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1. |
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I went to a party
It was jumping and I went for it hearty
I had on my bad suit
Started jigging to the one with the jazz flute
I told myself I wouldn’t stay late
Just put my face ‘round the door
Next time I looked it was coming on quarter to four
And my feet were getting sore
I went to a party
It was like an indoor safari
‘Round a waterhole of Campari
And I feel alright, whoa
Yes, I feel alright now
I went to a party
I was circulating ‘round pretty smartly
You could say it was high-tone
But I was representing the low zone
Yes I was
A man came up
Said “I’ve got all your stuff
It’s just sublime
But for me your best is Propeller Time”
I said, “Where do I sign?”
I went to a party
I went to a party
I went to a party
Out of the blue they started to play the DJ’s new idea
A voice in my head said
Maybe it’s time to get out of here
It’s very clear
It’s been fun but it’s time to cut along
I went to a party
I went to a party
I went to a party
I went to a party
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2. |
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I woke up early with love starvation
Hugging my pillow all alone in a rickety bed
Baby, if it’s any consolation
The needle’s in the red
It only hit me when I went by a mirror
That’s when I saw what was written all over my face
I’m suffering love starvation
A very bad case
I’ll tell you something about love starvation
It’s like a prison in your mind you’re locked up in
Disappointment, desperation
Your two old friends
Make it stop, make it stop
If only I could turn back the clock
Make it so, make it so
‘Cause I tell you that I can’t exist in a world like this
Show me a love that comes in colors
Or even one I can dream in black and white
Any love is better than no love
So any love’s right
Make it stop, make it stop
If only I could turn back the clock
Make it so, make it so
‘Cause I tell you that I can’t exist in a world like this
I woke up early with love starvation
Hugging my pillow all alone in a rickety bed
Baby, if it’s any consolation
The needle’s in the red
The needle’s in the red
Love starvation, baby
It’s got me on the back foot
It’s put me in a dark and lonely place
It’s got me never knowing
If I’m ever going to start living again
Love starvation, baby
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
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3. |
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I’m standing in a jolly crowd
Joking, laughing a little too loud
Looking like the model of a man that’s got it made
But my repartee is just to disguise
All the hurt I’m trying to hide
‘Cause I’m crying
I’m crying
Crying inside
I’m sitting in a restaurant
A few old friends in a favorite haunt
And I’m wearing a suit of deepest blue
I’ve been wise-cracking like the good old days
But pretty soon I’m gonna slip away
And walk myself right back to my lonely room
Everybody knows a man’s not supposed to cry
If you look at my face you’ll see my cheek is dry
I wish sometimes they’d cut me some slack
‘Cause they don’t know, while they’re slappin’ my back
I’m crying
Cry, cry, cry
Crying inside
Whoa here comes the tears
Cry again, cry again
Well everybody knows a man’s not supposed to cry, cry, cry, cry
So behind this grin I’m holding it in up until I say goodbye
Well I wish sometimes they’d cut me some slack
‘Cause they don’t know while they’re slappin’ my back
I’m crying
Cry, cry, cry
Crying inside
Nobody knows I’m crying
Crying inside
I’m the life and the soul of the party sometimes
But I’m crying inside
Crying inside
Crying inside
Crying inside
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4. |
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Hey, Eddie! Eddie Angel!
Lady, lady, lady, why do you holler?
Nobody’s seen your Johnny Dollar
I can't get no sleep in this noisy street
I've got to move
I've got to find a quiet place
There's a man next door with a radio
And he plays it all through the night
There's a couple in the apartment above my head
They do nothing but fuss and fight
I can't get no sleep in this noisy street
I've got to move (I've got to move)
I've got to find some quiet
I can't get no sleep in this noisy street
I've got to move (I've got to move)
I've got to find a quiet place
Find a quiet place
But tell me, where do you go when you got no dough?
There must be a way outta here
I've got to find some peace of mind
There must be a place that I can find
Lady, lady, lady, why do you holler?
