Brinsley Schwarz – Surrender To The Rhythm

This is so extremely catchy, and that organ just makes it flow. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Nick Lowe this young before in the video you will hopefully watch. You know… when I cover pub rock or the Paisley Underground scene, it doesn’t feel like I’m reviewing songs anymore. I feel like I’m mapping out musical neighborhoods because these musicians all knew each other and worked together.

Brinsley Schwarz never had a big hit, but they did influence artists like Elvis Costello and The Clash. They were known as a pub rock band and were active between 1969 and 1975. The band released 6 albums in that time. Their members included Nick Lowe, Bob Andrews, Brinsley Schwarz, and Billy Rankin…they were later augmented by Ian Gomm on guitar and vocals.

Some songs don’t need a big chorus or a fancy production to grab you. They just have a groove that feels right from the opening notes. That’s what this song has always been for me. It isn’t one of Brinsley Schwarz’s best-known songs, but it should be. Every time I hear it, I think of a band that simply loved playing together. Musicians locked into the same groove and having a great time.

Nick Lowe wrote this song, and the band recorded it for their 1972 album Nervous on the Road. The song rides on Lowe’s knack for writing melodies that sound familiar the very first time you hear them. The title says it all. Quit overthinking things and let the music take over! It became one of the band’s signature live songs and has appeared on several later compilations, proof that even the band knew they had something special with it.

They were formed in England after evolving from the late 1960s band Kippington Lodge. The group featured guitarist Brinsley Schwarz, but before long, another member began writing many of the band’s songs. That was Nick Lowe. Along with Bob Andrews, Billy Rankin, and later Ian Gomm, they became one of the leading bands in the growing pub rock movement. While progressive rock bands were adding longer solos and glam rock was becoming more theatrical, Brinsley Schwarz went the other direction. They looked back to American rock and roll, country, soul, and rhythm & blues.

It’s one of those records that reminds me why I enjoy digging a little deeper than the obvious songs. If you like Nick Lowe’s solo work or the music of Dave Edmunds, Rockpile, or Graham Parker, you can hear the roots of all of that right here. Sometimes the most influential bands aren’t the ones filling stadiums. They’re the ones quietly showing everyone else how it’s done.

Allmusic gave it 5 stars, and grumpy critic Robert Christgau gave it an A-.

Surrender to the Rhythm

Well they danced to every tune the band could play
At just about midnight when they decided to call it a day
Now there’s one thing that’s left here on their mind
Yeah, yeah, yeah
To get a little slice at any price, yeah
To store the shoes and rice
And surrender to the rhythm that is calling them home

Oh she was dumb, she was dirty
Yeah, but she was a princess
Custom made to fit right in to his arms
She could thrill him, she could chill him
Down to the bone
But he was in his teens, yeah
He had to spill the beans
Still looking for ways and means
To surrender to the rhythm that is calling him home

And who’s to say if it’s right or wrong
Not another singer in another song
I say we’re doing alright
Yeah we’re doing okay
Oh now guess what, guess what happened
Guess what happened then

She had to go, said she was meeting up with one of her friends
So there was nothing more or less than another mess of the blues
Now he had more to lose
Started putting in booze
Oh yeah, paying his dues
And surrendering to the rhythm that is calling him home

Surrender to the rhythm
Surrender to the rhythm
Surrender to the rhythm
Surrender, yeah, to the rhythm

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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.

23 thoughts on “Brinsley Schwarz – Surrender To The Rhythm”

  1. Pingback: Brinsley Schwarz – Surrender To The Rhythm – MobsterTiger

  2. Thanks for the Ian Gomm link!
    I really like the organ moving the song along, nice little two-step movement to the tune. Lyrics kind of ordinary but overall, it has a good feel to it

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    2. Ian is still, I think, gigging. Great music.

      I’m not sure I’d say the lyrics were ordinary. I always thought they reflected the exuberance of a young boy about to become a man.

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    1. Thats me to an extent…they came out with (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding
      first…and that is what I knew most about them. I like their version a lot….of course Costello’s is good as well.

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      1. Lowe has some great quotes about the what the feel of the music is all about. Whether he was talking about the Brinsleys, his early post-Brinsleys stuff, his stuff with Dave Edmunds. He was looking for, and created, a greasy groove. I refer to a Brinsley songtitle that is SO APPROPRIATE: Surrender to the Rhythm,

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  4. Music and phrasing has a Van Morrison feel to me. I have to be honest, Nick Lowe has never really grabbed me. I liked Little Village, and he’s written some great songs, but never really got into him. This isn’t bad.

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  5. Another great pick, Max. And, yes, that organ is just irresistible! And, damn, it’s also a reminder I still haven’t explored Brinsley Schwarz! 😆

    I’ll be off to Atlantic City shortly for British Invasion Festival and, should I still be alive, thereafter, also plan to see my music friend John Hathaway’s Neil Young tribute this evening closer to my neck of the woods. As such, I might be little slow with commenting today!

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  6. I found one of their albums in a charity shop a few years ago. It was called ‘The New Favourites of Brinsley Schwarz’. It was released in 1974 and had more or less the same line-up that you mentioned. Elvis Costello covered the first track on the album written by Nick Lowe, which was ‘Peace, Love and Understanding’. That’s a great song as you know Max.

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    2. New Favorites was the fifth album, I think. Never officially released in the States. Good record.

      I have, in previous posts, talked about the evil business the music industry was in. The Brinsleys were very much a leader, of sorts, against all that crap. New Favorites being a pull against “Best of” retrospectives, of which that album was NOT.

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  8. I have known and loved Brinsley Schwarz since their first record. You know. The one you vaguely heard about under the column of hype? The fly ’em all to NYC for the gig bit? Well, Brinsley and the boys were a whole lot more than that.

    While there were four lps released in the States (two for Capitol, two for UA), there were other bits and pieces out in the UK. The first record was not well engineered, and the boys paid too much attention to the harmonies brought on by CSN/Y. But wow, what a legacy.

    As for the band? Brinsley Schwarz on guitar and keys, Nick Lowe on bass and vocals and songwriting, Billy Rankin on drums, Bob Andrews on keys and, with the third lp, Ian Gomm on guitars, vocals and songwriting.

    As great as the songwriting in this band is, my favorite track is probably a Carole King song, “Please Don’t Ever Change.” Loose, easy and simple.

    This isn’t music that is going to grab you, this is music that you kinda slip into and, as another of their favorite songs (also from the same album as this) says, surrender to the rhythm.

    I’ll go out on a limb and say that two of the best rock bands that ever were would be Little Feat and Brinsley Schwarz.

    THANKS MAX

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    1. I see WP has me back to the purple goatee. Just to be sure I’m on record, I have never dyed my hair purple and never sported a goatee. Hee hee hee

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    2. Oh I didn’t know you were that big of fan! That is cool. I put that story into another post I did about them I think…about hype trip to New York. I love what I’ve heard from them though.

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  9. Wow! This is great! Another excellent recommendation, Max. I’m a Nick Lowe fan and I’m not familiar. Love everything about it. The only way it could be better is if Van Morrison was singing it.

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