Joe Jackson – Live 1979
Introduction
In January 1979 Joe Jackson debuted with Look Sharp!, a classic example of English new-wave. To Jackson’s annoyance he was labeled as part of the “angry young men”, a label he didn’t identify with.
Joe Jackson
David Ian Jackson was born on August 11, 1954, in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. When he was 16 years old he started playing the piano in local bars and won a grant for the Royal Academy of Music in Londen. At age 20 he legally changed his name to Joe Jackson.
His first band broke up in 1976 after having released two (unsuccessful) singles. Meanwhile Jackson had begun writing his own material and decided he wanted to demo his songs. To make money he toured with the cabaret Koffee ‘n’ Kream. Late 1977/early 1978 he had saved up enough money, so he recorded his demos with his newly formed Joe Jackson Band in a studio in Portsmouth.
The demo ended up with producer David Kershenbaum, who was excited about what he heard. He was employed at record company A&M and he got Joe Jackson signed there in August 1978. The first thing Jackson and his band did was re-record every song on the demo in a professional studio. Within a week and a half that task was fulfilled. In June 1979 Jackson said “A lot of the tracks are first takes and there are no overdubs”.
Joe Jackson – Look Sharp!
Look Sharp!
In January 1979 (the exact date of the release is unknown) Joe Jackson’s debut album, Look Sharp!, was released. The press loved it and Jackson was immediately labeled as a new-wave representative and was frequently compared to Graham Parker and Elvis Costello (who had just released his great third album, Armed Forces).
When people first started comparing me to Elvis Costello, I thought it was fair enough – they’ve got to compare me to someone. But then it continued a bit too long and I got really pissed off. Then I got bored with it, and now I’m getting annoyed with it again. It’s just that there’s no one else they can compare me to. It’s a very superficial comparison, I think. If you’ve ever met Costello, you’d see that we’re two totally different people. I find him pretty offensive. Graham Parker I really like. I think he’s very genuine. I don’t think Costello is.
Joe Jackson, College Media Journal, 06/15/1979
Maybe Jackson has a different view nowadays, but the sentiment he expresses here is understandable. Jackson distinguished himself as well. His humor in particular was infectious. His lyrics were drenched in cynicism and black irony, which both of the other gentlemen didn’t (know how to) use.
Both the singles and the album struggled at first, but slowly momentum was growing and building. When the single Is She Really Going Out With Him? was re-released in July 1979, this time around it did become a hit, in the US also, and album sales went up considerably. Also, the Joe Jackson Band also gained a lot of fans with their energetic live performances.
Musically, Look Sharp! perfectly fits the era of late 1970s England, and the label new-wave isn’t that far off, even though Jackson made a serious effort to present himself in a different way.
I was really into classical music, as it happens. I was a slightly odd teenager.
…
[On punk] At first I thought, this is ridiculous. I used to really laugh at it. I thought it was really funny. The Damned, I thought, were great, they were the first punk band that I got into because they seemed so outrageous. They were totally over the top. And then I saw the Clash, and they made me realize… they really mean it, these people. That was a definite influence.
…
I want to get right away from all that macho shit, but at the same time I don’t want to do the Elvis Costello god-I’ve-been-hurt-in-love thing either, even though songs like that do try to put forward a realistic approach to relationships. I think my songs are all the songs of a survivor rather than cultivated hostility.
New Musical Express, Charles Shaar Murray, 1979
And his love for reggae was very obvious indeed.
Early Bob Marley turned me on to that, then I got more and more into it, and over the past few years I’ve been totally immersed in it. If I put on a record at home, nine out of ten times it’s a reggae record.
Joe Jackson, College Media Journal, 06/15/1979
Joe Jackson – Look Sharp! – Tour poster
Music and lyrics
One More Time immediately sets the tone for the album and is a great introduction. Energetic guitar, bass and drums and Jackson spitting his lyrics into the microphone.
I bought a cheap secondhand upright piano and worked on it, with a driving guitar riff and anguished lyrics. The guy can’t believe the girl wants to leave: ‘Tell me one more time.’ I’d taken a little piece of my breakup, one moment, one feeling, and embellished it into something else.
A Cure for Gravity (biography), Joe Jackson, 2000
Reggae and new-wave, but not ska, but still very exciting, Sunday Papers is a song about the influence of the sleazy press, which started to rear its ugly head in England at the time. Nowadays, almost everyone understands the destruction the Murdoch empire has brought to independent journalism. An ironic Jackson: “I got nothing ‘gainst the press / They wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t true”.
Even though the single was released twice, Is She Really Going Out With Him? was an instant classic.
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.
A Cure for Gravity (biography), Joe Jackson, 2000
The opening line is an immediate hit, “Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street”, a line that’s not just funny, but recognizable as well. Somewhat later Jackson sings “Here comes Jeanie with her new boyfriend / They say that looks don’t count for much / And so there goes your proof”. It’s still the song most people associate Jackson with the most.
