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Anyone into Joe Jackson?


gorch

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Although I have never come to buy any recording, I very much to hear him. Not a hitlist star, almost any serious musician gets to be found on his bands. The other day I stumbled onto Steve Vai’s homepage and scrolled through his dicography. I went there since our own 901gtr booked for the coming Vai clinics in January. There I saw a contribution of Vai with Joe on a Symphony No. 1 called project. Since I’m a fan of Vai’s classical movement, I thought that’s something worth to hunt for. So I did and the CD arrived and got spinned for the first round. Vai is perfectly immersing into the jazz symphony. Love that!

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I saw Joe last summer (with Mavis Staples opening).  He's a phenomenally talented artist, and his band rocks.  Graham Maby (his bassist) was a Hamer endorser in the '90s/early 00s, when he slung a 2TEK Cruisebass regularly.  We lucked into front row tickets from a friend, and although Joe's plastic surgery is a little disconcerting that close up, you kind of forget about it halfway into the opener.

Really a fantastic live show, and you almost forget how deep his catalog is.  "Look Sharp!" was always a favorite.

JJ and GM Wolf Trap.jpg

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Been a fan since the 80's. He's an artist that has never been afraid to branch out into different musical direction. I like to compare him to Elvis Costello, great songwriters/performers who are constantly challenging themselves. I finally got to see him in Cincy last summer and it was a phenomenal show. Pretty sure Graham Maby has been with him since the beginning. Read his autobiography for an even deeper appreciation of his history. 

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21 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

I saw Joe last summer (with Mavis Staples opening).  He's a phenomenally talented artist, and his band rocks.  Graham Maby (his bassist) was a Hamer endorser in the '90s/early 00s, when he slung a 2TEK Cruisebass regularly.  We lucked into front row tickets from a friend, and although Joe's plastic surgery is a little disconcerting that close up, you kind of forget about it halfway into the opener.

Really a fantastic live show, and you almost forget how deep his catalog is.  "Look Sharp!" was always a favorite.

JJ and GM Wolf Trap.jpg

                                                                                     And did he do this one.?

 

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Graham Maby is a beast. I kind of lost track of Jackson when he did the symphonic thing, but great lyricist, writer, arranger. Never had the melancholy or Burt Bacharach thing Costello did, so he never got the adulation of the hipsters, but I think he's in that league, along with Neil Finn and a few other real songwriters' songwriters.

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Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello are two of my all time favorite bands.  I have almost every album put out by them up until 1988 or so.  Not as interested in buying their forays into other music genres but usually enjoy anything I hear from them.

Haven't seen Joe Jackson live but did see Elvis a couple of times.  Great show.  I would have loved to see Joe Jackson for his any of the shows from his live 1980 - 1986 album LP.

This track is one of my favorites from that album.  The bass tracks are amazing on his records.

 

 

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He did a LOT of the material I wanted to hear from over the years.   "Look Sharp!" had so much great stuff on it, and that was well represented, but I knew almost everything they played.

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I was late to the Joe Jackson party, but I began appreciating his work about two years ago when I worked on Breaking Us in Two as a possible acoustic solo song. The lyrics on that one are clever and probably speak to a lot of people who have been in long term, not-quite-perfect relationships. I actually prefer his work to Costello's by a mile, but then, it was my impression (back in the '80s) that among the cool college crowd, one needed to pretend to like Elvis, regardless of whether the interest was genuine.

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Big JJ fan here. I like everything he's done, especially the branches into other styles.
"Joe Jackson's Jumping Jive" is a great time capsule of swing tunes.

Never really took to Elvis Costello. No reflection on him, I'm just wary of artists that everybody likes.

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I‘m surprised about how much I actually know about Jackson by the postings so far. Also like Costello very much. Here again, somehow, I never made it to buy a record from him.

Symphony had more spinning time today. I really like this kind of stuff.

As far as I know, Jackson tends to record live, asking the audience to be quiet until the end of the show. So, they can cut before the clapping. I think that’s remarkable!

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One thing that Joe Jackson and Costello both do which I am impressed by is to re-arrange their songs.  There are multiple quality sounding different versions of a lot of their songs.

Also both are excellent lyricists.

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This was always a favorite:

 

Graham Maby IS a beast!  One of a handful of players, like Herbie Flowers, who inspired me to become more competent at playing bass with a pick- when the song calls for it.  Love his attack and aggressive sound on this track.

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Another big JJ fan here.  Got all his stuff through "Body & Soul" (84-ish?), then lost track for several years.  Saw him live when he toured with Todd Rundgren 10-12 years ago. 

Graham Maby is a monster and, IMO, the secret ingredient to JJ's signature sound on Look Sharp and I'm The Man...

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I have his first two albums and Jumpin' Jive and love them all, and I like the songs I've heard from some of the other albums.  Thanks for the reminder - I think I'll listen a little deeper into his catalog and see what else I can find.

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I remember Steppin' out over all the years. Seems to be my favourite. It has this groovin bass line.

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I was a big fan through Joe Jackson's first five albums, but haven't been able to get into his later work. I saw him in Syracuse during the Night and Day tour, and his band was amazing. Graham Maby is great, and also has recorded and toured with Marshall Crenshaw, among others. 

In the late 70's, Jackson was often lumped in with Elvis Costello and Graham Parker as a trio of smart, literate, angry young British men. 

My favorite from each is: Look Sharp (Jackson), Imperial Bedroom (Costello), and The Mona Lisa's Sister (Parker)

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Exemplifies the difference between "artist" and "rock star", IMO. Always liked "Steppin' Out" but also dug the brooding/ethereal version of that tune on an apparently-somewhat-rare live album, which sounds like it's got a fretless bass on it. Owned the CD briefly but it was stolen.

Then there's "Mad At You", which I will still pull up on YouTube every once in a while when I need a nostalgic yock; it still cracks me up, and one guy who left a comment described it as "the soundtrack to my failed marriage":

 

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On 12/22/2017 at 12:41 PM, killerteddybear said:

"Joe Jackson's Jumping Jive" is a great time capsule of swing tunes.

That is my favorite Joe Jackson album. He put that out way before the Jump & Swing craze in the 90's which makes his release even cooler. 

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