I keep forgetting to tell you guys about two interesting things I heard on the radio this past month. First, I caught "Steppin' Out" on a local oldies station -- it was the full album version with the "clean" intro, free of the crossfade from "Target." I'm wondering if this was mastered from the promo Night & Day LP that featured the Side One tracks isolated, or if it was from a later CD compilation that includes the full album version with the clean intro? Then, a week or two later, a local college rock station played "Friend Better" from Fool. I was astonished and happy to hear a 2019 Joe Jackson song the radio -- on a modern rock station, no less! Throughout the song, I kept wondering what enterprising 18-22 year-old college DJ would play such a selection. When it was over, I got my answer -- the DJ was revealed to be the station's 50-something year-old manager/student advisor! "That explains it," I thought. Still, extra points to him for giving a new JJ track some exposure to a younger audience...
I'm sure you're aware, radio has had the "cold open" mix for years, serviced by the label. "Oldies"/"retro" stations enjoy the services of music libraries that tend to keep "the right" versions of the more critical tracks. In the '80s thru the 'aughts, this would have been either compact disc, or freshly-loaded onto brickwalled hard drive form by the company that owns TM Century now, the most prevalent of broadcast services.
THIS particular compilation features the clean-intro-and-outro versions of all the three Side-1 N&D songs it features. I don't know if the fadeouts are the pristine ones to be found on the now legendary (lol) promo LP or if they are newly made for this compilation. Of course, I'd be glad to know where clean-intro-and-outro versions of 'Target' and 'TV Age' are available, if anywhere... Oh, but not just this - 'Another World' here is the 1997-remaster four-beats-longer-intro version (the Discogs timing for the track here is incorrect: it is 4'13") - but with a clean fadeout as well. Joe Jackson - This Is It: The A&M Years 1979-1989
I believe both "Target" and "TV Age" were the B-sides to various international singles of "Steppin Out," "Breaking Us In Two" and "Real Men." Would be worth checking out at some point...
Will Power There is instantly a certain tension in this track as it holds you in limbo for the first minute with some percussive effects and orchestra strikes, and a feeling of building into something. We have trills and little arpeggios awaiting a foundation to lay on, and it works well. Then we get a flourish and we move into a beat, created without percussion. This track really does remind me of some soundtrack incidental music. It paints a dramatic picture and moves through a series of textures over its course. In the middle we have a very quiet section that again works on creating dramatic tension. To a large degree some of this stuff on here could well be a poke of the tongue at his old music school folk, who Joe was quite vocal about disliking their approach to things in his book. He originally went to rock/pop because he didn't like the snobbish attitude of the classical crew ... sadly he found that all the major forms of music have a certain snobbery, and I wonder sometimes if this fact was one of the reasons he floated across the top virtually refusing to be locked into a particular style and genre.
Very nice analysis. This is an odd track, in that I find myself enjoying each and every minute of it while listening, but don't end up feeling like it was entirely successful as an overall composition. I think, as you say, it comes across as incidental music to a film. I love the textures and sonorities he uses throughout, some of which have that '50s "retro futurist" aspect I described regarding "No Paseran," and others which evoke east Asian music. And yet, either the musical themes don't seem all that compelling in and of themselves, or perhaps the dazzling quality of the arrangements tends to overshadow them. Alternately, perhaps they just need more of an investment from me to allow them to fully sink in and reveal themselves.. My favorite moment might be just before it goes into the brief silent interlude, where first a cello and then what sounds like an electric bass guitar play in such a restrained way that it draws me right in to the silence that follows.
Love this side! Survival : A nice little blast of Joe rock n' roll! Soul Kiss : An album highlight. He performed this a lot on television while he was promoting the album, I recall. The Jet Set : Love this one. Great guitar playing and funny lyrics. Tango Atlantico : A fun little tune. Home Town : Great song and a highlight of the album. One of Joe's "'classics" as he often plays it live in a slowed down version. In a fair world, this would have been a hit! Man In The Street : Nice album closer. Love the drums; that drum pattern was played a lot over the PA between sets when Joe brought the Big World tour here. Overall, a wonderful album and one of Joe's best!
