Joe Jackson
This has the potential to be cool.
Joe Jackson-Is She Really Going Out With Him [mp3]
JOE JACKSON
BOULDER THEATER – OCTOBER 21, 2008
AEG Live is thrilled to announce JOE JACKSON performing at The Boulder Theater on Tuesday, October 21, 2008.
Showtime is 8:00 PM/ Doors open at 7:00 PM/ All Ages
JOE JACKSON- NEW CD “RAIN”-
When Joe Jackson went into an East Berlin recording studio with the rhythm section that has accompanied him, off and on, for nearly three decades, he had the most strikingly simple line-up in mind: just piano, bass, drums and his unmistakable, eternally yearning voice. As he later pondered a name for this compellingly to-the-point collection of ten new songs, he took a similar approach. “I wanted something elemental because that’s the kind of album I wanted to make,” Jackson explains. “There is no padding on it at all; the album is stripped to the bare essentials, so I hope it has a timeless quality. The title seems to fit.”
The natural elements were indeed a leitmotif, not so much in the words of the songs themselves as in Jackson’s surroundings as he created them: “It seemed like rain was a constant companion. It always seemed to be raining when I was working on these songs, and it rained every day while we were recording them. But I like the rain, and I don’t understand why for many people it has this automatic association with doom and gloom. What would we do without rain?”
Rain may have the occasionally melancholic moment, but it also boasts plenty of humor, swing, sophistication, barbed social commentary and even some punk-like rocking out – no guitars necessary — on “King Pleasure Time.” “Rush Across the Road” evokes a split-second moment of sweet recognition between two former – or soon-to-be – lovers, while “Wasted Time” gently examines both the longing and regret in an affair gone sour. “Too Tough” balances the swagger and vulnerability of an emotionally guarded character in a classic Jackson arrangement that features big, dramatic choruses and a rough-edged lead vocal. “Good Bad Boy,” with quick shuffling rhythms and a rollercoaster of a piano solo, skewers the pre-packaged rebelliousness of a modern-day rock star or fashion model.
In its adventurous spirit as well as its piano-based sound, the material on Rain recalls Jackson’s 1982 Night and Day, the best-selling and most critically lauded album of his career, and its equally well-regarded 2000 sequel. On the original disc, Jackson had created a gorgeous love letter to his newly adopted home of New York City, incorporating Latin rhythms and a cinematic, Gershwin-like sweep in his work. The album yielded the multi-format Top Ten hit, “Steppin’ Out” and showcased for his widest audience ever Jackson’s stylistic breadth as a composer. Jackson has since moved on to an apartment in Berlin, which currently boasts the kind of anything-goes cosmopolitanism that epitomized Manhattan when Jackson had first arrived there. But he still manages to evoke a magical sort of New York City-inspired urbanity in his songs, the aural equivalent of a movie classic from half-a-century ago, filmed in shimmering black and white. As Jackson admits, “I lived on and off for twenty years in New York. You spend so much time in one place it gets into your bones and into your heart.”
Fans who have been following Jackson’s live shows in recent years will already be familiar with a few of these tunes, in particular, “Too Tough,” which started appearing on set lists around 2004. Jackson explains, “It got finished about the same time as ‘Citizen Sane.’ It’s been about three years. I wasn’t in a hurry to make a new album. I promised myself that I wouldn’t make a record until I had an album’s worth of songs that were the best I could do. I think several of these songs are the best songs I’ve ever written, and I wanted to have 10 or 12 songs that I felt that way about before I put out another album. I used to be a bit of a workaholic, but I am now much more patient. The quantity has gone down, but the quality has gone up.”
TICKETS GO ON SALE FRIDAY, AUGUST 15th @ 10:00 AM