The Holmes Brothers' rendition is certainly interesting, and while Mr. Lowe may feel that these artists have best captured the message he was trying to convey when he wrote the song (or the message that he wants the song to have today), the fact is that it is ultimately the audience who decides which version is preferable. Take Smokey Robinson - do you prefer the Miracles' version of "Going to a Go-Go," or the Rolling Stones' version? Do you prefer Smokey's "Tears of a Clown," or the English Beat's version from the early 1980's? What about "Blinded by the Light" - the vast majority of the radio listening public probably doesn't even know that the song was written and originally performed by Bruce Springsteen!

"The journalist writes down the things he remembers
The things he forgets are things that you feel"

- Wrong Again (Let's Face it) by Rockpile

Oh, so it's like that? (o) (o)

lol well you did not forget two things that I do feel often ;) haha

OK JOSH, (assuming Super Vixen stance) let's just say that within the classically cantilevered mammaries and tumescent intellect beats the heart of a very loyal Nick Lowe fan one whom this very morning, in little more than periwinkle corset and baby blue stilettos, was belting out most of Lowe's "Impossible Bird" while sashaying about the conservatory and who wishes to express pointed but nurturing umbrage regarding the following :

"as a songwriter and performer he is and shall forever be underappreciated. Fine as his new album At My Age may be, it’s not going to win him new or younger fans. Things might have been different if he could have recorded a handful more like Cruel to be Kind, for our money his best song."

My good man, that's the Elgar of Post Punk himself, in this wicked world dominated by High School Musical swill, Nick Lowe just can't be dumbed down for the masses, it was hard enough to do that when there actually was some comparable music on the airwaves aside from his, but now?

So to paraphrase Zman from "Beyond The valley of The Dolls" : me thinks this brew of Nick Lowe's opinions is not for the record industry's more delicate sensibilities!

and as for the song being a rant at "70's nihilism?" I thought the punk's were the nihilists? The hippies were working on getting Chez Panisse off the ground and 100 dollar plates back then, correct.

Elvis' version is like a time machine and it's his signature song but does it REALLY intimate the message like three older lyrical soul craftsmen can? I was not entirely sure so I asked my dear friend and 25 year veteran music store owner and curator for www.popsiephotos.com, Cliff Malloy, who was fifteen when Armed Forces was released what he thought. Cliff writes:

"I agree with Mr. Lowe wholeheartedly, if you study the lyrics, it takes on a whole different meaning coming from the elder statesman of music as opposed to the angry young man that Elvis was when the song was first released in 1979. Really listen to the words to that song and you'll know it SHOULD come through via a bunch of world weary performers who survived the 60's, the civil rights movement and just life itself. The Holmes Brothers give it the authenticity and intensity that a 25 year British kid can't quite capture.
True the song is Elvis's signature and to me "Armed Forces" is his watermark in that New wave sound that can't be duplicated (and that Nick Lowe essentially helmed) but the words, so all important, ring truest through the Holmes brother's."

I think that after watching both versions that I would go with Mr.Lowe and put my money on the Holmes. Elvis kicks ass and visually he's a revelation even 28 years on, but he's not really communicating the message, in a way he makes it sound funny, so funny that when I envision thousands of punk/new wave wannabe suburban kids covering it and going home to their SUVs and guitars that mommy and daddy bought the lyrics are ahem, lost in translation.

Mighty like bra,

Super Amanda

"The journalist writes down the things he remembers
The things he forgets are things that you feel"

- Wrong Again (Let's Face it) by Rockpile

Oh, so it's like that? (o) (o)

lol well you did not forget two things that I do feel often ;) haha

OK JOSH, (assuming Super Vixen stance) let's just say that within the classically cantilevered mammaries and tumescent intellect beats the heart of a very loyal Nick Lowe fan one whom this very morning, in little more than periwinkle corset and baby blue stilettos, was belting out most of Lowe's "Impossible Bird" while sashaying about the conservatory and who wishes to express pointed but nurturing umbrage regarding the following :

"as a songwriter and performer he is and shall forever be underappreciated. Fine as his new album At My Age may be, it’s not going to win him new or younger fans. Things might have been different if he could have recorded a handful more like Cruel to be Kind, for our money his best song."

My good man, that's the Elgar of Post Punk himself, in this wicked world dominated by High School Musical swill, Nick Lowe just can't be dumbed down for the masses, it was hard enough to do that when there actually was some comparable music on the airwaves aside from his, but now?

So to paraphrase Zman from "Beyond The valley of The Dolls" : me thinks this brew of Nick Lowe's opinions is not for the record industry's more delicate sensibilities!

and as for the song being a rant at "70's nihilism?" I thought the punk's were the nihilists? The hippies were working on getting Chez Panisse off the ground and 100 dollar plates back then, correct.

Elvis' version is like a time machine and it's his signature song but does it REALLY intimate the message like three older lyrical soul craftsmen can? I was not entirely sure so I asked my dear friend and 25 year veteran music store owner and curator for www.popsiephotos.com, Cliff Malloy, who was fifteen when Armed Forces was released what he thought. Cliff writes:

"I agree with Mr. Lowe wholeheartedly, if you study the lyrics, it takes on a whole different meaning coming from the elder statesman of music as opposed to the angry young man that Elvis was when the song was first released in 1979. Really listen to the words to that song and you'll know it SHOULD come through via a bunch of world weary performers who survived the 60's, the civil rights movement and just life itself. The Holmes Brothers give it the authenticity and intensity that a 25 year British kid can't quite capture.
True the song is Elvis's signature and to me "Armed Forces" is his watermark in that New wave sound that can't be duplicated (and that Nick Lowe essentially helmed) but the words, so all important, ring truest through the Holmes brother's."

I think that after watching both versions that I would go with Mr.Lowe and put my money on the Holmes. Elvis kicks ass and visually he's a revelation even 28 years on, but he's not really communicating the message, in a way he makes it sound funny, so funny that when I envision thousands of punk/new wave wannabe suburban kids covering it and going home to their SUVs and guitars that mommy and daddy bought the lyrics are ahem, lost in translation.

Mighty like a bra,

Super Amanda

Oops I posted twice. I guess it's more of that subconsciouses twins stuff...

Good point about where Lowe might have been where he wrote it but my instincts think his message may have been the same as today.

It's funny that you mention the Stones cover "Going To A Go Go" from 1982's "Still Life" because it was once my most favorite song and yes, the first time I had ever heard it I did not know it was a Smokey somg as was, I'm a bit ashamed to admit this, The Black Crowes doing "Hard to Handle" by Otis (I was young when that came out) and OF COURSE Dave Edmunds/Rockpile's cover of Elvis Costello himelf's "Girl's Talk" Dave Marsh wrote that it not only bested the original but that it's perhaps thee best all time cover. All three of the above covers are insanely good.

But, "What's So Funny" occupies more than just a stellar niche in the cover genre department, it's OTHER cover version by someone named Curt Stigers who performed it for of all things "The Bodyguard Soundtrack" ended up netting Lowe gazillions in royalties! Amusingly, Lowe said he still can't figure out when the song plays in the film!

"What's So Funny" and all it's incarnations will undoubtedly be a subject scholar debate and bosomy bloggettes for years to come as it's just "one of those songs", like "My Generation" , "American Pie" or "Louie Louie."

Josh you kicked off a great discussion which I'm sure is not over amongst music fans and performers alike!