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Joe Jackson's Star Special, 2 March 1980
on BBC Radio 1
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In March 1980 Joe Jackson presented two hours of his favourite music in the 'Star Special' series. This is an incomplete transcript of that show covering about 40 minutes.
The links are to YouTube (audio) for the tracks and to Wikipedia for the artists.
- Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen
- Joe: “That’s Bruce Springsteen, ‘Born To Run’.
Okay. When we toured the States I always seemed to get people come up to me, giving me badges, stickers and things saying ‘Disco sucks’. You know they wanted me to join the ‘Disco Sucks Army’ or something. Personally, I divide music into two categories and that’s good and bad. And this is a good record. This is Chic. It’s called ‘Good Times’.”
- Good Times by Chic
- Joe: “This is an incredible figure in the annals of contemporary music. The bloke’s name is The Legendary Stardust Cowboy; it’s called ‘Paralyzed’.”
- Paralyzed by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
- Joe: “That was The Legendary Stardust Cowboy... ahem... The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. I’ve no idea who he is or why he made that record but I’m told that he actually made serveral other records. Whether or not they have trumpet solos also I don’t know. Anyway, that is on the album that Kenny Everett compiled of the world’s worst records. I think it’s actually one of the best things I’ve ever heard.
[Link to discogs.com: Kenny Everett – The World's Worst Record Show]
This is Joe Gibbs from ‘African Dub Chapter 3’, it’s called ‘Tribesman Rockers’.”
- Tribesman Rockers by Joe Gibbs and The Professionals
- Joe: “That’s Joe Gibbs, ‘African Dub Chapter 3’. It’s a track called ‘Tribesman Rockers’ on one of my favourite dub albums. I don’t know whether you’re getting enough bass out there on your radio sets.
But anyway, this is the Ramones, my second favourite American band. It’s called ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’.”
- I Wanna Be Sedated by Ramones
- Joe: “That’s the only band in the world who got a lead singer who’s taller, skinnier and more sickly looking than me. They’re called the Ramones and that was ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’.
This is a classic single by Tapper Zukie and it’s called what’s variously known as ‘Dangerous Woman’ or ‘She Want A Phensic’ or just ‘Phensic’. Anyway, here it is."
- She Want A Phensic (Dangerous Woman) by Tapper Zukie
- Joe: “This was Tapper Zukie, ‘Phensic’. In case you just turned on and wonder what the hell’s going on. My name is Joe Jackson, this is ‘Star Special’.
And this is for our drummer, Dave. It’s a Steely Dan track. I wanted to play something by Steely Dan. And I thought, well, most people that like Steely Dan have got all the albums, and they only release an album every two years or something. So this is one that isn’t on any of the albums. It’s sneeked in on their Greatest Hits album. And I personally resent having to pay seven or eight quid to get one track. So the least I can do is play it on the radio for you. It’s called ‘Here At The Western World’.”
- Here At The Western World by Steely Dan
- Joe: “I keep saying this but some people are this year’s thing, some are this month’s thing. Some people have got class. And that was Steely Dan. It’s called ‘Here At The Western World’.
Right, this is my favourite English band and this is The Clash from ‘London Calling’, this is ‘Clampdown’.”
- Clampdown by The Clash
- Joe: “That was The Clash from ‘London Calling’ which is excellent value for money, and it’s called ‘Clampdown’.
This is for Graham our bass player and his wife who are really into Captain Beefheart. This is from the album ‘Shiny Beast’ which I think is eventually gonna be released in this country by Virgin pretty soon. Anyway, this is called ‘Love Lies’.”
- Love Lies by Captain Beefheart
- Joe: “That is amazing. I think... if there’s any trombonists out there, I’m gonna add a trombonist to the band after hearing that. That’s Captain Beefheart, ‘Love Lies’ from the album ‘Shiny Beast’, also known as ‘Bat Chain Puller’.
Now this is where it all starts to get a bit confusing. Very few people seem to know what salsa is, apart from a few Puertoricans in New York. What it actually is a sort of contemporary street Latin American music. Sorry if this is getting a bit too unusual for you. This is the Fania All-Stars. Fania is a salsa record label and this is like some of their, well, all-stars I suppose. I don’t speak Spanish so I might get this wrong but this is called ‘Qué Rico Suena Mi Tambor’.”
- Qué Rico Suena Mi Tambor by Fania All-Stars
Apparently, he also played:
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