In the recent Salt Lake City concert Elvis covered an obscure Nick Lowe composition, Don't lose your grip on love .
Out of curiosity I transcribed the lyric , listening to the 1972 recording Nick made of it with Brinsley Schwarz......and it's very puzzling indeed!
Maybe someone here can explain lines like 'Said he was a fire sign' and 'He put up a statue /That burnt down the town' - do tell!
Don't lose your grip on love
Don't lose your grip on love
Take me higher and higher
Like a jet plane flys
But don't lose your grip on love
Why do you despise
This travelling man?
Even though he's doing
The the best that he can
Working for peanuts
As is his wont
How come you don't hear
When he says , honey
Don't lose your grip on love
Don't lose your grip on love
Take me higher and higher
Like a jet plane flys
But don't lose your grip on love
( Well he )Said he was a fire sign
When last came by
But fire sign or water sign
You can still hear him cry
He put up a statue
That burnt down the town
And the first word his tongue spoke
When he came 'round was
Don't lose your grip on love
Don't lose your grip on love
Take me higher and higher
Like a jet plane flys
But don't lose your grip on love
And when he was in trouble
And feeling so low
His friends had deserted him
And he had no place to go
(Well) He looked like a dead man
But be that as it may
Well I thought he was joking
When I heard him say
Don't lose your grip on love
Don't lose your grip on love
Take me higher and higher
Like a jet plane flys
But don't lose your grip on love
The bracketed words are used in a May. 1972 live BBC recording , available on a Hux Records compilation.
see
http://www.huxrecords.com/cdsales52.htm
The studio version is on ' Nervous On The Road'
see
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 49-9305658
Elvis' obscure Nick Lowe cover
The fire signs of the Zodiac are Aries, Leo, and Sagitarrius. Remember, this was the seventies -- and the fact that I'm a child of that decade has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I know myself to be an Aries, with Sagitarius rising and a Virgo moon. Absolutely nothing. 
http://www.forwardtoyesterday.com -- Where "hopelessly dated" is a compliment!
The other relatively obscure Nick Lowe song that Elvis has been doing lately is , of course , Heart Of The City. It's lyric is relatively straight forward in meaning. It's use of the line ' It's a girl my lord' could be taken as a clever putdown on the same line from The Eagles' Take It Easy.
The song first appeared as the b-side of the first Stiff single -
http://members.tripod.com/nicklowedisc/stiff/stiff.html
A So It Goes
B Heart Of The City
7": Stiff BUY1 (UK, no ps) 14/8/76
Produced by Nick Lowe and Jake Riviera. The first ever Stiff. At least two English music papers made the B-side 'a record of the week'. Recorded as a publisher's demo for 45 pounds all-in. Nick played all the instruments except the drums (Steve Goulding). Another song was recorded in this session but never released. Reissues have complete centres as opposed to the original push-out ones. Matrix: 'Earthlings Awake' / 'Three Chord Trick, yeh'
The lyric has appeared in rather garbled form on some sites ; I've corrected it after listening to the 1976 recording.