Nobody’s seen your Johnny Dollar
There's a cat that gets under my window
And meows all the time
There's a drunk that wakes me in the middle of the night
Singing “Sweet Caroline”
I can't get no sleep in this noisy street
I've got to move (I've got to move)
I've got to find some quiet
I can't get no sleep in this noisy street
I've got to move (I've got to move)
I've got to find a quiet place
Find a quiet place
Find a quiet place
Find a quiet place
I can't get no sleep
In this noisy street
I've got to move
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5. |
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Blue on blue
I’ve got a message in a song for you
You’re like a mill, you run me through
I call you blue on blue
Blue on blue
You’re only happy when you see me cry
I oughta leave, but how can I
Tied to blue on blue
Blue on blue
How has it come to this
Your kiss is my one true desire
I long each waking hour for you
Blue on blue
I’ve got a message in a song for you
I call you blue on blue
I can’t sleep
For all the promises you don’t keep
I wanna run but I’m in too deep
Too deep for blue on blue
In my mind
I’m on the end of a ball of twine
That she jerks from time to time
Time for blue on blue
Blue on blue
How has it come to this
Your kiss is my one true desire
I long each waking hour for you
Blue on blue
I’ve got a message in a song for you
You’re like a mill, you run me through
I call you blue on blue
I call you blue on blue
I call you blue on blue
I call you, call you blue on blue
Blue, blue, blue
Blue, blue, blue
Oh blue, blue, blue
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6. |
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What can you do
When you can’t get through
To a bad baby
One that’ll run you round like a taxi ride
Each time I quit I get nowhere fast
She works some kind of magic until at last
She’s got me running back
Like a jet pac boomerang
What can you say
When you can’t keep away
From a bad, bad, bad baby
You better believe you’re gonna hang your head and cry
Each time I say, “That’s it, I’m done”
She’s got a way of going “whoa, come on”
That gets me running back
Like a jet pac boomerang
Yes but when she says she loves me
Angel choirs sing
Stars come out in the daytime
And I forgive her everything
I ask her is it true
You only make me blue, baby
‘Cause you know that I’ll be back
Like a jet pac boomerang
Yes but when she says she loves me
I hear a symphony begin
But then the music fades away
And the heartaches start again
I ask her is it true
You only make me blue, baby
‘Cause you have me running back
Like a jet pac boomerang
(Boomerang, boomerang)
Can’t help myself
(Boomerang, boomerang)
I’m in the grip of a spell it seems
(Boomerang, boomerang)
I’ve got zero willpower
(Boomerang, boomerang)
Woe and misery
(Boomerang, boomerang, boomerang)
I mean she really done a job on me
(Boomerang, boomerang, boomerang)
Bad, bad, bad, bad baby now
(Boomerang, boomerang, boomerang)
Last night I said these words to my girl
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7. |
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I’ll be a long gone daddy when they find my note
But just for the record this is what I wrote
I’m relocating to a foreign shore
You won’t have me to kick around no more
You can’t make me stay
I’m leaving today
It’s anchors aweigh
I’m shipping out to Tokyo Bay
There’s a solemn little geisha pining for me
Under a parasol out on the quay
She knows I’m coming from beyond the sea
And she’s hoping and a-praying most fervently
That today’s the day I come smoking into Tokyo Bay
I’ll find a liner, then my plan
To work my ticket as some kind of hand
Maybe picking up after the cabaret band
Anything to get my toes in the sands of Tokyo Bay
Well in a dim dockside canteen I know
With my collar turned up and my cap down low
All dressed up like a matelot
I got my grip in my hand packed ready to go
I’ll be long gone daddy when they find my note
But just for the record this is what I wrote
You, you, you can’t make me stay
I’m leaving today
So glad to say
I’m heading up the gangway
Bound for Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
I’ll be long gone daddy
Be long gone daddy
Long, long gone daddy
Long gone daddy
So long
That’s all I wrote
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8. |
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Trombone, come play your song
Make it the one about good love gone wrong
I’m so blue and all alone
So blow something sad and slow for me, trombone
I’ve been told time's a healer
Still I can’t shake the love I lost
It seems my destiny’s to count the cost
No one calls, who can blame ‘em
They’re all out of sympathy
Lord, how I could use some company
At times like these some sweet release
Trombone, come play your song
Make it the one about good love gone wrong
My one true love has gone
So blow something sad and slow for me, trombone
I should be on the road to glory
Not this barren, bleak terrain
I pray I’ll never be this way again
Spilling from an upper story
Comes a half-remembered melody
And I’m whistling the missing harmony
In B, or C, oh please
Trombone, come play your song
Make it the one about good love gone wrong
I’m so, so blue and all alone
