Joe Jackson
Description
Joe Jackson is a singer, songwriter, composer, and performer who has twisted and turned his career through numerous genres and continues to release excellent albums forty years after his initial breakthrough success. For some he's the angsty young man, forever hitched to two hit singles; 'Is She Really Going Out with Him?', and 'It's Different for Girls'. Other memories may extend further to include the smooth pop gems of 'Steppin' Out' and 'Breaking Us in Two' from the early 1980s. By the 1990s he had apparently faded from the spotlight. Stardom has never seemed to be Jackson's central ambition; he's been happier to follow his muse. There is more, so much more to this gifted musician, and this book covers every facet of a brilliant, unpredictable, and fearsomely independent recording career. From new wave successes, via unexpected covers albums, film soundtracks, and impressive conceptual works, to classical compositions, his recorded output is interspersed with a catalogue of great songs always written with intelligence and verve. Jackson is a constant musical explorer. For those who have stayed the course, this book charts his every port of call so far; if you are unfamiliar but want to know more, jump onboard. You won't regret it.
Richard James immersed himself in music as soon as he got his first real six-string at the age of ten. Previously chained to a desk for a living, he broke free, armed with a music degree from the Open University and a Licentiate Diploma in Classical Guitar from the Royal School of Music, and proceeded to roam the East Midlands as a freelance guitarist and music teacher. He lives with his wife in Leicestershire, UK, and when not involved with music, he enjoys foreign travel and playing chess badly.
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Content
Look Sharp!
Personnel:
Joe Jackson: vocals, piano, harmonica
Gary Sanford: guitar
Graham Maby: bass
Dave Houghton: drums
Recorded at Eden Studio, London, W14
Produced by David Kershenbaum
Engineer: 'Hot' Rod Hewison
Assistant Engineer: Aldo Bocca
All songs written and arranged by Joe Jackson
Released: January 1979 on A&M Records
Highest chart positions UK: 40, USA: 20
Recorded in August 1978, and released six months later, Jackson's debut album sought to capture a spontaneous sound. Reminiscing about the album on his website Jackson concluded:
What can anyone say about something they did so long ago?! I'm not embarrassed by it, or not by most of it, anyway. It positively reeks of London 1978-79 and, well, it is what it is. I'm glad people liked it, and still like it, though I think some of that is nostalgia and a tendency to romanticise peoples' first albums, as though later ones must somehow be less 'authentic'. For a first album, this one's not bad, but I was only 23 when I made it and it would be pretty weird if I didn't think I'd done better things since.
The album could easily have been called 'Sound Sharp!' The songs breathe energy, attitude, melody, and a recording style which leaves plenty of space for the music to breathe. Despite his eclectic musical background and academic instruction, Jackson was, at this stage, clearly impressed with the 'new wave' movement of the time; his songs echo the energy and simplicity of the style, allied to the outspoken tone of the lyrics. Jackson was adept at incorporating these influences and, if he was sailing under the flag of 'new wave', it was a style which was a good fit for the time.
What reviewers at the time mistakenly took for pseudo-punk disgust was Jackson's tongue-in-cheek attitude; he had served his time in a variety of musical ventures in show business, and his sardonic, intelligent, lyrical commentary supported by razor sharp songs, arrangements and performances served up an intoxicating blend of talent, attitude, and potential.
Look Sharp! was re-released in 2001 with two bonus tracks; 'Don't Ask Me' and 'You Got the Fever' which were the B-sides of the single releases of 'One More Time' and 'Is She Really Going Out With Him?' respectively.
'One More Time' (3.15)
In A Cure for Gravity Jackson recalled;
I [...] worked on a song called 'One More Time', with a driving guitar riff and anguished lyrics about the end of a relationship. The guy can't believe the girl wants to leave: tell me one more time, he says, one more time, one more time. I'd taken a little piece of my breakup with Jill, one moment, one feeling, and embellished it into something else. I guess that's how fiction works: not creating something false but creating new truths out of bits of old ones. Just as we create new music by endlessly reshuffling the same old chords and scales.
What sounds like it should be a typical 'band encore' song judging by the title is anything but. The first track of this punchy debut is an unconventional 'end of relationship' song where the arrangement of the guitar, bass, and drum playing adds much to the relatively sparse, highly energetic musical texture.
