in his element. I remember gigging at the Marquee in 1979, Bobby was playing with The Sinceros, I was drumming with support act The Defendants. Being drummers we discussed the virtues of vintage Ludwig and Gretsch kits!
FINALLY! An actual LIVE performance by this guy for this song where he's actually singing it and NOT just dancing around moving his lips while the original studio recording plays over the speakers! I wish it was one of the late 70's performances, but I'll take early 80's any day over the fake lipsync version he always seemed to do during "live" shows.
Totally under rated in America. Cruel to be kind was going to be a springboard and he had no hits in the US afterwards. His promotions people screwed up.
The story at the time was that some promoter was on a talk show and the host said it was a good thing that payola no longer existed in the music industry. The exec told him that he didn't know what he was talking about and said he could make any song a hit. He said he could do it with someone like Nick Lowe and his song "Cruel to be kind. One week later, it hit #1.
I don't think the 80s were a Nick Lowe kind of decade. Nick Lowe's well constructed songs weren't going to pull the kids away from Michael Jackson, Prince, Wham, Madonna, and Springsteen. It's a miracle Huey Lewis did as well as he did in that environment.
Saw Nick Lowe and the Noise to Go in concert twice in 1983/4. Incredible band with Paul Carrack getting solo spots to sing "Tempted (Squeeze), "How Long" (Ace) and his solo record "I Need You". Wish I had the chance to see Rockpile. Note the amazing TV production of the Letterman show in the early 1980s, especially on the second song. Cameras cut to the musicians actually playing the solo/important riff and the INTERPLAY of the group actually comes through in the camera work. See 4:30 to 5:30 in this clip for a primer of how to televise live rock music. Good production work is commonplace now, but back then the bad production work of live music, especially on talk/variety shows, was everywhere and annoying.
"Cruel" was the song that made me a fan of Nick's. It and "American Squirm" got airplay on KLOS in the late Seventies, and I bought that and all the albums to "Party of One"
I missed the ooh-oooh - OOOH! at 2:03! Just before the super great lead guitar twang! And on this version, the guitar break was finished for the 'run-down' by the guy on keyboard, not the guitar! Oh well... Nick and the boys still did a SUPER GOOD version here in 1983! Love the song, love the performance! Nick -- keep that left leg twitching, as always!
I saw him live in 2002 at the beautiful Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara (founded in 1873). It was an acoustic concert, just him sitting on a barstool with a well-behaved audience of no more than 200 people. He stayed after the show to meet fans, give autographs, and answer questions. I had him sign the insert from his fabulous 4 CD collection, "The Doings", and asked him "Who were the SPGs and why were they clearing the streets?" From a lyric from his song, "Half a Boy and Half a Man". He told me they were the London Special Police Guard, who were known for being unnecessarily rough with punk rockers and bashed a lot of heads. I told him we have something similar here, the LAPD Rampart Division. He still had beautiful hair and eyes in 2002, snow white hair and sparkling blue eyes. My husband took a pic of us, Nick put his arm around me! I still haven't come down off that cloud of bliss, 21 years later!
Agreed, Lowe has done brilliant stuff in the later parts of his career. But ILOAB (co-written by Lowe & Carrack!) was written at least 32 years ago, since Diana Ross released her take on it in 1991. So quite old, but sure, it came after Lowe's early 80's pop.
Just as cute and talented today as he was then. He's amazing on that guitar and carries the song pretty much alone! Would love to have that British Hunk alone for about 30 mins!!
That's one of the standard patterns, called "four on the snare." Sometimes you play the hi hat twice that speed. Of course you're right, it's not featured that often. There's lots of famous songs that use it, that I can't think of right now! On RU-vid you can see: The Equals - Baby Come Back, Sniff 'n' The Tears - "Driver's Seat"
An all star band! Andrew Bodnar on bass, Martin Delmont on guitar (both from the Rumour) Paul Carrick on keys, Terry Williams from Rockpile and Dire Straits on drums.
Despite his career, it wasn't until the 90's that he played live in Japan in earnest. He was worried about his name in Japan, but his live was a great success. What surprised him was that many of the audience were young.
Nick is 69 today.Cruel to be kind was great but they were just using it as a springboard to get to Raging Eyes!And just how good are you when you have Paul Carrack on keyboards?11 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Agree with the springboard comment. It is obvious to me that the latest single "Raging Eyes" was pushed to second song after a decision to go with the more familiar "Cruel to Be Kind" was made after rehearsal. The camera blocking is so much better in the second song that I feel that the TV crew obviously worked harder on "Raging Eyes". From a TV production point, the crew would not work harder to televise Song #2. "Raging Eyes" is just so much better shot it is the only explanation in my view.
At least you don't challenge that he has a great voice that was always in demand as his numerous studio/live concert credits proved. So I guess all those OTHER times he was hired to only play keyboards, especially live, was because he is such a good bloke?
Dave Edmunds ran away with Geraint Watkins who also play a great accordeon. That s 2 times 10, 20 out of 10. But both, Edmunds and Lowe are great !! Saw them with Rockpile 2 times at Paradiso, Amsterdam
I was a senior in high school when this aired. What a breath of fresh air compared to the crap on the radio at that time. Styx, REO Shitwagon, Journey and the like.
Agreed. While the UK was embracing punk/new wave, North America was dominated by those bloated studio bands. Sure, they could play their instruments, but god it was boring music.
Actually, radio in summer 1979 (when CTBK first aired) had improved greatly with new wave/power pop/R 'n' R finally being played and fairly frequently. But yeah, prior to that...
Dolly Parton I love ya and you are correct. You shouldn't be a rock and roll hall of fame nominee. Especially since there are still so many great rockers out there, such as the illustrious Mr. Lowe.
Full band information has always been in the description just below the title. Copied and repasted here: Nick Lowe - Vox, gtr Paul Carrack - vox, piano Martin Belmont - gtr James Eller - bass Bobby Irwin - drums
I thought that looked like Paul Carrack on keyboards. Never heard "Raging Eyes" before! Thanks for including it! Cha cha cha cha cha Awesome upload! She bon - she bon.
Check out the Columbia Benefit Concert from London w/a great line up for a nice night. The Royal Family is a Greed soaked illness & the richest people in Music complaining that they are taxed after living the high Life on the road, in America, Brazil, Japan, etc... Take a listen to that Show: LTC Pretenders' Gtrists, Pete Townshend, Simon Philips, Annie Lennox, etc doing for others. And a lot of surprises