So oil up your slide trombone
My one true love has gone
I’m sitting here in limbo, dear
I need you near
Trombone
Trombone
Trombone
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9. |
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I know this kind of feeling
I’ve had to sit it out a time or two
Usually it comes around
When dawn’s cruel light’s breaking through
But over you
It’s a different kind of blue
Sad to say when it comes around these days
It’s like an old friend
That’s moved into my address
In a fog of hopelessness without end
Over you
It’s a different kind of blue
Over you
I’m a different kind of blue
I’m lonely and I miss you grievously
In the night especially
Wondering over you
I know they say what’s done is done
And so if the love is gone
Move along
That’s the grownup thing to do
I know this kind of feeling
I’ve had to sit it out a time or two
Usually it comes around
When dawn’s cruel light’s breaking through
Sad to say when it comes around these days
It’s like an old friend
Over you
It’s a different kind of blue
Over you
A different kind of blue
Different kind of blue this time
Different kind of blue
Different kind of blue
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10. |
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I'm gonna throw my raincoat in the river
Gonna toss my umbrella in the sea
The sun's gonna shine like never before
It ain't gonna rain on me no more
‘Cause my baby's comin' back to me
Say, did you see my raincoat in the river
Sinkin’ down, ever further out of sight
For each drop of rain that fell on my face
I know we'll share a sweet embrace
‘Cause she'll be back in my arms tonight
Well the rain kept drippin’, drip drop drippin'
All the while she went away
But all that’s stoppin’, no more drip drip droppin'
Now she’s home to stay, so that's why I say
Did you see my raincoat in the river
Sinkin’ down, ever further out of sight
That’s ‘cause she’ll be back in my arms tonight
Well the rain kept drippin’, drip drop drippin'
All the while she went away
But all that’s stoppin’, no more drip drip droppin'
Now she’s home to stay, so that's why I say
I'm gonna throw my raincoat in the river
Gonna toss my umbrella in the sea
The sun's gonna shine like never before
It ain't gonna rain on me no more
‘Cause my baby's comin' back to me
Whoa, my baby's comin' back to me
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
My baby's comin' back to me
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11. |
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Lay it on me, baby
Lay it on me ‘til it gets right under my skin
And the merry mood I’m in
Makes way for love
I’m walking these streets with a skip in my step
My hat’s on the side of my head
All down to you I’m acting this way
Just like a fish in a babbling brook
I’m nibbling at your hook
Don’t let me be the one that got away
Because you do something fundamental to me
That I can almost taste
When I get with it there’s not a minute I wanna waste
Lay it on me, baby
Lay it on me ‘til the room begins to spin
And the merry mood I’m in
Makes way for love
You can’t buy a day this sunny
Not for a tower of folding money
I dare a cloud to rain on this parade
Because bells start ringing and bluebirds singing
And I stride the milky way
Everytime you give me the sign and look that way
Lay it on me, baby
Lay it on me ‘til it gets right under my skin
And the merry mood I’m in
Makes way for love
Lay it, lay it on me, baby
Lay it on me ‘til the room begins to spin
And the merry mood I’m in
Makes way for love
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12. |
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Don’t be nice to me
I’m undeserving of your kind attention
Don’t be nice to me
Better you pass me by
I just put paid to the chance of love in a million
And if you’re nice to me you’ll only have me crying
Don’t be nice to me
Thank you for the invitation
Don’t be nice to me
Sorry I can’t stay
When I find a rock big enough for me to crawl under
I’m gonna hang a sign outside to the world: “stay away”
Don’t be nice to me
If only life could be
Like a walk in the park
To the trill of a lark on the wing on high
Don’t be nice to me
‘Cause I can’t guarantee
That what you’ll find
Won’t blow your mind
If you’re too kind
Don’t be nice to me
Yes, I need a ride to the station
Don’t be nice to me
But I’d rather walk in the rain, yeah
Now I know I’m acting like a big galoot
And it’ll all work out in time
But if you’re nice to me
Get ready to see me cry
Cry, cry
Cry and cry
Cry, baby
Don’t be nice to me
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Six years ago, the revered British artist and songwriter Nick Lowe had almost abandoned the idea of making another full-length album. The realities of the marketplace and the expense aside, Lowe was busy enjoying the more immediate “camaraderie and rewards” of touring with Los Straitjackets, those masked marvels who've been his fellow musical voyagers for the past decade. Together, they'd released a handful of EPs and singles between 2018-20. But Lowe saw those mostly as “souvenirs to let people know the store was still open.”
But this fall, Lowe returns with his first LP in over a decade - Indoor Safari. So what changed his mind?
