Nick Lowe – So It Goes

I always liked Nick Lowe and his brand of power pop. I first heard of him with Cruel To Be Kind and then Rockpile who I wish would have made more albums as Rockpile. When I started to blog, Brinsley Schwarz came on my radar and I really then realized how talented this guy is.

This was Lowe’s first solo single following the split of the pub rock band, Brinsley Schwarz. It was also the first single released on Stiff Records, a label formed by the music managers, Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman. The single bore the catalog number BUY 1, establishing Stiff Records as a pioneering label in the UK punk and new wave scenes.

Although So It Goes failed to chart, it still earned a profit for the young Stiff Records. It was on the American album Pure Pop For Now People.  The album in the UK was called Jesus of Cool. It peaked at #127 on the Billboard 100 in 1978.

Lowe got the title from a recurring line (So It Goes) in Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel,  The Slaughterhouse-Five. It is used every time a death occurs in the book. Steve Goulding (drums) and Nick Lowe were the only two musicians on this song.  Lowe and Jake Riviera produced the album.

Nick Lowe: “It’s not my favorite, it’s a bit too much like Steely Dan. I think I must have got it from something they’d done.”

So It Goes

Remember on night the kid cut off his right arm
In a fit to save a bit of power
He got fifty thousand 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

And so it goes and so it goes
And so it goes and so it goes
But where it’s goin’ no one knows
And so it goes and so it goes
And so it goes and so it goes
But where it’s goin’ no one knows

In the tall buildings
Sit the head of our nations
Worthy men from Spain and Siam
All day discussions with the Russians
But they still went ahead
And vetoed the plan
Now up jumped the U.S. representative
He’s the one with the tired eyes
747 for the midnight condition
Flyin’ back from a peace keepin’ mission

And so it goes and so it goes
And so it goes and so it goes
But where it’s goin’ no one knows
And so it goes and so it goes
And so it goes and so it goes
But where it’s goin’ no one knows

In the air there’s absolution
In the wake of a snaky Persian
On his arm there’s a skin tight vision
Wonder why she admires she is hissin’

And so it goes and so it goes
And so it goes and so it goes
But where it’s goin’ no one knows
And so it goes and so it goes
And so it goes and so it goes
But where it’s goin’ no one knows

But where it’s goin’ no one knows
But where it’s goin’ no one knows
But where it’s goin’ no one knows

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

21 thoughts on “Nick Lowe – So It Goes”

  6. What a great tune Max. This album was my intro into the world of Nick and I am still catching up on all his quality stuff. What a talent. The album is a fave. Man can he put the words together and make top notch songs. Up there with that Pete, Ray, Elvis guys. Now I have to listen to the album for the 9999th time.

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    1. The more I followed him the more I learned. When I found Brinsley Schwarz on top of what he had done…yea I was a fan. He was much deeper than Cruel to the Kind.

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      2. Yes that is true. Like all of thost 50s performers in the 80s doing commercials…I was happy for them to finally make something.

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  7. Hah! I still use ‘and so it goes’ when faced with disappointment. The book is still worth a look; the film also worked- well, it did for me. (And Valerie Perrine in her prime didn’t hurt.) Kurt V was just my kind of guy- upbeat, sunny outlook, always look on the bright side of life.🙄

    Good song, and I hear the Steely Dan inference, at least in the chorus.

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    1. Hmmm I wouldn’t want to be around you when you said it! lol.
      I need to see the movie…the book sounds good and yea…the sunny side! It is a pretty good song…as is a lot of Lowes stuff.

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  11. I love Nick Lowe.  Been a fan since the first Brinsley Schwarz album, even though it is very different from anything else the Brinsleys or Lowe has done.  Always fun stuff.

    I gotta disagree with the lyrics.  I may have heard ‘em wrong, but I like my take.

    In the air there’s absolution
    In the wake of a snaky Persian
    On his arm there’s a skin tight vision
    Wonder why she admires she is hissin’

    I have always heard

    In the air there’s after shave lotion

    In the wake of a snaky Persian

    On his arm there’s a skin tight vision

    Wonder why she ain’t mine she is his

    The lyrics, by the way, are delightful.  They get lost in the hook of the melody but are so worth paying attention to.  50,000 watts in a big acoustic tower… 

    Jesus of Cool is a great album title.  Bound to piss off so many people, and so it goes…

    I like “Reeling in the Years.”  I don’t hear the connection.  Could be just me though.

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