and the band wore blue shirts...

I got reacquainted with an old friend last week and have been meaning to sit down and write about it but just haven't. Most of you are familiar with him, Joe Jackson. I have been a fan of Steppin' Out since it was released in 1982. I remember the video of him playing piano in that lonely room. There was always something haunting about it. It takes place in New York City where millions of people are buzzing around but here was this musician sitting by himself with his music. He sings about stepping out into the night with a significant other but does the exact opposite (at least as far as memory serves, I have tried to download the video but have only gotten the beginning clip. I haven't seen it in 20 some years.) Steppin' Out is the centerpiece to the album Night and Day, the fifth album and the one that would define his style. 1997 was the year that I began to revisit Joe Jackson after that initial fascination in the early 80s. Look Sharp! and I'm the Man were his first two albums. They had catchy tunes and were done in the New Wave Pop/Punk style. I borrowed the records from my uncle and recorded them on Maxell (or was it Memorex?) tapes and vividly remember listening to them back and forth from my hometown of Sharon, PA, to my then new residence of Athens, OH, a 4 hour drive. In those early days I often had company in the car. Shortly thereafter I would be making the journey by myself. I remember several nights being in the kitchen, sipping on a glass of wine, making dinner for two, and listening to Night and Day. As 97 became 98 the song Breaking Us In Two seemed to be hitting closer and closer to home. Goddamn! How did he know?

As 98 became 99 I left, and then returned to the Athens area. At that time I would be making Zatarain cajun rice as dinner for one and listening to the Body and Soul album from 1984.

"Did you do me right? Did I do right by you? When I bared my soul it seemed you did not hear. Can this be true?"

Again, I was amazed at how he knew just what I was feeling, and experiencing.

By the way, remember the Public Defender on Night Court who did a season before Markie Post? Ellen Foley. She does back up vocals on this album.

At any rate, we were in 1999 and Joe Jackson had been releasing several new albums including Symphony No. 1 and even wrote an autobiography of his early years. Turns out he was a geeky music major too. I could really relate to this guy. Then came Night and Day II in 2000. It was, again, haunting and lonely but very much a sincere, heartfelt masterpiece. I drank many a beer listening to it. The album cover is even more haunting today. It shows Joe through the rearview mirror of a New York taxicab heading toward the World Trade Center (I intentionally did not write this yesterday).



Well, to wrap this ramble up, I moved on and listened to other things. I made some positive changes and lost a major portion of the gloom and self-pity. Unfortunately I always associated Joe Jackson with those "Dark Ages" and while I never lost interest or the love of his music, I chose not to listen to it. Night and Day, however has been creeping back into rotation on my turntable and now into the iPod, as well. I have since imported Look Sharp!, I'm the Man, Summer in the City, and so on. I listened to these on that same 4 hour trip back to Sharon, PA this past weekend and all I can say is, "Welcome back. I missed you!"