Opening with an aggressive guitar sequence (which will underscore the chorus) together with a driving high bass line and syncopated drums, Jackson immediately lays the emotional landscape wide open; 'Tell me one more time as I hold your hand that you don't love me, Tell me one more time as teardrops start to fall. Shout it to me and I'll shout it to the skies above me, that there was nothing after all'. Uncredited backing vocals (which must be a combination of Sanford, Maby, and Houghton) raise the energy level for the pre-chorus which builds into a full-on chorus with Maby's high register semi-quaver based bass line prominent.
The second verse emphasises the narrator's vulnerability; 'Tell me one more time we never had a thing in common. Tell me one more time as you turn and face the wall. Tell me I should know you never were my kind of woman. And tell me we were fools to fall'.
Where the listener may reasonably expect an instrumental section the third verse appears instead with staccato, syncopated chords for the first two lines; 'Tell me one more time your tears were only sad confusion, and tell me it's just been so long and that is all'. Full throttle is applied for the remainder of the verse.
The final chorus is repeated, with the second play-through building on the energy level. Maby wears his fingers out, and Houghton hits his drums very hard indeed as this fine opener comes to an abrupt end. The only real criticism of the song is that the tempo feels too controlled, and when performed in a live setting the full raw energy of the composition and the band would be unleashed to better effect.
'Sunday Papers' (4.20)
Set against a cheery reggae backing, Jackson's scathing commentary on the tabloid press of the late 1970s is equally relevant decades later, where 'every weekend through the door, come words of wisdom from the world outside.' Jackson's sardonic, biting vocal delivery is especially effective throughout with outstanding lines including 'Whatever moves beyond these walls, she'll know the facts when Sunday comes along' and 'Well, I've got nothing against the press, they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true.'
The catchy chorus is equally crushing; 'Sunday papers, don't ask no questions. Sunday papers don't get no lies. Sunday papers don't raise objections. Sunday papers ain't got no eyes', with backing vocals joining in on the title words.
Musically this is Maby's showcase; his bass lines are melodic and prominent in the mix, with Sanford and Houghton providing a solid rhythmic backdrop. After the second chorus, Jackson supplies a mournful harmonica solo to which an effective delay has been added. After a final chorus, the song enters its final stretch with a furious double-time section leading to the fade with repeated 'Sunday papers'.
'Is She Really Going Out With Him?' (3.33)
Interviewed in Beat Instrumental in October 1979 Jackson spoke about his first hit single;
There were about three different ideas that went into it. One was that I heard The Damned doing 'New Rose' and it starts off with 'Is She Really Going Out With Him?', and I thought 'Where have I heard that before?', and it was on that Shangri-Las record 'Leader of the Pack. I thought that that was a pretty good title for a song, and it appeared to me that it should be a song about gorgeous girls walking around with really hideous blokes and obviously it was going to be a humorous song.
It's the definitive outsider anthem, reaching number 13 in the UK singles chart in July 1979, and only just failing to crack the American top twenty. 'Is She Really Going Out With Him?' is a familiar gem packed with all Jackson's strong cards; clever, withering lyrics, a memorable melody, and a universal chorus for anyone who just can't understand what attracts certain women to certain men.
Lyrically there is plenty to enjoy; 'Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street', 'Tonight's the night when I go to all the parties down my street, I wash my hair and I kid myself I look real smooth', and 'They say that looks don't count for much if so there goes your proof'. Musically the texture is kept sparse with plenty of space, and some occasional piano, especially in the chorus.
The chorus is as excellent as it is heartfelt, and the bridge (2.13-2.46) turns up the aggression; 'But if looks could kill, there's a man there who's marked down as dead, cos I've had my fill, listen you, take your hands off her head, I get so mean around this scene' before subsiding back into the relaxed reggae backing. There's a final defiant chorus, and an understated, regretful coda section ('Something going wrong around here') before a surprise stabbed ending on the third beat of the final bar.
In A Cure for Gravity Jackson commented on the song's appeal;
Everyone liked it. It was catchy, they said, and had the makings of a hit. I wouldn't know a hit, I protested, from a hole in my head. I liked all my songs, and if I'd written a hit, it was by accident. But I appreciated the enthusiasm, and something else, too: a growing feeling that I was Onto Something.
'Happy Loving Couples' (3.08)
Another song with a strong reggae undertow soon shows its 'new wave' pop rock style in the chorus as Jackson once again offers a sarcastic commentary on 'happy loving couples' who make it 'look so easy' and 'talk so kind'. Lyrically the track doesn't get off to the most impressive of starts where the first verse rhymes 'girl' and 'world' in the best Sixth Form poetry tradition. However it soon develops, especially in the powerful pre-chorus; 'But the things that you see...
