Fourth in a series of three
Curating my “Lowest Common Denominator” anthology, I found plenty of music related (directly or tenuously) to my surname, Lowe. Enough to fill more than the three CDs I ended up producing.
I wanted the collection to reflect the diversity — stylistic, geographic, temporal, and otherwise — of my musical family. But I had to draw the line somewhere. With due respect to those cousins I excluded, I wanted the songs to be good ones. Or at least for their creators to have interesting stories.
But there is also material I excluded either because I overlooked it in my own collection or because I hadn’t discovered it yet. My research wasn’t quite obsessive enough, evidently, to turn up some true gems. In the time since I finalized the physical collection, a few of them have found me.
Below, I give some of these rejects and latecomers a new, digital-only opportunity to join the family.
Lowdown | Boz Scaggs
William Royce “Boz” Scaggs played with Steve Miller in the 1960s and had a lackluster solo career until a rogue DJ turned this album cut into a hit in 1976. With lyrics describing the archetypal foolish lover and performances from future members of Toto, “Lowdown” registers a whopping 94.5 on the Yachtski Scale. So smooth!
I Wish | Skee-Lo
Rappers tend not to be whimsical and self-deprecating. In 1995, when gangstas ruled the charts, this minor hit from Skee-Lo (real name Antoine Roundtree) was a breath of fresh air.
Seeds of the Desolate | Solitude Aeturnus
This doom metal epic comes from a 1992 release by the band from Arlington, Texas. Their singer is Robert Lowe, who has performed with a number of heavy music groups.
Sweet and Low | Fugazi
How could I have forgotten that one of my all-time favorite bands recorded an instrumental named after the artificial sweetener? Not their best work, but worthy of inclusion.
Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac | Dizzy Gillespie
I tip my hat to a listener for hipping me to this 1967 jazz take on the 19th-century spiritual that closed out Disc One.
Cage the Songbird | The Low Anthem
Not to be confused with the Elton John song about Edith Piaf. The Low Anthem is a folk/Americana outfit founded in 2006 by a couple of Brown University students. This track is from their second album.
Monsters | All Time Low
This track by the Maryland power pop group, featuring the rapper Blackbear, was No. 1 for 18 weeks in 2020 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart. A remix featuring Demi Lovato was released at the end of the year. The band claims to have taken its name from the lyrics of a song by pop-punk band New Found Glory — but we know better.
BBC World TV Mix | David Lowe
English composer and producer David Lowe (b. 1959) is best known for creating theme music for BBC News. The instrumentals were so popular the Beeb released some of them on CD in 2001.
Only the Strongest Will Survive | Hurricane #1
Formed in Oxford, this group fronted by guitarist and singer Alex Lowe was another part of the Britpop craze of the mid-1990s. This song, the title track from the band’s second album, reached No. 19 on the U.K. Singles Chart in 1998.
The Widor Toccata | Roger Lowe
I’m a sucker for modern reinterpretations of classical music. This prog rock version of the final movement of Charles-Marie Widor’s Symphony for Organ No. 5 (1879) was created in 2003 by Roger Lowe, a composer and church organist from North Carolina. “I grew up wishing ELP or some similar band would cover this,” Roger writes on his YouTube channel.
Speak Low | Kurt Weill
It was inevitable: Just days after I finished burning CDs, I heard this perfect example at an open mic in Brattleboro. Performed by the composer in 1943, this song has lyrics by the poet Ogden Nash.
Toxic | Michael Lowenstern
You may not have realized before now that you needed a “clarinet choir” rendition of Britney Spears’s greatest song. Michael Lowenstern makes goofs like this, as well as serious instructional videos, on YouTube. Primarily a bass clarinetist, his background is in performing with various New York avant-garde ensembles, including with luminaries Steve Reich and John Zorn.
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