I have no opinion on this album as I've always kind of ignored it. I remember when it came out in the spring of 1987. I was hoping for something different from Joe because at that time I'd gotten right back into him because of "Big World". However, I never bought it (knowing what it was; instrumental and "classical" in style) However, I took it out of the library on vinyl soon after it came out and it never clicked with me at all. After that I just forgot about it. I consider it a minor point in his discography and I think it was musically a stretch on his part (however, I admire his ambition) The original CD must be rare as I have not seen one in years... So, over to those who know it...
I listened to the CD tonight rather than the vinyl. Interesting enough, MoFi issued Will Power CD. That one I've never seen, but I think the standard vinyl & CD should be fairly well represented in used shops.
"Will Power" has an awful lot of stuff going on it without ever really examining any one theme. I like the sounds, I like the collections of 'riffs', but as a piece, I don't know of it really works. It is the composition of someone with a lot to say trying to get it into too little time. I will liken it to Bartok's Rhapsody for Piano & Orchestra which I have on a record accompanying his Piano Concerto 1. The Rhapsody is his first opus work early, early and in it he had high hopes, but listening to the later Concerto, it is obvious that as nice as the Rhapsody is, it really just scratched the surface of whom he would later become as a composer. "Will Power" is a nice listen but will never be a great composition.
Nocturne Here we start off with a beautiful piece of piano. It has a wonderful melody, and gently moves along with a slight sadness in its wake. For those unaware Nocturne (def) - a short composition of a romantic or dreamy character suggestive of night, typically for piano. I think this manages to fit the definition perfectly, and from my perspective is very much in Joe's field of play. This probably comes across better than anything else on the album, purely from the fact that it maintains a particular style, that very much fits in with the idea the album has suggested. This, to me at least, can easily sit alongside other famous nocturne's and hold its head high. It is focused and melodic and a very good listen.
Symphony In One Movement Important reference - Joe Jackson - Album by Album thread * Availability for those interested - Joe Jackson - Album by Album thread * Thanks to @julotto & @Max Florian, as I had no idea about this connection here. At first this sounds like the orchestra tuning up and then little snippets come out and gradually build into chordal structures and rhythm and then into a flurry of notes, that builds into a long held section. It's a very interesting start, We then get some held chords and a gentle melody. This graduates to a nice little chordal sequence with a beautiful melody on the flute, I believe. We get the strings take, the next section, and again this is a very nice piece of the puzzle. Again the constant flux of the piece really starts to feel like incidental music. There is a feel like that of a city waking up, and then moving into peak hour, with a suddenly big landscape. It's like we are surveying an area and each angle we look has a different feel and effect. Then it slides into evening and all quietens down again. Like we have just experienced a day in six minutes, from a musical perspective. This all slides back around and it feels like dawn is upon us. I'm not really sure where this comes from, but that is the feeling it gives me. Perhaps this was Night and Day as a musical picture. It seems like the sections come around somewhat, but it is a lot harder to breakdown something like this. With its sprawling nature. It is certainly not unpleasant to listen to. It definitely builds to a nice resolve at the end... but I do get a very night-day-night-day feel about he way this sounds.
The last two minutes are beautiful and majestic -- the perfect coda to the album. Any idea how this LP went over with Classical audiences back in '87?
