Entertainment For Lively Minds
Joe Jackson - Legend
I think I was about 9 when I first heard Is she really.... and it just, as they say, grabbed me. As I grew up, he was always there or thereabouts in my affections, but always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Bowie outranked him, as The Smiths and later The Stone Roses would also eventually do. But Joe was always there, despite never being the artist I'd announce myself as being a fan of.
However, on a recent Joe binge on Spotify, it struck me what an utterly amazing body of staggeringly varied work the man has to his name: from the angular, articulate and snarling post-punk tunes, through jazz, the classical stuff - including the exquisite Night Music (I've been kicking myself for not name-checking it in the Perfect Album thread.)from which this gem comes.(The Man who wrote Danny Boy)
Then there are the recent standout albums: Volume 4, Night and Day 2 (THE best 'New Yoik' album if you're travelling there) and even Rain.
Never seen the man live, never met him, not sure if I'd want to, don't know what he'd be like, but I'd be a very happy forty something to see him do something like this in a theatre somewhere. One man. A piano. A
very under-rated voice and two of the most beautiful songs to come out of these islands.
So,that's all I want to say. I LOVE Joe Jackson. He's made my life happier.
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Hear hear
If I listened to only one artist for the rest of my life it would be Joe Jackson. Indeed, I'd be perfectly happy choosing 8 songs for my Desert Island and hearing nothing again but those.
Oh, and the two you posted
Would be amongst the 8.
Well Matthew
All I can say is that you are a man of singular good taste and refinement!
A truly fine musician
Night and Day was always the best album to listen to when I got bored with my NWOBHM leanings as a teenager.
I loved this:
Yes!
I think JJ is terrific, and as you say his eclectic body of work is invariably excellent. I especially love "Night and day" but they are all superb. His comeback tour with the original JJ Band was one of the best gigs I've seen.
He lives just round the corner from me.
I bump into him in Waitrose sometimes.
Odd-looking bloke. But he plays a fine tune. My favourite is probably Real Men.
Odd-Looking Bloke
In 1980 Joe Jackson appeared on a Radio 1 show called Star Special. This was a series of two hour shows where a star guest would play their favourite records and talk about them.
On his show Joe played a track by Secret Affair who were quite a happening sort-of mod revival band at the time. I'm paraphrasing Joe here, but he said something like this about Ian Page, the Secret Affair singer: "He's the only bloke I know who's taller, skinnier and more insipid-looking than me".
When you next see him....
....point him in the direction of the Word "management" - would be great to hear him on a podcast...
He's probably my favourite...
...British artist. My norm is generally North American singer songwriters...almost all guitarists.
Don't forget Graham Maby, his bass player....he made the groove on all the early albums.
I wish he'd do a country album....Costello did it way back then and maybe he doesn't want to seem like a copyist??
He's The Man!
Couldn't agree more...
... one of the few artists that I have most albums - I think all I'm missing is the Tucker soundtrack (I'll have to go digging in the darker recesses of the web as its not available on Amazon).
Probably couldn't decide which is his best album, but special mentions for Big World (with the aforementioned Hometown) and the Two Rainy Nights Live album (which also has a sublime version of Hometown ;-)).
Never seen him live, but would love two rectify that.
Hometown
That jangly guitar part completely defeats me. Anyone know how to play it? Fab song.
Another Joe fan here
This is absolutely the best driving-at-night track ever from the fabulous World Tour.
Yup, a legend.
Saw him live a couple of years ago. He did a show with Todd Rundgren and a string quartet. The six of them did a truly rocking version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps which was stunning.
Saw him live in Melbourne 1995
Perfect
And note his live album from 1986 when at his (earlier) Melbourne concert he introduced "Real Men" as being dedicated to the recent exploits of the australian wallabies rugby union teams "incredible triumph" at the 1984 grand slam - England, wales, Scotland and northern Ireland - stunned silence follows - er, Joe, they don't play or follow rugby in Melbourne - but they loved the song
Book
His autobiography is good too.
Joe Jackson: the ONLY artist ever...
...to do anything good with 'that 80s drum sound'. And one of the few acts to make great albums throughout the 80s. He's having fun here in this clip miming 'Blaze Of Glory' (from the fabulous album of that name) on a Dutch TV show, wearing Eric Morecambe's old raincoat. The song may seem to drag on but stick with it, he's a clever arranger, and the way it builds towards the end with the brass section and the fading refrain is brilliant. Sometimes his lyrics can seem gauche or simplistic, as here, but somehow his confidence and chutzpah - spitting them out like they really say something important - always brings you along with him...
Nice clip
From one of the more underrated albums. If you don't look too closely, his band appears to be a stellar bunch - Johnny Marr on keys, Philip Glenister on bass, the Hep on tele and Edge on drums (OK, I'm pushing it here).
The four-piece band is still may favourite period (I caught the reunion tour in Pompey and they were fab), but he seems capable of turning his hand to most things. The autobiography's great too - and no ghostwriter IIRC. Would he do the podcast?
A Slow Song
This is probably my favorite Joe Jackson song:
That moment that the whole song builds to, where it feels like he's almost shouting at the end:
And I get tired of dj’s
Why’s it always what he plays
I’m gonna push right through
I’m gonna tell him to
Tell him to
Play us
Play us a slow song
It manages to be both funny and incredibly romantic.