Customer Reviews

Beat Crazy

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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."

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.

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?

It's an absolute crime that this CD is out of print. This album represented my introduction to the world of Joe Jackson, and is still one of the best of his early releases. Many of the songs ("Beat Crazy", "The Evil Eye", "Mad At You") delve into Joe's dark (and sometimes manic) psyche, with a few detours into romance ("One To One"), race issues ("Battleground"), and prejudice ("Fit"). "Fit" is the rock-n-roll brother to the softer "Real Men" (from "Night And Day") and deftly straddles the fine line between message and preachiness.

There are so many good things that can be said about every single song on this album. The only complaints that I can make, and these are minor complaints, are "One To One" with it's somewhat clumsy socio-political laundry list, and "Crime Don't Pay" with it's abrupt shift halfway through the song into rambling instrumental.

BEST TRACKS: "Mad At You" with it's unhinged Hitchcockian tension (check out the video if you can); "Biology" with it's matter-of-fact recitation of the mechanics of lovemaking; and the title track's mockery of the generation gap.

But don't overanalyze - get this album. Whatever you have to do to get it, GET IT.

This is Joe at his angriest, his most acerbic and most insightful.

I read one of the other reviews that the song BATTLEGROUND was an embarrassment. This is wrong. At the time BRIXTON and other areas in London were ablaze with riots and with vicious Racist Skinheads attacking Pakistani immigrants in the streets. Joe brought A GREAT spoken word poetry piece to bear on this situation. It was very real. Not soppy. Not idealized. The scene is two regular blokes lighting up in an alleyway, trying to break the tension of the moment. The song is about INDIVIDUAL evolution. A separate Peace. This, my friends, is how it's done. One spirit at a time.Don't fool yourself that it can't exist IN YOU. Joe faces it head on. EMBARRASSMENT? No- only if you don't try to heal yourself.The album is worth the price for this piece alone.

BEAT CRAZY is an amazing piece of work. PRETTY BOYS pretty much sums up the American Idol phenomena- watched The Grammies lately? See anyone particularly real looking on that stage?

I don't know about you, but most of the music and art I've seen is being done by actual PEOPLE- some ain't so pretty...but their souls and art shine through. Kinda like Joe. You might bump past him at the market, but on stage the Cat shines. Right?

Beat Crazy is right on Par with Elvis Costello's work of the time.(Watching The Detectives,Waiting For the End of the World and the beautiful heartbreaking ALLISON..)

Both are working class musical geniuses that bring the fact home that PRETTY ain't all it's cracked up to be.The lyrics are superb. The arrangements lean and mean. The BASS playing on MAD AT YOU,VOODOO and throughout the entire album are exemplary.The Rhythm section is tight sparse and POWERFUL. The guitar work sharp and spikey-EVERY DREAM HOME A NIGHTMARE is unparalleled and BELIEVABLE..I find myself re-living my trips back home to the small town whenever I hear it. This song, and the entire album ,is a virtual soundtrack of the self-exploration that comes of alienation.No frills. No B/S. A Clear and narrowed eye on life.

I'd like to see a re-issue on this side of the pond.

Joe is a real Cat. Be Glad.Shine on Brotherman!

Some years ago I was grieving on Amazon pages about "Beat Crazy" not being in stock. I was hoping then that someone will finally get their senses and re-release it like the rest of Joe Jackson's opus. And not just because of J.J.

This record has a special place in my heart, but besides that "Beat Crazy" still has an interesting sound, moreover - quite unique sound, so I feel tempted to welcome it once again by including the complete lament about previous, "out-of-print," edition written in April 2004.

Enjoy.

"Yeah, really, why exactly is this out of print?

Many lesser albums from all eras are getting deluxe makeovers, but this masterpiece is not even out there in any, even inferior, form. A shame, truly, since, as mentioned elsewhere, this really is Joe Jackson's best work: original, focused, crafty, smart, played to the max, uniquely produced yet firmly rooted in the sound of the - all together very progressive - new wave period.

At the time, not a whole lot has been said about this album. Meanwhile, it has been forgotten and now neglected, but there is still this intriguing, original sound to it that really makes it worth coming back to (and we all hope and pray that will happen one day in a digitally improved, remastered shape).

For years I have been wondering about the inspiration behind "Beat Crazy" and though I was fully aware - not to say thoroughly immersed in - the reggae/new wave connection, I was never sure if Joe Jackson really was so taken by then current sound of Jamaica that he had the urge to express it in this way (all this despite critic Robert Christgau's claim that "Battleground" track is a tribute to no less than Linton Kwesi Johnson, famous reggae poet).

But a few years back - a revelation: I have found out (when Orange Street label released the album) that in 1980, Joe Jackson has produced and played with the rest of the band on Prince Lincoln's "Natural Wild." Lincoln, a lesser-known reggae act, independently produced a handful of, I may say, actually pretty good albums before finding himself in London in the winter of 1980. I don't know by what miracle Joe Jackson walked into Prince Lincoln's sessions, but the results were - and still are - magical. It is distinctively a reggae album, but has a lot of little Joe Jackson traits buried in it: his piano, band's harmonies, Graham Maby's funky bass, Dave Haughton's killer drumming, Gary Sanford's wicked solo guitar and although there were some real reggae players involved in the recording, J.J. Band colored it so fresh that it remarkably stands out as unique reggae production.

All this talk to provide you with a back story and an alternative while you wait for dusted-off reissue of this special album: "Natural Wild" is that missing link and an explanation for the radical sound of "Beat Crazy." Even if you are not a reggae fan you'd appreciate it. And it would paint a different picture of how things looked, rather sounded, once Joe Jackson Band started recording their third album later in 1980.

Mystery solved. Both highly recommended. That is, grab Prince Lincoln now and let's hope "Beat Crazy" won't be long."

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 stilted 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."

This CD isn't quite on par with "Look Sharp," which was a great debut, or "I'm the Man," which is IMO his best. Still, it's smart, musically taut, and has some really good songs. While Jackson has not lost his angst on "Beat Crazy," he has tempered it somewhat with a wry sense of humor. The title track, "Mad at You," and "Evil Eye" are good examples of this. On the other hand, "In Every Dream Home" is perhaps the most haunting song that he's ever done.

Overall, "Beat Crazy" gives a good feel for Joe Jackson's early years as a star, after he had made it big but before he had mellowed out. It's a good collection and deserves a re-master and re-release.

This release is solid from beginning to end! I too am amazed that this release didn't do better than the not as strong predecessors! This hard to find release should be part of any Joe Jackson fan's collection!

This is Joe Jackson's BEST album ever - long out of print, you can now buy the import - so many great tracks that perfectly capture that early 80s new wave edgy intersection between punk, rock, dub, dance, and reggae-riddum, including MAD AT YOU, EVIL EYE, BEAT CRAZY, ONE ON ONE, PRETTY BOYS...I could go on, but you should just pick this up pronto!