Joe Jackson - It's Different For Girls

[1979]

More sounds from the adult radio world from before I was a teenager.

I never knew what Joe was ever specifically on about in his songs. I still don't. All I knew was he was searchin' for something and possibly not always coming up with answers that were trendy or expected in that particular current moment. It felt like there was something taboo about his disconcerting perceptions, maybe even more so today in the post-liberal era.

The beauty of songs is that they are songs and they don't also need explanations or reasons or apologies they just are. Having said that I'd hate to read an interview with Joe where he explained away all the  paradoxical complexities of his wry observations just to appease a tool shining interviewer.

Somewhere around 1992 or 1993 I stopped reading the interview section of articles on bands in music magazines so I could just have my own version of interpreting the songs I loved. Also just way too many ace songwriters were insufferable interviewees. 

This is why social media has been such a disaster for musicians. They often feel it is their imperative to weigh in on the current thing or offer some political advice or admonish others etc. etc. It's a bad idea. Just stick to your songs we've already had fucking Roger Waters, Bono, Billy fuckin Bragg, Peter Garret et al. in the 70s and 80s. Did nobody learn from these mistakes. 

On twitter many are forced into a friend enemy distinction and succumbing to that is bad for both the audience and the artist and the entire pop music business. 

Anyway artists explorations of moral, social and existential dilemmas without dogmatic political ideology being bandied about have always been the one's to stand the test of time. While the sloganeering songwriters with their propaganda always end up as the daft cringe-monsters at the end of the day.