All I Put You Through

Nick Lowe. 

Basher. The Jesus of Cool. Nick the Knife. 

Elvis Costello may not have needed his own George Martin, but he got one anyway. And Lowe didn’t discover Costello, but his production on EC’s first five albums are as seismic a pairing of artist and producer as Martin and the Beatles. 

Lowe earned his nickname “Basher” from his production approach–basically, “bash it out and we’ll tart it up later.” This served Costello especially well in his early work, where the bashing was a major part of the appeal. At the same time, Lowe also managed to finesse the finer points of Trust’s exquisite pop and Get Happy’s Stax/Motown pastiche. 

You know all this. As we arrive at one of many Nick Lowe songs that EC has covered, it seemed like a good chance to remember that when the Jesus of Cool and the Little Hands of Concrete get together, great things happen. 

“The Ugly Things” was a B-side on singles from both 1989’s Spike and 1991’s Mighty Like A Rose. Written by Lowe, the song originates in his days with Brinsley Schwarz, one of a few seminal bands in the pub rock/new wave/punk axis that helped birth EC and a slew of other artists. (If I have a true musical hero, it’s probably Dave Edmunds, another key figure in this scene who will emerge soon enough in our ongoing explorations. But all things I like in music are in Edmunds–soul, twang, rock, pop, wit, heart, and a healthy dose of “fuck you.”) 

Anyway, here’s Elvis.