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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Gregory Sager <hochsalzburg@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Cruel To Be Nitpicky |
| Date | Mon, 3 Oct 2005 03:01:37 -0700 (PDT) |
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Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 16:57:08 -0400
From: "Jaimie Vernon"
To: audities@smoe.org
Subject: FW: Nick Lowe Tribute Coming....NO KK
Message-ID:
From another list....a plug for the gang at Not Lame
>DISC ONE:
>
>Eric Ambel 12 Step Program To Quit You Babe
>
>Ian Gomm Cruel To Be Kind
>
Not to rain on the parade of this upcoming Not Lame trib to Nick Lowe, since both the material and the people recording it are splendid enough to have me excited at the thought of hearing it. But am I the only one puzzled by the inclusion of Ian Gomm's version of "Cruel To Be Kind"?
First of all, Gomm co-wrote the song with Lowe. Second, the song was written for, and first recorded by, Brinsley Schwarz, the legendary pub-rock band of which both Gomm and Lowe were members. The Brins' version of "Cruel To Be Kind", recorded for the BBC in the mid-seventies shortly before the band broke up, appears on a collection of songs recorded by the band for the Beeb called, naturally, *Cruel To Be Kind*. It came out last year on the Hux label. Plus, Gomm has followed Lowe's lead by putting the song on one of his own solo albums, 1998's *Crazy For You*.
It seems to me that the song is just as much his as it is the Basher's. You can't really argue that Lowe's half of the songwriting credit takes precedence by dint of the fact that his is the most famous of the three versions of the song; after all, this tribute will include a version of Lowe's "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding" (another Brinsley Schwarz original), and that's a song that's thought of by 99% of the music-listening world as an Elvis Costello song.
I certainly have nothing against Ian Gomm (I like him) or the song (I love it). But the inclusion of his version of "Cruel To Be Kind" on this tribute to Nick Lowe just strikes me as a little ... weird. It's a bit like Bruce Springsteen putting his version of "Because The Night" from of his *Live/1975-85* album on a Patti Smith tribute album, or Terry Hall putting the Fun Boy Three version of "Our Lips Are Sealed" on a Go-Go's tribute album. Maybe it's just me, but it seem strange, almost like an abdication of ownership share by the co-writer.
Perhaps Gomm just wants some exposure (and the people who buy this Lowe tribute are very definitely the people who would like Gomm's solo albums), and this seemed like a good way for him to get it. Either that, or maybe Gomm's just given up hope that anyone's gonna release an Ian Gomm tribute album. ;-)
Whatever the case, the oddity of it all certainly won't keep me from enjoying his version of the song, or the Lowe tribute album as a whole.
Gregory Sager
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