Half a Boy and Half a Man
	Produced by Nick Lowe with Colin Fairley and Paul Bass
	Released on May 1984
	UK CHART POSITION #53
	Find it at GEMM
XX 34 T cover [high resolution photo]

S omebody at F Beat came up with a cute line for the twelve-inch: Half a record at half the price. It’s not quite half an album in length, but it is printed on only one side. The second side of the 12-inch is blank save for Nick Lowe’s name carved (a little crudely) in the middle to resemble a profile. I can’t recall seeing this done on another record, so for me it’s something of a collectible. Which would ordinarily be the end of things, but today I’m introducing the concept of... toterdata. (I know, you’re thinking “How do I even pronounce that?” It’s a combination of today, yesterday and data, but pronounced like the German word “toter” in the beginning because, well, you’ll see.) According to this little concept of mine, if you were to plot the career of a musical artist using their discography (and chart positions and sales) on some sort of X-Y graph, you would have high points, low points and turning points (for better or worse). The “toterdata” would indicate where old and new material meet; in Nick Lowe’s case, on this 12-inch single. Unremarkable except for the fact that here, for the first time, new material from Nick Lowe is no longer seen as more desirable than old material. Thus we have our “toter" (or “dead man”) walking in his own shadow. I’m giving you the one-slide presentation here out of pity for Nick Lowe fans, but as discographical phenomena go toterdata are important as signposts of market saturation.

38 04486 wo. picture sleeve [high resolution scan]

TRACK LISTING

1. HALF A BOY AND HALF A MAN    (Nick Lowe)    2:54
2. AWESOME    (Nick Lowe/Profile)    2:48
   
   UK 12-inch single
   
1. HALF A BOY AND HALF A MAN    (Nick Lowe)
2. AWESOME    (Nick Lowe/Profile)
3. CRUEL TO BE KIND    (Nick Lowe)

CREDITS

Gregory Feick -- cover photograph
Chimp Carver -- design

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