“We've really got a style together now,” Lowe says. “When it started out, it was just to do shows. We had no thoughts of recording, really. But after a while, we started to attract an audience – and a much younger one. When we started noticing the younger fans, I realized my fate maybe wasn't to just keep playing the same old songs to the same old tubby ex-pub rockers (laughs). Suddenly, the whole thing started to get some bounce to it. Like, 'Wait a minute, this is really something.'”
The accumulated experience of touring also showed Lowe that Los Straitjackets were simpatico in ways that remind him of what he calls his “beloved old firm and gents' club,” the ace studio band behind the string of near-perfect career renaissance albums he made in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Lowe lost two of his closest “key oppos and friends” Bobby Irwin and Neil Brockbank, in 2015 and 2017, respectively).
“The Straitjackets like all kinds of music, and are very good, open-minded musicians, apart from being very agreeable people,” he says. “And they also have a sort of punk rock ethos, which, unfortunately, I do too. I've tried to shrug it off so many times, but I just can't get rid of it.”
Indeed, there's an immediacy and kinetic energy to the twelve mostly uptempo songs on Indoor Safari, with Lowe and Los Straitjackets buzzing from number to number. “Went to a Party” is a Kinks-style rave-up, “Crying Inside” is a classic happy-sad masquerade, grooving like some lost Ricky Nelson hit, “Blue on Blue” and “Jet Pac Boomerang” both deal cleverly with hearts in limbo. The Bacharach-flavored “Different Kind of Blue” is a loaded rose with the candid confession of “I can't afford the luxury of having you come back to me,” while “Trombone” and “Don't Be Nice to Me” possess the forlorn elegance and tunefulness that are Lowe trademarks. With his intimate baritone, he croons them all as if they're already standards. So much so that when he does land on two well-chosen covers, “A Quiet Place” and “Raincoat in the River,” the join is seamless.
Fans and keen-eared listeners will surely notice that there are reworkings of previously released songs here, including “Love Starvation” and “Trombone.” While there was nothing wrong with the initial recordings, many captured on days off while touring in whatever city they found themselves, Lowe viewed them more as documents - artist sketches before a final canvas. It’s an approach that goes back to Lowe’s earliest studio albums, with “Cruel to Be Kind” and “Heart of the City” undergoing similar creative makeovers.
“None of us really thought they were that inspiring,” he says. “They were lacking somehow in the sound quality, performance or atmosphere. And I felt maybe we'd sort of thrown away a few cool tunes. When it was suggested that we should do an actual full-length album, the songs had evolved, and had some air blown into them. After playing them in front of an audience a dozen times, the players know what they're doing and they start listening to everybody else, and adjusting their thing accordingly. And suddenly, hey, presto, you've got the sauce on it all!”
There were still logistical challenges to finishing the album, with Lowe residing in England and Los Straitjackets in the US. But the crew convened at Reliable Recorders in Chicago, with engineer Alex Hall (JD McPherson, The Cactus Blossoms) helping to glue everything together. “Alex is great in so many ways, and he put his stamp on it,” Lowe says. “There were some further adjustments, but at the end, I thought, 'When you hear the songs all together, it sounds of a piece, and you can't tell that it was all recorded over a period of five years.'”
And so, 2024 has become a little brighter with record number seventeen from Nick Lowe, who recently celebrated his diamond birthday (“I don't feel 75,” he says. “Yes, I do feel older, but in a sort of nice way”). Within a storied fifty-plus year career - Brinsley Schwarz, Rockpile, “Cruel to Be Kind,” “(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding,” collaborations with The Pretenders, Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash, modern classic albums that MOJO calls “stories of love and loss so beautifully simple that you'll never get to the bottom of them” - how does Lowe see Indoor Safari and the adventures ahead?
“My feeling is that the record is pretty good, actually,” he says. “I think there are some cuts on it which are really fabulous. Will I make more records? Well, if I can come up with some more cool tunes, I don't see why not.”
released September 13, 2024
2024 Nick Lowe Ltd. Under exclusive license to Yep Roc, LLC.
Nick Lowe: vocal & acoustic guitar
Eddie Angel: guitar & vocal
Pete Curry: bass
Chris Sprague: drums & vocal
Greg Townson: guitar
Produced by Nick Lowe
Mixed by Alex Hall & Nick Lowe at Reliable Recorders, Chicago, IL
Mastered by J.J. Golden at Golden Mastering, Ventura, CA
Photography: Dan Burn-Forti
Models: Natasha Hall & Sebastian Dykes at Laylow, Golborne Rd, London
Design & Art Direction Peta Waddington
Lettering: Nathan Golub
With thanks to Johnny Bartlett
