Beat Crazy

Joe Jackson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 30
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000008GXD
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,627 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beating a hasty retreat from rock and roll, November 10, 2005

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beat Crazy (Audio CD)

Joe Jackson cut two prototype albums for the blossoming new wave movement, but he considered himself a musician and artist. After the success of "Look Sharp" and "I'm The Man," Jackson was getting restless and feeling hemmed in by the cliches of punk, and he made an effort to dynamite his limitations.

It is evident from the very first track that Jackson was out to veer as far left of expectations as possible. Opening with a scream against a beatnik bassline, "Beat Crazy" begins with bass player Graham Maby singing lead. Joe Jackson tried very hard to make this album a "band" effort, and as the liner notes put it, "make sense of rock and roll." He also declares the attempt a failure.

It is easy to see how Jackson used the "failure" of "Beat Crazy" to make the leap to the more sophisticated "Night And Day." In one of his best ballads, "One On One," he deftly cuts the antagonist and himself with great couplets like "You're beautiful when you get mad. Or is that a sexist observation?" It's a far cry from the glibness of "Is She Really Going Out With Him." The music also took on more color, with the jazzy intro to "Crime Don't Pay" taking on a similarity to "Glad" from Traffic's "John Barleycorn Must Die."

"Beat Crazy" suffers from that kind of intersection of desires and directions. The dub effects on "Mad At You" now just sound silly, and as a social statement, "Battleground" is even more embarrassing then it was in the 80's. Still, it is hard to fault Jackson and his mates for trying to shatter their old walls. Bear in mind that Jackson's next album was the Big Band "Jumpin' Jive," and that he'd jettison the band after "Beat Crazy." That helps to explain the wildness and musical tension that drives the eccentricities of "Beat Crazy."

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good indeed., March 26, 2003

By 

GeoX "GeoX" (Men...Of...The...Sea!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beat Crazy (Audio CD)

One can only speculate as to why Beat Crazy somehow never achieved the popularity of Jackson's first two albums. I suppose it is, in some ways, less 'immediate,' but the songs are consistently good or great; it's certainly superior to I'm the Man.

What's perhaps most immediately apparent is that, in contrast to his earlier work and at odds with the hyper-kinetic cover art, this album has a very claustrophobic, doom-laden atmosphere about it. The likes of 'The Evil Eye' and 'In Every Dream Home (a Nightmare)' (Yes, that's 'NIGHTMARE,' not 'Heartache.' The Roxy Music cover would no doubt be interesting, but that's not what this is) are very creepy indeed, and 'Mad at You' is really one of the most nasty songs you'll ever hear. 'Someone Up There' is a very desperate lost love song, and probably the album's instant classic. The ominous dub number 'Battleground' is a searing little treatise on race relations. Even a lighter song like 'Biology' is lent something of an edge by the album's production values. I would say that the one real weak link is 'Pretty Boys'--I suppose in its defense one could note that its critique of prefabricated teen idols is as relevant now as it ever was, but let's face it: it was never exactly a weighty issue, and the music isn't very exciting.

I can't really say anything else negative about this CD, however: Beat Crazy is probably Jackson's second or third best album, a must for fans and casual listeners alike, and it's completely idiotic that it's so decidedly out-of-print. A lot of Jackson's mid-period albums are similarly unavailable, but they're generally pretty readily available. This one is in very high demand and very low supply. About the best you can hope for, until someone finally gets around to re-releasing it, it to go on ebay and try not to get gouged *too* viciously. But if you are, you can take comfort in the knowledge that it's probably worth it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great CD, but is it misrepresented on Amazon?, November 1, 2005

By 

E. P. Eckart "music fan" (SLC, UT, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beat Crazy (Audio CD)

I am glad that this CD is available (a great one of JJ's, long out of print), but nowhere on the copy I received does it state that it is the remastered 2005 reissue. The only date I see anywhere is 1980. Does anyone have a comment about this?