Thursday, June 16, 2011

Who is Joe Jackson


First I want to thank Wikipedia because they make looking on the net so easy,
and UTUBE for being the greatest thing to ever hit the internet.
So Who is Joe Jackson,

Joe Jackson (born David Ian Jackson, 11 August 1954, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire[1]) is an English musician and singer-songwriter now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001.[2] He is probably best-known for the 1979 hit song "Is She Really Going Out with Him?", which still gets extensive FM radio airplay; for his 1982 hit, "Steppin' Out"; and for his 1984 success with "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)".
Along with Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, Jackson was a part of the trio of English artists who challenged the punk scene[citation needed] and brought a New Wave sound to the United States[citation needed] in the late 1970s. He was popular for his pop/rock and new wave music early on before moving to more eclectic, though less commercially successful, pop/jazz/classical hybrids.

                          


Biography
Born in Staffordshire, David Jackson (as he was then known) grew up in Portsmouth in the Paulsgrove area and he attended the City of Portsmouth Boys School. His parents later moved to Gosport when he was a teenager.[citation needed]
He initially learned to play the violin but soon switched to piano and prevailed on his dad to install one in the hall of their Paulsgrove council house. From the age of 16, he played in bars, and won a scholarship to study musical composition at London's Royal Academy of Music.[citation needed]
Jackson's first band, in Gosport, was Edward Bear (not to be confused with the 1970s Canadian band fronted by Larry Evoy). The band was later renamed Edwin Bear and later Arms and Legs, but dissolved in 1976 after two unsuccessful singles.[citation needed] Although he was still known as David Jackson while in Arms & Legs, it was around this time that Jackson picked up the nickname "Joe", based on his perceived resemblance to the puppet character Joe 90.[citation needed] He then spent some time in the cabaret circuit to make money to record his own demos.[citation needed] However, whilst at school he had been known as 'Joe' to his schoolmates and teachers from 1972 onwards.[citation needed]
In 1978, a record producer heard his tape, and got him signed to A&M Records.[citation needed] The album Look Sharp! was recorded straight away, and was released in 1979, quickly followed by I'm the Man (also 1979) and Beat Crazy in 1980. He also collaborated with Lincoln Thompson in reggae crossover.
Jackson at the El Mocambo, Toronto, 21 May 1979 Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin
In 1981, Jackson produced an album for the British power pop group The Keys. The Keys Album was the group's only LP.[3]
The Joe Jackson Band toured extensively. After the break-up of the band, Jackson took a break and recorded an album of old-style swing and blues tunes, Jumpin' Jive, featuring songs of Cab Calloway, Lester Young, Glenn Miller, and most prominently, Louis Jordan. The album, and associated single release, was credited to Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive.[2]
Jackson's 1982 album Night and Day paid tribute to the wit and style of Cole Porter (and indirectly to New York City).[citation needed] Night and Day was Jackson's only studio album to reach either the United States or UK Top 10, peaking at #4 (US) and at #3 (UK), and the cuts "Steppin' Out" and "Breaking Us In Two" were chart hits. The tracks "Real Men" and "A Slow Song" have pointed obliquely to the city's early 1980s gay culture.[4] Jackson lived in New York for the next 20 years, incorporating the sound of the city into his music throughout the 1980s and beyond.[citation needed]
Almost two years later, Jackson recorded the UK #14 album Body and Soul, also heavily influenced by pop and jazz standards and salsa, showcasing the US #15 hit single "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)".
In 1986, he collaborated with Suzanne Vega on the single "Left of Center" from Pretty in Pink's soundtrack (with Vega singing and Jackson playing piano).
Jackson followed with the live album Big World, a three-sided double record – the fourth side consisted of a single centring groove and a label stating "there is no music on this side". The instrumental "Will Power" set the stage for things to come later, but before he left pop behind, he put out two more albums, Blaze of Glory and Laughter & Lust.
For some years he drifted away from the pop style, going on to be signed by Sony Classical in 1997.[citation needed] They released his Symphony No. 1 in 1999, for which he received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2001.[5]
In 1995, Joe Jackson contributed his version of "Statue of Liberty" on a tribute album to the English band XTC called "Testimonial Dinner" (released 1998).
In 2003, he reunited his original quartet[2] for the album Volume 4, and a lengthy tour. As before, the quartet consisted of Jackson, Graham Maby, Dave Houghton and Gary Sanford.[citation needed]
In 2004, Jackson performed a cover of Pulp's "Common People", with William Shatner for Shatner's album Has Been.
Jackson toured 45 US and European cities in 2005 with Todd Rundgren and the string quartet Ethel,[citation needed] appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien performing their collaborative cover version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
Thereafter, he embarked on a short tour in a piano-bass-drums trio format. He toured Europe in Spring 2007, again in a trio format.[citation needed] Jackson's album, Rain was released by Rykodisc on 28 January 2008 in the UK and one day later in the US.[6] The album included a CD and a bonus DVD containing over 40 minutes of material, including concert and behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. Jackson performed two UK shows in spring 2008, followed by a full UK tour.[citation needed]

[edit] Other activities

Jackson has actively campaigned against smoking bans in both the United States and the United Kingdom,[7] writing a 2005 pamphlet The Smoking Issue, a 2007 essay Smoke, Lies and the Nanny State,[8] and issuing a satirical song ("In 20-0-3") on the subject.[9] It was in 2003, soon after the New York smoking ban, that Jackson left the city and returned to Portsmouth, England, where he has a flat in the oldest part of the city that overlooks the harbour.[citation needed] In the DVD interviews in Rain, it was stated that he moved to Berlin in early 2007.[citation needed]
He has been quoted as saying he now spends most of his time in Berlin, but still has places in Portsmouth and New York City.[citation needed] Jackson noted his enthusiasm for real ale in his autobiography, A Cure For Gravity, published in 1999, which Jackson has described as a "book about music, thinly disguised as a memoir". It traces his working class upbringing in Portsmouth and charts his musical life from childhood until his twenty-fourth birthday. Life as a pop star, he suggested, was hardly worth writing about.[10]

[edit] Cover versions & popular use of music

In 1990, thrash metal band Anthrax recorded a cover version of Jackson's "Got the Time" for their Persistence of Time album.
In 1997 American Ska/Punk band Buck O' Nine covered Jackson's "I'm the Man" for their album Twenty-Eight Teeth.
In 1999 American Punk band Goldfinger covered "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" on their live cover album Darrin's Coconut Ass: Live from Omaha.
In 2001, Tori Amos covered Jackson's song "Real Men" on her album Strange Little Girls.
In 2002, "Steppin' Out" appeared in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. A loop of the instrumental portion of this song is used as the theme tune for the WYES-TV (New Orleans) weekly arts and entertainment program, Steppin' Out. The melody is also used frequently as 'bumper music' on The Neal Boortz show.[citation needed]
In 2003, Sugar Ray covered "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" for their album In the Pursuit of Leisure, and Mandy Moore recorded "Breaking Us In Two" for her album Coverage.

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