Joe Jackson: Blaze of Glory (1989)

A year or two before this record came out, I bought a CD player. When that happened, I paid less attention to records, and although I picked this up (somewhere), I didn't listen to it very much. That's probably too bad. Wikipedia's post about this record is very good, so maybe you should just read that.

Joe Jackson: Live 1980/86 (1988)

This is a double live LP from recorded in Melbourne, Utrecht, Manchester, Sydney, Tokyo, and Vancouver over four different tours. The record runs as follows:

Side A: The Beat Crazy Tour, 1980
Side B: The Night And Day Tour, 1982/83
Side C: The Body and Soul Tour, 1984
Side D: The Big World Tour, 1986

I guess it's worth noting that I have never seen Joe Jackson in concert. Again, this is a problem of having grown up in a small town. It sucked. In the early days, it was difficult to get hands on records, and bands never came to town. In later days, there was a small record store, but bands never came to town. I know I would have been happier in a big city, one where you could see concerts and where the record stores carried a wider array of artists. I remember having to travel to KW to find a Billy Bragg record.

In other news, Trump has won, and I find that to be simply incomprehensible.

Joe Jackson: Big World (1986)

Big World is an odd record. Firstly, it extends to three sides, with the fourth being blank, though there is one groove with nothing recorded on it. The way Jackson presented it was that it came with a bonus side, since the record cost the same as a regular record. Secondly, it's a live record with no audience noise. Jackson asked the crowd to remain silent until each song was completely over. I've read that he wanted to capture the spirit of the live recording without the audience participation. It's interesting that he invited people to attend, rather than just playing to an empty hall. Amazingly, it seems that no one coughed or opened a piece of candy wrapped in cellophane. Apparently, there were no re-recordings to fix anything and no overdubbing.

I have a vague memory of buying this record when it came out, after having heard two tracks: Wild West and Right and Wrong, two genuine political tunes. I'd say that this is a good record, and perhaps one that causal Joe Jackson fans probably don't know much about.

The LP that followed this record was Will Power, his foray into classical music. I was not interested in it, which is probably a good thing. Allmusic said this: "Joe Jackson finally becomes the "serious composer" on Will Power. A good exercise in self-indulgence but little of anything else."[source]

Joe Jackson: Body and Soul (1984)

My copy of Body and Soul has lots of sibilance, and I've read that this is a common fault with this record. It must have been cut hot. This production fault distracts from the record which is too bad because I really like this jazzy record. You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want) and Go For It are probably the most well-known tracks from the record.This is a very good record.

Joe Jackson: Mike's Murder - The Motion Picture Soundtrack (1983)

Apparently, this movie -- Mike's Murder -- sucks. The good news is that I have never seen it. Side one contains five pop songs, in the same vein as Night and Day, while side two is all instrumental. The five pop tunes from side one later appeared on the deluxe CD edition of Night and Day. According to Wikipedia, very little of Jackson's material ended up in the film, so I guess there is no reason to see it, unless you are a fan of Debra Winger or James Bridges, whoever he is. It also means that the subtitle (The Motion Picture Soundtrack) is misleading, to say the least.

This is a good record, but not as good as Night and Day, which is fine. The best track might just be Zémio, the 11+ minute instrumental.

Joe Jackson: Night and Day (1982)

In my ever-so-humble opinion, this is the best record that Joe Jackson ever made. It's also one of my favourite records of all time. I'd almost call it a masterpiece. The record contains Steppin' Out, one of the finest pop singles ever released. My first copy of this record was on cassette and I played it so much that the tape stretched and it became unplayable.

Of course, there is Jackson's weird take on Cancer:

Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Everything
Everything gives you cancer
There's no cure, there's no answer
Everything gives you cancer

On one level, that's fair enough, but then he says:

No caffeine
No protein
No booze or
Nicotine
Remember –

On the surface, this is also fair enough, since we know that tar is the cause of cancer not the drug nicotine. But, the primary medium for most people to use nicotine is smoking, and that is definitely cancerous. I wish he would just accept that he is an addict and dump the smoking apologies. But, back to the music.

There is not really a bad track on the record. I just wish the record was a bit longer. The weakest song might be T.V. Age, mostly because of his vocal delivery.  Steppin' Out, A Slow Song, and Real Men are highlights for me.

You don't want to sound dumb – don't want to offend
So don't call me a faggot
Not unless you are a friend
Then if you're tall and handsome and strong
You can wear the uniform and I could play along

Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive: Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive (1981)

Somehow, we have been saved from the ridiculousness of discogs overly-specific categorizations, meaning that this record is listed under Joe Jackson, despite the protestations of one person who made a comment that this release that it should listed be under Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive, as if that was the name of the band. I mean, maybe it was, but really?

Anyway, this record contains all cover versions of 1940s swing and jump blues (mostly from Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan), and it's really really catchy, though I remember being somewhat surprised by it and I avoided the record for a while thinking that I would not like it. When I finally picked it up, I found that I liked it. It's packed with energy.