Happy Loving Couples is not what the title implies, “Those happy couples ain’t no friends of mine”, and yet there’s that twist again, because “Being kind to myself till I become one of two of a kind” is the ideal in the end. Side 1 is closed off with Throw It Away, a rocking tune.
Side 2 opens with Baby Stick Around, a rocker, followed by the album’s title song. Latin rhythms are already present on the debut album, something Jackson would explore in depth on the extremely successful 1982 album Night And Day. Look Sharp! even has a drum solo!
Fools In Love is almost pure reggae and is among the best music Jackson ever recorded: “Fools in love / They think they’re heroes / ‘Cause they get to feel more pain / I say fools in love are zeros / I should know / I should know because this fool’s in love again”. Beautiful!
Before Jackson started making music he briefly worked in a shop. (Do The) Instant Mash portrays his (unsuccessful) dealings in that job: “It drives you crazy, sends you screaming for the door”. The album doesn’t get more 1960s than on Pretty Girls. The exciting closer Got The Time races by at blistering speed. Great song.
Joe Jackson – Look Sharp! – 10″ gatefold
Cover
The album cover contains a photograph by Brian Griffin, who stated “I asked Joe to stand in the sunlight. I then took my Olympos OM1 camera and pressed the shutter. This is truly the easiest and most famous album cover that I have ever shot.” Jackson would never again work with the photographer again, who thought Jackson “was so upset that his first album cover was his shoes”.
The cover was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Recording Package, but wouldn’t win. The cover is placed at position 22 in Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 greatest album covers of all time”.
Look Sharp! was also released as a limited edition (15,000 copies) 10″ double album, including a gatefold cover. The release contained a button and is a collector’s item.
Review
I bought the album not long after its initial release and adored it. For this article I re-listened to Look Sharp! a couple of times and it still holds up very well indeed. The band sounds as if they’re fully tuned in to each other and professional, filled with power and conviction. Which is quite remarkable, as the band didn’t play together that long.
Besides, the songs are very well crafted and possess more of a pop feel than the era’s regular new-wave. Jackson’s humor is a contributing factor as well. But not everything works that well. Throw It Away and (Do The) Instant Mash are somewhat interchangeable when compared to the other songs on the album.
Look Sharp! is a brilliant debut by a singer, composer, who would go on to release many great records during the 1980s. Look Sharp! is required listening.
Joe Jackson – Look Sharp! – Singles
Singles
No less than 4 singles were culled from the album, which is a lot considering the fact it was a debut album.
- Is She Really Going Out with Him?
(released in October 1978) - Sunday Papers
(released in February 1979) - One More Time
(released on May 18, 1979) - Fools in Love
(released in June 1979, Netherlands only)
As the album gained momentum, Is She Really Going Out With Him? was re-released as a single in July 1979, which turned out to be successful this time around.
Joe Jackson – Look Sharp! – Back cover
Songs
All songs written by Joe Jackson.
- One More Time
- Sunday Papers
- Is She Really Going Out With Him?
- Happy Loving Couples
- Throw It Away
- Baby Stick Around
- Look Sharp!
- Fools In Love
- (Do The) Instant Mash
- Pretty Girls
- Got The Time
In 2001 the album was remastered and expanded with two extra songs, both B-sides of initial single releases: Don’t Ask Me and You Got The Fever.
Joe Jackson Band 1979 (fltr: David Houghton, Gary Sanford, Joe Jackson, Graham Maby)
Musicians
- Joe Jackson – vocals, piano, harmonica
- Gary Sanford – guitar
- Graham Maby – bass
- David Houghton – drums
After Look Sharp!
In the same year as the debut, its successor, I’m The Man, was released, which Jackson himself characterized as “Look Sharp! Part Two”. One year later Beat Crazy was released and the Joe Jackson Band subsequently disbanded. In 1981 Jackson released a jazz album (Jumpin’ Jive), one year later followed by his most successful album Night And Day.
In 2003 the original Joe Jackson Band reconvened and released the great Volume 4 album, a fine last album for the first backing band Joe Jackson had.
Joe Jackson – Look Sharp! – Test pressing
Joe Jackson on Look Sharp!
Looking back, what is Joe Jackson’s own take on his debut album?
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.
joejackson.com
[The song Pretty Girls] is all about pretty girls walking down the street and, Oh wow, isn’t that a turn-on. In retrospect, it’s kind of a stinker. It’s embarrassing—ogling girls, I mean, that’s kind of lame. It’s just childish and silly and derivative, but I was 22 when I wrote it. Not everyone can be a prodigy!
Joe Jackson, 21-06-2002
In closing
What do you think of Joe Jackson’s debut? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: The brilliant debut by Joe Jackson: Look Sharp!. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