Anybody remember Gino Vannelli's Pauper In Paradise album from '77? With his arrangements for orchestra? Side two was a complete four-movement "suite" - very Gershwin-influenced, I feel - with a nice vocal coda to cap it off. Perhaps a bit too poppy or derivitive to earn much cred within serious music circles, but Vannelli had the right stuff, and perhaps it was his popularity in Canada that gave him the push he needed to try something so out-of-his-element. He certainly had the ability to keep music like that going, but as Zappa had proven, it's expensive, you don't get the players you wish for just to even get it heard, and they most often slack off on the rehearsal time you may need to bring it home. But A&M had his back so long as he kept putting out pop music they could pitch to the right audiences, not like they needed two Bacharachs in their stable or anything. Jackson was earning his cred with his soundtrack work and the other artistic stretches he was making. Yet, he wasn't really showing an "all-in" embracing of his orchestral side to get their attention. I think for most in the serious music field, this was just a one-off, then "back to that 'new-wave stuff'" he had been pigeonholed with. I think, for any composer with the ambition Joe exhibited, he would take the shot if somebody threw the opportunity at him, and it certainly helped him sort out some musical ideas that may have been firing in his synapses here and there. Maybe the rest of us wondered where he was going with this from our outside vantage point, but I bet he was smart enough to recognize the opportunity didn't necessarily translate into a new door opening and a new path to follow. Between this and Night Music though, he certainly rode that horse a fer piece.
I'll have to research it at some point. Even some contemporary reviews would be interesting to read now...
Tucker Soundtrack album by Joe Jackson Released November 1988[1] Recorded 1988 Genre Rock Length 44:25 Label A&M Producer Joe Jackson Tucker is the ninth studio album by Joe Jackson, released in November 1988 by A&M Records.[1] It is the soundtrack for the Francis Ford Coppola film, Tucker: The Man and His Dream.[3] The album earned Jackson a Grammy nomination for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV.[3] Musicians Joe Jackson – piano, synthesizer, percussion, saucepans, vocals Paul Sprong - trumpet (high notes) Raul d'Oliveira – trumpet (wah-wah mute) Pete Thomas – alto saxophone, flute, vocals David Bitelli – tenor saxophone, clarinet, vocals Bill Charleson – alto saxophone, flute Tony Coe – clarinet, bass clarinet Rick Taylor – trombone Vinnie Zummo – guitar Dave Green – bass Gary Burke – drums Frank Ricotti – percussion Ed Roynesdal – synthesizer, violin, sampling Arlette Fibon – Ondes Martenot Production Joe Jackson - arrangements, producer David Anderle – coordinator Gavyn Wright – string director and coordinator 1. "Captain of Industry (Overture)" 2:32 2. "The Car of Tomorrow – Today!" 1:34 3. "No Chance Blues" 2:30 4. "(He's A) Shape In A Drape" (featuring Pete Thomas in tenor solo) 2:59 5. "Factory" 1:08 6. "Vera" 2:30 7. "It Pays To Advertise" 0:41 8. "Tiger Rag" 2:09 9. "Showtime In Chicago" 2:46 10. "Lone Bank Loan Blues" (featuring Pete Thomas on saxophone) 1:11 11. "Speedway" 2:40 12. "Marilee" 3:03 13. "Hangin' In Howard Hughes' Hangar" 2:37 14. "Toast of the Town" 1:25 15. "Abe's Blues" 2:42 16. "The Trial" 6:46 17. "Freedom Swing/Tucker Jingle" ("Tucker Jingle" music by Carmine Coppola) 1:38 18. "Rhythm Delivery" (featuring Dave Bitelli in tenor solo) 3:24 Total length: 44:25 ---------------------------------------------- I really enjoyed this album. This is like the follow up to Jumpin' Jive in a lot of ways. It has infectious jazz stylings running through the album, and frankly I thought it was great. It is going to be a lot of fun going through this one more closely. I don't have too much to say about it at this stage, because I need to dive in a bit deeper to really get engaged, but that will happen as we go through it, and this is really very new to me. Please give us the lowdown of where you sit with this album, and what it means to you. We will hit a couple of songs a day, because for the most part they are very short tracks, but we'll somewhat play it by ear. Cheers, Mark
I'm gonna be sitting this one out. I saw Tucker on VHS ca. 1989 and hardly remember anything about it, let alone the soundtrack (although I remember Dean Stockwell playing Howard Hughes!) As a result, this is the only JJ album between 1979 and 1997 that I haven't heard (yet). My local library just got a new Blu-ray copy of it, so I may revisit the film in the near future...
