Nick Lowe wrote and recorded this song around 1974, with his band Brinsley Schwarz.  While he did produce Costello's version several years later, he was never a member of The Attractions.

It's not Nick doing a cover of the Elvis Costello song. Nick the wrote song when he was with Costello in the Attractions; it's Lowe's song, it's one of the great social consciousness songs. It's a 9. Of course, so is the smokin' rock version. I have both on my Pod. 

It's not Nick doing a cover of the Elvis Costello song. Nick the wrote song when he was with Costello in the Attractions; it's Lowe's song, it's one of the great social consciousness songs. It's a 9. Of course, so is the smokin' rock version. I have both on my Pod. 

It's not Nick doing a cover of the Elvis Costello song. Nick the wrote song when he was with Costello in the Attractions; it's Lowe's song, it's one of the great social consciousness songs. It's a 9. Of course, so is the smokin' rock version. I have both on my Pod. 

Whoever this guy is he does a decent cover of this Elvis Costello song.

Nick the Knife made enough dough from this being on The Bodyguard soundtrack that he could do whatever he wanted afterward.

What a great thing for a guy who, otherwise, might've just struggled to get by - despite his talent and contribution to contemporary music. 

He got the words wrong

For me this is what I've heard called a 'driveway song'. The first time I heard Mr. Lowe performing this, it was a version recorded live at the KGSR studios in Austin. I was on the way home from work, and pulled up to the house about 1/3 of the way through the song. I sat and listened to the entire thing right there in the car, blown away by the intensity. A 'driveway' song.

Nick Lowe is a true great, albeit sadly under-appreciated, and this stunningly mature and heartfelt version of his song which was originally released in an upbeat version in the 70s is a wonderful demonstration of that. Hunt out his solo albums for some excellent examples of great songsmithery coupled with highly expressive and characterful performances.

Me too. More heartfelt, less hectic.

Me too. More heartfelt, less hectic.

Snore

This is nice — I like it much better than Elvis Costello's

The selfish gene is deterministic, and I have never fell for that kind of pragmatic and easy way to see the World; such kind of answers tend to obstruct the inclusion of of better approaches and even truth when this can be found, even if the previous misconceptions are proven wrong or inaccurate. The selfish gene is a theory only (a naive one imho), and should not be taken as a fact.

Deterministic theories like this has bring to us ideas like creationism, racism or the belief that the Earth is plain and the stars are glued to the ceiling. There is not enough proof to believe that genes are responsible for the 'goodness' or 'evilness' of people, while this have an influence just like many other things, most of the anthropological and psychological research that I have seen so far in regards to human/social behaviour and social moral point out that the decisive factor here is the environment.

Ok... but talking about the song, this song pretty much hits something deep in me, because I feel the same almost every day.

wish I could find this song too, because all I can find is live versions and the clapping annoys me
found it =)

Selfish gene assertion notwithstanding, regarding your second point: with a quick review of the medical literature you might be surprised to find that there is reasonable evidence to suggest that a number of genes are, in fact, associated with aggression, violence &c.  Personally, I’d favour a contribution from both genetic predisposition and environmental risk factors.  For a good review in a peer-reviewed journal with a relatively high IF:

Viding E. On the nature and nurture of antisocial behavior and violence. Ann NY Acad Sci. 2004;1036:267-77.