Nick Lowe captured magic with 'So It Goes'

First single released by Stiff Records signaled exciting new era in British popular music

It was too polished to be considered punk, too modern to be old-school rock, and lacked the glistening harmonies characteristic of power pop. Yet the DNA of all three of these music genres coursed through Nick Lowe’s debut solo single, So It Goes, released on this date (August 14) in 1976.

The first official release by Stiff Records, So It Goes came nowhere near the charts. But it sold about 10,000 copies, enough to keep Stiff running in the early days before other acts on the label’s roster, such as Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Madness, began moving wax. The song would be included on Lowe’s debut solo album, Jesus of Cool.

Stiff Records was the brainchild of two music business hustlers seeking ways to hack the industry’s artist-unfriendly business model (and make a lot of money doing so). Irish native Dave Robinson, then 32 years old, experienced success building a network of pub rock venues in the early ‘70s and even installed an eight-track recording studio in the basement of London’s Hope and Anchor pub, where he lived for more than two years.

At the time Robinson managed the clearly talented singer Graham Parker, one of the artists who recorded demos in the Hope and Anchor’s basemen. Previously Robinson had managed Brinsley Schwartz, a perpetually directionless band that was wasting the talents of its lead singer, bass player, and chief songwriter, who were all one person. That person was Nick Lowe.

Robinson washed his hands of Brinsley Schwartz in 1975, but kept Lowe in his orbit by giving Nick jobs such as producing Parker’s debut album and going out on the road as tour manager for Parker and his new band (which included two former members of Brinsley Schwartz — Brinsley himself on guitar and keyboard player Bob Andrews).

Robinson’s business partner, Andrew Jakeman (who soon would change his name to the more raffish Jake Riviera), cut his teeth in the music biz as road manager in the early ‘70s for pub rockers Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers and filled the same role in early 1976 for Dr Feelgood on their initial U.S. tour. Riviera, four years Robinson’s junior, would go on to manage Lowe and Elvis Costello, helping to reshape the latter’s image from pub rocker to nasty new wave nerd (a change that eventually would result in blowback that hurt Costello’s career).

Back to So It Goes. As the first record released by an independent label declaring war on the staid, stuffy music industry in the mid-1970s, So It Goes was perfect. Fresh but familiar, not too scary (like those Sex Pistols!), and catchy as hell. The synchronized opening blast of slashing guitar chords, bass, and drums — done with a nifty triplet feel over a 4/4 beat — would have done most punk bands proud, while the chiming guitar would become new wave and power-pop staples.

As forward-looking as the record sounded, the musical inspiration for So It Goes can be traced to a pair of other songs from the 1970s. In a 2024 interview published in Guitar Player magazine, Nick explains:

“I had a brief job tour-managing for Graham Parker & the Rumour. I produced their first album, Howlin' Wind — in fact, that was the first album I produced — and their manager Dave Robinson had also managed Brinsley Schwarz for awhile, and Brinsley himself was in Graham's group. They were going on tour with Thin Lizzy, who were enjoying some sort of surge of success at the time, and Robinson asked me if I would tour-manage them. [Note: The tour of England, Scotland, and Wales in support of the band’s Jailbreak album was grueling, with 29 shows in 30 days.]

“I remember Thin Lizzy's The Boys are Back in Town playing all the time on that tour. It had this little descending thing that just got under my skin and I started singing ‘and so it goes, so it goes, so it goes’ while I was walking around doing my tour manager duties.”

Let’s give the man credit for turning an annoying earworm into a classic record!

The other song that influenced So It Goes, Lowe has acknowledged, was Steely Dan’s Reelin’ In the Years, which also features a descending melody line (though with slightly different chords) in the verses. Listen to those songs back to back and the similarities are apparent.

So It Goes was recorded on June 28, 1976, at Pathway Studios in North London, according to musician and author Will Birch in his book, Cruel To Be Kind: The Life and Music of Nick Lowe. Lowe laid down all the vocals and played everything on the single with the exception of drums, which were manned by Steve Goulding of The Rumour. Pathway engineer Barry Farmer tells Birch:

“The recording of So It Goes and Heart of the City [the B-side] took about four hours. … Nick was one of the best producers I’d worked with in terms of dealing with the music. He did two or three takes and then it was down, which was great for the immediacy.”

Bash it down and tart it up: That was the Nick Lowe studio mantra.

So It Goes signaled the beginning of a glorious new era in British music. Weeks later Lowe would produce New Rose — the first British punk single — for The Damned. Punk soon would inject the British music scene with a huge shot of energy and attitude, while new wave would expand sonic (and sartorial) palettes through the ‘80s and beyond.

Listen to So It Goes below.