Endless Grey Ribbon

After going through all those videos from the 80's yesterday afternoon (yes my head feels much better now, thank you for inquiring) I was suddenly gripped with another mental image from that time period of a video that also seem to get a decent amount of airplay in 1983, although the song itself came out in 1979; Ummm um um.... a wedding in somebody's house? Some dude marrying Carlene Carter? Rockpile as the wedding band? Yes, of course I'm talking about the video to Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind", which in a way marked the first time when I was probably ever exposed to a visualized concept of a song that I had already heard previously on the radio, having actually seen this video slightly earlier than that summer when MTV rerouted my brain circuitry in that indelible manner. From all the times that I had heard that song as a kid I had never once pictured in my head pleasant matrimonial imagery being a part of that concept, which I suppose is why they went with it. And I guess that's why it's always sort of stuck with me all these years. I have never since been able to hear this song without the images from the video coming back to haunt me. Is that a good thing?

I saw Nick Lowe in concert when Joe booked him at the Nsect Club back in 1994 when he was touring in support for his slightly more countrified outing The Impossible Bird, but wound up getting him to autograph my copy of Labour Of Lust, considering the influence "Cruel To Be Kind" had on me as a wee sprat. And I know most of you have heard the track already but I'm just going to put it up here anyway as a sound file, just in case you don't want the imagery of the video link above affecting your deep lyrical appreciation of Teh Angst.

"Cruel To Be Kind" - Nick Lowe (m4a file)

File available for 7 days.