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During the past three months I’ve been thinking a lot about musicians that ranked high on the Billboard Chart during the 80s, sold lots of records, got heavy radio play, won or were nominated for Grammy Awards, toured often, were always being interviewed for high profile publications like Rolling Stone or Spin and then either seemingly faded away, only recorded sporadically, or abruptly dropped from the scene. Back in November, my post about Donald Fagen revisited his heyday as a solo artist with his smash-hit 1982 debut album The Nightfly.
Joe Jackson enjoyed similar critical acclaim and commercial success that same year with his fifth studio album Night & Day. Jackson’s earlier successes with his self-titled band during the 1979-80 period included his debut single “Is She Really Going Out With Him” and “It’s Different For Girls” which both reached the Top 40 in five countries. After a slow start his debut album Look Sharp started gaining some traction in both the UK and the US and was eventually certified Gold by having sales of at least 500,000 units. Jackson’s musical style was primarily a blend of New Wave and British Pub Rock during this period.
I also found it interesting that at age 11 he started playing violin, but switched to piano during his teen years and gained a lot of experience playing at piano bars while still in high school. When he was 18 he won a scholarship to study musical composition at London’s Royal Academy Of Music, which would prove to be prestigious career move. He would also gain greater performing experience working the cabaret circuit after high school and those efforts earned him enough money to record his first demo. However, when he altered his musical style from NewWave/ Rock towards a jazzier pop sound is when his career really took off internationally, resulting in the release of Night & Day.
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From this album came his greatest hit single “Steppin Out”. Considered one of the top 100 songs of 1982, it has remained his highest charting single at #6 on both the US and UK music charts. The instrumentals and music video perfectly evoke a classy night out on the town. The opening of the video depicts the skyline of New York City at night as the lights start to come up, implying that maybe a glamorous night of cocktails, dinner, and catching a cabaret performance and/or Broadway show are on the agenda. The pretty hotel maid shown in the video pretends to live out a fairytale fantasy as a glamorous socialite dancing with a handsome playboy at a sophisticated venue.
Jackson also appears in the video playing piano which was a major contributing factor to his fame in the first place. The instrumentals are a catchy, a memorable composition of drums, synthesizers, and piano that are infectious with joy. His second substantial hit which reached # 18 one the US charts was the more melancholy “Breaking Us In Two”. However, as with most musicians Jackson’s album contains other songs worthy of note, the B-Sides which did become chart-topping hits. Among these are “Real Men” and “A Slow Song” which refer to the New York City’s gay culture of the 1980s as being an exclusive, maybe even a closed society.
Jackson only refers to what we now call LGBTQ+ culture indirectly as the lyrics for “Real Men” indicate. For instance, “What’s a man now – What’s a man mean, is he rough or is he rugged, is he cultural or clean” seem to point to the never ending controversy and culture wars as to what is considered masculine or what is not. The lyrics for “A Slow Song” are more suggestive if not actually explicit about same-sex romance: “It’s late —I’m winding down, am I the only one, to want a strong and silent sound, to pick me up and undress me, lay me down and caress me…”
I find all this eye-opening as I did not own the album during its initial release, and so wasn’t aware of these other tracks. It’s also likely these two songs would have been too racy for widespread radio play and not commercial. Nor does it surprise me that bisexuality/homosexuality were not easy subjects to tackle directly in 1982 and still not addressed today in some circles as “the closet” is till very much in existence. In any case, I enjoy revisiting performers, music , and other media from the past because I’ve always missed something the first time around, and want to continue learning about what hides in the shadows.
