Day After Day #94: So It Goes

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

So It Goes (1976)

When it comes to pure pop craftsmanship, you can't do much better than Nick Lowe. He's been a working musician since the late '60s, he worked as a producer on some classic early punk records (like the Damned's "New Rose"), he's had a few big hits and he's had songs that became big hits for other artists. 

Lowe got his start in 1967 with the band Kippington Lodge, which was renamed to Brinsley Schwarz a few years later. He stayed with the band until 1975, when he joined the band Rockpile as a bassist. 

In 1976, Lowe was working at Stiff Records and released the label's first single, "So It Goes." The label gave Lowe 45 pounds to make two songs working with drummer Steve Goulding of The Rumour. Lowe sang and played guitar and bass and came up with one of his best songs.

Opening with a guitar and drums flourish, Lowe launches into the first verse with his typical verbal aplomb.

"I remember one night the kid cut off his right arm/In a bid to save a bit of power/He got 50,000 watts/In a big acoustic tower/Security's so tight tonight/Oh, they're ready for a tussle/Gotta keep your backstage passes/Cause your promoter had the muscle."

Lowe's limber bass line propels the song forward to the chorus: "And so it goes/And so it goes/And so it goes/And so it goes/But where it's going no one knows."

He mixed in some swipes at geopolitical negotiations as well.

"In the tall building/Sit the head of all nations/Worthy men from Spain and Siam/All day discussions with the Russians/But they still went ahead/Now jumped up the U.S. representative/He's the one with the tired eyes/747 put him in that condition/Flyin' back from a peace-keeping mission."

Lowe packed all this into a compact 2:34, just the perfect distillation of power pop and smartass commentary. The song wasn't a huge hit, but it was voted the fifth best single of the year by the NME critics poll. Eventually, it ended up on Lowe's 1978 debut album Jesus of Cool, which was repackaged as Pure Pop for Now People in the U.S. (can't be mentioning Jesus now). The album also included "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass," which went to #7 in the U.K.

Lowe was a busy man. He produced albums for Elvis Costello, the Damned, the Rumour and Dr. Feelgood and was recording with Rockpile, who re-recorded a version of "So It Goes" (see below). Lowe and fellow Rockpile guitarist Dave Edmunds had separate recording deals, so Rockpile would essentially record albums and they would be released either under that name or as Lowe or Edmunds solo albums.

I first became aware of Lowe in 1979 when he had a top 40 hit with "Cruel to Be Kind," which was originally released when he was in Brinsley Schwarz and re-recorded with Rockpile and put on Lowe's Labour of Lust album. The same year, Elvis Costello had a big hit with "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," a song Lowe wrote in 1974 with Brinsley Schwarz. 

The '80s were also a busy time for Lowe, who continued producing for the likes of Costello, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Paul Carrick and releasing his own material. I saw him open for Costello at UNH in 1989. In the early '90s, he teamed up with Ry Cooder, John Hiatt and Jim Keltner to form the supergroup Little Village. He's continued to release new music periodically, mostly focusing on rootsier sounds, and toured with Los Straightjackets in recent years.