Joe Jackson - Look Sharp!
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- 3d
- 3 min read
Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 05.01.1979
"You gotta look sharp, You gotta look sharp, And you gotta have no illusions, Just keep going your way looking over your shoulder"
You have to look sharp, live without illusions, just keep moving forward, and look over your shoulder.
Joe Jackson was only twenty three or twenty four years old when he wrote these words. These were the peak years of the punk revolution across the United Kingdom, and he already sensed where the wind was blowing. The anger that filled the streets reached him as well, and it was enough to drive him into recording a debut album that was sharp, tight, and at times openly biting.
David Jackson was born in 1954 in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England, and grew up in the port city of Portsmouth, where he attended technical high school. He quickly learned to play the violin and piano, and by the age of sixteen the gifted pianist was already performing in bars. He later earned a scholarship to study musical composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
The young man who arrived at the music academy almost by accident, simply trying to escape a future of hard labor in a factory or at the Portsmouth docks, made a clear decision to become a musician.
He listened to Bob Marley and developed a deep love for reggae, while also drawing inspiration from punk bands like "The Damned" and "The Clash". He later said that when he listened to "The Damned" he thought they were great, but only after seeing "The Clash" did he understand that they truly meant every word they played. The blues and R and B scene also left a strong impression on him, especially through "Dr. Feelgood" and their raw, melodic, no nonsense approach.
In the mid seventies, Joe Jackson joined his first band, "Edward Bear", which later changed its name to "Arms and Legs". After releasing two singles, the band broke up, and Jackson began performing on the cabaret circuit in order to earn money for recording demo tapes.
Jackson gathered several musicians for those demo sessions, which helped establish him as a songwriter at Albion Music. Soon after, producer David Kershenbaum signed him to a recording contract with A&M Records.
When work began on the album, he was joined by his former "Arms and Legs" bandmate, bassist Graham Maby, along with drummer David Houghton and guitarist Gary Sanford. Armed with harmonica and piano, Joe Jackson created sharp rock, punk, and reggae flavored songs that balanced bitterness and sweetness, wrapped in pop melodies that only grow stronger with time, yet are never catchy enough for radio to wear them out through endless repetition.
The album includes one of Joe Jackson’s greatest songs, "Is She Really Going Out with Him?", along with several of his best known tracks "Look Sharp!", "Sunday Papers", "One More Time", "Fools in Love", and "Got the Time", which later received a cover version by thrash metal band "Anthrax".
At the age of twenty five, Joe Jackson pours his guts out to the listener with songs full of soul. He zooms in on his own loneliness while mocking banal romance, and vents his frustration with everyday life through Sunday newspaper headlines that tell us about yet another piece of cheap gossip.
Jackson comes across as a young man searching for meaning in a world he sees as shallow. At times he releases that frustration in a slightly immature way, but this is him at his most honest, without masks or rock star costumes.
The album cover was photographed by Brian Griffin and features a pair of sharp white shoes, belonging to Joe Jackson, immersed in a pool of light. The cover was ranked at number 22 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 greatest album covers of all time.
In 2000, "Look Sharp!" was placed at number 865 on Colin Larkin’s "All Time Top 1000 Albums" list of the greatest albums of all time.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music