Joe Jackson Band: Beat Crazy (1980)

Beat Crazy is credited to the Joe Jackson Band, rather than to Joe Jackson, so sure enough, Discogs lists it under the Joe Jackson Band. How stupid. I repeat, there should be uniform titles. Under this rule, Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive should be listed under the artist "Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive," not Joe Jackson, which it isn't. Someone screwed up, or they did it right, IMHO

I guess one could say that Joe left new wave and added lots of other musical styles, like reggae. This is a great LP, but not as great as the first two. I admire the guitar work on the title track, especially.

Beat Crazy, Biology, Pretty Boys are all great tunes. I'd say that Joe was three for three at this point.

Joe Jackson: I'm the Man (1979)

Right now
I think I'm gonna plan a new trend
Because the line on the graph's getting low
And we can't have that
And you think you're immune
But I can sell you anything
Anything from a thin safety pin
To a pork pie hat
Cause I got the trash and you got the cash
So baby we should get along fine
So give me all your money
Cause I know you think I'm funny
Can't you hear me laughing
Can't you see me smile

Look Sharp was released in early 1979. Somewhat surprisingly I'm the Man came out in October of 1979. I guess he had a lot to say in 1979. This record contains one of my favourite Joe Jackson tracks, the title cut, I'm the Man. That's simply a fantastic punk song, and the rest of the record is pretty good too.

Joe Jackson: Look Sharp! (1979)

"Is she really going out with him?"
- New Rose, The Damned (1976)

The first time I heard Joe Jackson's Is She Really Going Out With Him? I thought it was some sort of novelty song. I didn't take it seriously, nor did I like it very much. It wasn't until I heard the whole album that I understood what Joe Jackson was all about, and that might have been new wave or new wave punk, pseudo-ska, and -- later -- jazz and jump blues. Others might have labelled him a singer-songwriter or maybe alternative or simply pop.

This is a really great debut LP. But (or should I say "butt"?) I have to temper my appreciation for Mr. Jackson because of his crazy smoking ideas, as I have mentioned in the past. Here we have a seemingly intelligent individual spewing the most ridiculous anti-science. It's a good case of cognitive dissonance.

At some point or other, someone compared Joe Jackson with Elvis Costello. That had never occurred to me before, but I guess it makes some sense. Both were lyrically-interesting versatile new wave artists.

The good news is that after the catchy but bizarre, Is She Really Going Out With Him? there are some other truly great tracks, like Sunday Papers, Look Sharp, Got the Time, etc.

I am pretty sure that my sister bought a copy of the 7" 45RPM single of Is She Really Going Out With Him? Sometime after that, I picked up a copy of this record, and I remained a Joe Jackson fan for some time. That is, until he started dabbling in classical music, not that I dislike classical music. I just prejudged it and was never really interested at all. His career had trailed off by the point anyway.

Dirty Butts

Chances are that someone reading this post is a smoker. That's OK. You can smoke. I don't really care, unless you are polluting my air, as my mother did for my entire childhood. I have vivid memories of being ferried around in our car filled with smoke and being unable to roll down the window in winter. Our house stank of smoke. My clothes always stank of smoke. I hated it.

Now, I have a question for those of you who do smoke, and that is why do so many smokers flick their butts onto the ground? In my opinion, that is littering. I realize that not all smokers do this, but it is clear that many do, as evidenced by a photograph in The Fixer's column in yesterday's Toronto Star. Yup, that's a mound of disgusting cigarette butts. It can take up to 15 years for these butts to decay, and while they do, they release toxic crap. Worse, it seems to me that many smokers expect someone else to pick up after them. I would be very surprised if these same smokers throw their butts on their own property or leave them on their living room floors. Why do they think it's OK to throw them on the sidewalk?

At my place of employment, there are large "no smoking within so many feet" signs that absolutely no one pays any attention to. Smokers light up right under them, or they huddle in the doorways to the building and we non-smokers are forced to breathe in their foul effluence. And this, naturally, returns us to the question of second-hand smoke.

There was a time when I called myself a Joe Jackson fan. Those days are done. The man has his head up his ass if he thinks that second-hand smoke is harmless. His argument is an amazing display of intellectual collapse. It fails to cohere and he throws out opinions without any credible scientific fact to support them. Instead, he pokes holes in the articles that suggest that second-hand smoking is harmful, but this is done without sufficient scientific rigor. Mr. Jackson, if you want to attack the weight of the scientific evidence, you need a real study with real controls.

Jackson accuses those people advocating for a smoking ban in public spaces as being part of a "junk science bonanza"! Of course, this is all in defense of his addiction. Besides, even if it turns out that there is no conclusive proof that second-hand smoke is harmless (doubtful considering all of the chemicals in tobacco), I hate smelling like an ashtray after a night in the pub with friends. Thank god for the ban in Ontario. I am so happy that I can breath in bars and restaurants.

I worked as a bartender one summer during my undergrad and I swear the thick fog of smoke took years of my life. Mr. Jackson, if you are really pro-choice, as you say, then you would permit those who work in public places to have a choice too. I choose no smoke.