Heart Of The City
Well in the heart of the city
Where the alligator roam
l'm a little lost lamb
Ain't got no place to go
Now I ain't got one minute
Just gotta shirt on my back
l left home in a hurry
Til l aint never going back
I'm looking for a home
In the heart of the city
Now l'm stepping on the street
And l'm stepping up the hill
And I'm looking for a lover
Looking, Iooking everywhere
Maybe I'm in with a chance
I hear clickety clack
It's a girl my lord
I see her
Stop
Check
Turn and double back
l'm looking for a lover
In the heart of the city
l'm looking, I'm Iooking, I'm Iooking
Looking looking looking everywhere
In the heart of tbe ctty
Well in the heart of the city
Well it's part of the stars
l hear the cassette music
On a thousand guitars
Hey, the boys are on the prowl
They're checking out meat
They know a bird in the hand
Is worth two on the street
They're checking the meat
In the heart of the city
Well I said the heart, heart of the city
Heart of the city
Oh yeah
Heart, heart of the city
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nick's original version is available at a pretty reasonable price on this compilation -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 70-0751609
Basher: Best of
Nick Lowe
Audio CD (September 20, 1989)
Label: Sony
ASIN: B0000026V1
Catalogue Number: I78826
The song first appeared as the b-side of the first Stiff single -
http://members.tripod.com/nicklowedisc/stiff/stiff.html
A So It Goes
B Heart Of The City
7": Stiff BUY1 (UK, no ps) 14/8/76
Produced by Nick Lowe and Jake Riviera. The first ever Stiff. At least two English music papers made the B-side 'a record of the week'. Recorded as a publisher's demo for 45 pounds all-in. Nick played all the instruments except the drums (Steve Goulding). Another song was recorded in this session but never released. Reissues have complete centres as opposed to the original push-out ones. Matrix: 'Earthlings Awake' / 'Three Chord Trick, yeh'
The lyric has appeared in rather garbled form on some sites ; I've corrected it after listening to the 1976 recording.
Heart Of The City
Well in the heart of the city
Where the alligator roam
l'm a little lost lamb
Ain't got no place to go
Now I ain't got one minute
Just gotta shirt on my back
l left home in a hurry
Til l aint never going back
I'm looking for a home
In the heart of the city
Now l'm stepping on the street
And l'm stepping up the hill
And I'm looking for a lover
Looking, Iooking everywhere
Maybe I'm in with a chance
I hear clickety clack
It's a girl my lord
I see her
Stop
Check
Turn and double back
l'm looking for a lover
In the heart of the city
l'm looking, I'm Iooking, I'm Iooking
Looking looking looking everywhere
In the heart of tbe ctty
Well in the heart of the city
Well it's part of the stars
l hear the cassette music
On a thousand guitars
Hey, the boys are on the prowl
They're checking out meat
They know a bird in the hand
Is worth two on the street
They're checking the meat
In the heart of the city
Well I said the heart, heart of the city
Heart of the city
Oh yeah
Heart, heart of the city
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nick's original version is available at a pretty reasonable price on this compilation -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 70-0751609
Basher: Best of
Nick Lowe
Audio CD (September 20, 1989)
Label: Sony
ASIN: B0000026V1
Catalogue Number: I78826
...
Elvis also played 'Heart Of The City' on the original 'Live at El Mocambo' bootleg.
He's joined on stage near the end of the concert by Martin ("The Giant of the 'G' chord! The Empire State of the 'E' chord!") Belmont for PIU and then Nick joins them for HOTC.
It's excised on the Rhino official version for some reason.
He's joined on stage near the end of the concert by Martin ("The Giant of the 'G' chord! The Empire State of the 'E' chord!") Belmont for PIU and then Nick joins them for HOTC.
It's excised on the Rhino official version for some reason.
-
ReadyToHearTheWorst
- Posts: 956
- Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 5:44 am
- Location: uk
I always thought it was 'Where the cars are the stars' - which might tie in with the cassette players of the next lines (I remember in-car radio cassette players being new fangled wonderous things around 76).johnfoyle wrote: ...
Well it's part of the stars
l hear the cassette music
On a thousand guitars
...
"I'm the Rock and Roll Scrabble champion"
-
laughingcrow
- Posts: 2476
- Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2003 8:35 am
Re: ...
I assumed it was for legal reasons...wish it was on there though. Didn't Nick Lowe play a song that night too?Will kane wrote:It's excised on the Rhino official version for some reason.
-
charliestumpy
- Posts: 710
- Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:33 am
El Mocambo
As far as I can tell from web info, Nick Lowe at end of 14 song available 6th March 1978 El Mocambo Costello show came on to lead sing etc his Nutted by reality - I love the sound of breaking glass - Shake and pop - Heart of the city, all of on which Costello played/sang a bit. I've stuck these 4 (often available via P2P) on end of CDR in with my 1993 Demon DPAM4 version.