Live 1980/86 (live album) by Joe Jackson

From slatsheit 11/11/2024 08:33

One of the most underrated albums on these charts, and my second-favorite live album of all time. Joe Jackson is not a major artist - if you haven't heard this album. This live collection, taken from four different tours (one per side), makes a strong case that he *is* a major artist of his time. In contrast to the sparse, pub-rock arrangements of his first two albums, from which about half of these tracks are taken, the live versions are sumptuously re-arranged with more sympathetic singer-songwriter richness. A key example of this is what I call the "Hill Street Blues" re-arrangement of "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" on side one. While the original is a classic in its own right, this newer arrangement is even more resonant. And there are two more arrangements of the same song - an a cappella arrangement with vocals substituted for the instruments on side two, and an "acoustic" arrangement with interesting instrumentation on side three. The ballads from Night and Day are all superior here - high praise indeed - and the brass-less version of "You Can't Get What You Want" is not better than the studio version per se, but it is rather fascinating in terms of how they pull it off.

The only major misstep here is the plodding re-arrangement of "Steppin' Out" from the 1986 tour. If I had been at that show and he played that garbage (the studio version is the best thing he ever did), I would have howled for my money back - and that's in spite of all the great music everywhere else on the album.

Overall, though, the album is a great sonic resume for Jackson's strong talents as a singer, arranger, and especially songwriter, given how these arrangements complement the songs so much better than many of the studio versions. And, oh, side one rocks with the best of them.