5 Songs by Joe Jackson

Posting just because I find the line in the paragraph covering "Is She Really Going Out With Him" that "he was compared to everyone from Elvis Costello to Graham Parker" to be hilarious.

It's like saying "Chicken nuggets can be enjoyed by people who like everything from chicken fingers to chicken tenders!"

Not the five songs by Joe Jackson I would've picked, either.

[www.goldminemag.com]

Is one "Real Men?"

I'm not by any stretch the world's biggest or most knowledgeable Joe Jackson fan, but this is a completely demented and uncharacteristic selection of five songs.

What? This clown selects five songs as "characteristic" of Joe Jackson, and two of them are covers? Idiotic.

As a big fan, I'd hate to narrow JJ's widely varied output down to five songs (especially given that IMO, his first four albums are all killer, no filler). But if I had to, then I'd skip the more obvious selections (on the grounds that a casual listener probably already knows them) in favor of:

"Sunday Papers"
"The Band Wore Blue Shirts"
"Real Men"
"Down to London"
"The Invisible Man"

Ask me tomorrow, and I might suggest a different list.

Oh yeah, this guy’s list is ridiculous.

I like Delvin’s list… similar to him I was a fan at the offset and my top 5 would change daily.

Today it’s:

‘It’s Different for girls’
‘Biology’
‘Sunday papers’
‘Be my number two’
‘Breaking us in two’

I spent ALOT of time with the first three albums (no, wasn't really turned off by ‘beat crazy’) as a teen.

The energy of Look Sharp! is what hooked me onto his music. Outside of the MTV gems "Steppin' Out" and "Breaking Us In Two," I was sadly unaware of the rest of his catalogue until the early 90's, when I discovered two songs from Look Sharp! on an old A&M compilation. I bought the album on CD a few days later and still hold to this day the opinion it's one of the best debut's ever. Not quite New Wave and with jazz stylings, it was very new to me, at a time when my taste in musical styles was reaching new horizons.

If I could, I would nominate the entire album as his five best songs, it's a classic that everyone should have. That being said, and staying true to format, my top 5 would be:

1) Happy Loving Couples
2) Steppin' Out
3) Memphis
4) You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)
5) Nineteen Forever

I'm a bit surprised at myself that I didn't include "Happy Loving Couples" on my top five list. That's the first song I ever sang in front of an audience, so I have an undying soft spot for that one. (We ended that same gig with JJ's "Got the Time.")

I was playing Look Sharp! a couple of months back while I was preparing dinner and the song "Fools in Love" came on. My 20 year old daughter stopped what she was doing and came into the kitchen and asked who this was and I told her Joe Jackson and did the performative "I can't believe you don't know who Joe Jackson is" routine.

One of her favorite artists, Inara George, did a cover of this song in 2005 and she had no idea it was someone else's song. She went back and added some Joe Jackson to her spotify play list rotation and I catch the occasional Joe Jackson song playing from her bedroom from time to time. I feel proud that I am seeding the next generation. She has similarly picked up on Squeeze, XTC, Elvis Costello and The Clash from me in the past so this fit right in.

here is the Inara George cover and it's not bad. Apparently it was used on the TV show Greys Anatomy:

[youtu.be]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2024 11:54AM by jothoma.

Very nice indeed! My hat's off to your daughter, both for picking up on your taste and for surprising you with cool music (cover version or not).

JJ's live album Summer in the City includes a medley of "Fools in Love" and the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" that's well worth hearing.

I’ll butcher this in trying to verbalize it, but Joe’s gift at capturing being on the outside of relationships (by choice or not) is pretty great:

Happy loving couples
Fools in love
Geraldine and John
Is she really going out with him

So many good lines ‘pretty women out walking with gorillas’ ‘see the scar on his face from the day he met her brother’’are there any creatures more pathetic’etc etc

"Get That Girl"
"Somebody Up There"
"Be My Number Two"
"Soul Kiss"

Yeah, I hear ya, Bip.

breno Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Posting just because I find the line in the
> paragraph covering "Is She Really Going Out With
> Him" that "he was compared to everyone from Elvis
> Costello to Graham Parker" to be hilarious.

That is hilarious. It's like: The Adolescents were compared to everyone from Black Flag to the Circle Jerks!

I just really like "Got The Time." I don't have any other brilliant suggestions. But wasn't "Steppin Out" a pretty popular song, that should be included in any Joe Jackson essentials? Tho that goofy Iggy Pop duet mentioned in the article was amusing. (Ooh, just thought of another thread. Stand by...)