It’s Different for Girls — Joe Jackson

My cover of "It’s Different for Girls", a song by Joe Jackson (from his 1979 "I'm the Man" EP).

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Steppin‘ Out – Joe Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rJ4VREFgUI

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20 Great Joe Jackson Songs

Joe Jackson kicked off his career from the mid-1970s as a classic outsider. He was not really a snotty punk, nor was he a classically chiseled rock god. Instead, he was gifted (or burdened) with formal training in musical theory and a keen ear for composition and intricate arrangements. Even so, Jackson found himself caught in the eddies of some prevalent musical movements when he started working live dates as a jobbing musician and bandmember, those being pub rock and its tagalong little brother London-based punk rock. 

The punk scene in particular turned its nose up at any hints of musical sophistication. But as a songwriter, Joe Jackson was deft enough to capture its energy into some deceptively intricate music that still remained highly accessible. Even contending with comparisons to the Stiff Records sound put forward in the press when he started, Joe Jackson carved out his own niche anyway. Over the decades, that niche was sometimes fashionable and sometimes not. But throughout, he always explored interesting angles wherever he could find them. To illustrate this, and to celebrate him as a unique songwriter and musician, here are 20 great Joe Jackson songs that span years, genres, and musical eras. 

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Is She Really Going Out with Him? 

Derived from the spoken word intro to The Damned’s “New Rose”, that phrase in turn borrowed from the Shangri-La’s’ “Leader of the Pack”, Joe Jackson’s first big hit on 1979’s Look Sharp! established his authorial voice as a man standing out of step with his surroundings. With Jackson’s piano taking a supporting role, his band crank out a punkish attack married to a Sixties girl group feel as Jackson’s sneer of a voice sings of pretty women walking with their attendant gorillas down his street. 

Listen: Is She Really Going Out with Him? 

Sunday Papers 

Always a social critic, Joe Jackson aims his ire at the salacious British press on this cut also from Look Sharp! perhaps unaware of how well his insights would retain their relevancy. With chopping ska-inspired guitar chords and stalwart Graham Maby’s exploratory and melodic basslines, the song telegraphs barbs of cutting sarcasm and irony at the shallowness of the press and those who believe every word they print, galvanizing a whole generation’s jaded attitude around mass media spectacle. 

Listen: Sunday Papers 

I’m the Man 

The title track of his second release of 1979, “I’m the Man” continues where “Sunday Papers” left off, this time considering society’s commoditization of everything you can name. Even the record’s cover reflects sentiments of a world littered with cheap salesmen, and another example of Jackson’s displaced perspectives of the world around him which would only deepen later on. Jackson’s band rip this one to shreds, particularly drummer Dave Houghton who tests the durability of his kit with notable ferocity. 

Listen: I’m the Man 

Friday 

Joe Jackson’s interest in jazz and pop intersections was in place even from the start of his recording career. Further evidence of this would emerge soon enough. Meanwhile, “Friday” features a tight new wave power-trio arrangement that deftly streaks down corridors of sophisticated, jazzy changes. This cut is just as ready for the pub crowd, inviting happy cheers from the crowd in a song about how aspirations, energy, and senses of self can so easily evaporate in nine-to-five drudgery. 

Listen: Friday 

On Your Radio 

A pop missive with compositional sophistication that still wears a skinny tie, Jackson’s “On Your Radio” finds the narrator kicking off the dust of past hardships suffered by a boy who couldn’t fit in, establishing his niche in a world where he’s finally found acceptance – on the radio. Jackson perfectly frames his voice on this cut – always distinct with a curled lip of disdain that you can practically hear. But the song’s joy outweighs its bitterness, even if the latter remains. 

Listen: On Your Radio 

Mad at You 

Jackson contemplated a drift away from new wave’s stylistic template by 1980’s Beat Crazy. “Mad at You” is a final statement from that first phase of his career, hitting all the marks of post-punk aggression with a distinct layer of self-awareness that may or may not include a parting shot to the new wave tag by being so on-the-nose. Graham Maby’s bass provides a rhythmic anchor with a primitive, insistent riff as Jackson lays down one of his rawest vocal performances, ironic or not.  

Listen: Mad at You 

Steppin’ Out 

A move to New York City inspired new approaches to composition and arrangements on 1982’s landmark Night & Day, even if themes of displacement and alienation remained. With his massive hit “Steppin’ Out”, it might take time to detect them, full as it is with stately grand piano vistas and a scrappy little drum machine now fully embracing a nocturnal world of jazz and mythical mid-century excursions. It carried a sense of wistful nostalgia even when the song was new. 

Listen: Steppin’ Out 

Breaking Us in Two 

Where “Mad at You” approached relationship troubles like a man with a hammer perceiving every problem as a nail, “Breaking Us in Two” is the more lyrically nuanced tune. Its narrator finds himself in a world that he must confront from the inside, rather than in one he’s free to criticize from without. This shift is notable for Jackson the songwriter. Besides that, it positioned Joe Jackson’s more dominant and superb piano as a refreshing sound on mainstream radio. 

Listen: Breaking Us in Two 

You Can’t Get What You Want (Until You Know What You Want) 

If Night & Day is the New York club date, then 1984’s Body & Soul is the Broadway show. A flagship song from that record, “You Can’t Get What You Want (Until You Know What You Want)” is an irony-free and brassy jazz-pop effusion. Even if Jackson’s voice seems built to convey wryness in everything he sings, he carries off the joy and optimism anyway with a life-affirming and fulsome arrangement that beams with enthusiasm to help take him there. 

Listen: You Can’t Get What You Want (Until You Know What You Want) 

Be My Number Two 

A story of a man trying to get back on his feet with someone new after a heartbreak, “Be My Number Two” is either a defiantly optimistic love song, or a tale of a man doomed to repeat his mistakes. Either way, it finds Jackson reaching new levels of nuance and emotional resonance. His simple and melodic piano lines in a song about how complicated love can be provide stark contrast, completed by an epic saxophone reprise and finish. 

Listen: Be My Number Two 

Home Town 

A native of Portsmouth, a seaside town in England, Jackson’s song about it featured on 1986’s Big World is a classic wistful lyric contrasted with an ebullient guitar-bass-drums arrangement. By the end of the Nineties in solo piano versions, Jackson ditched the ironic distance in favour of a genuine reflection on his own complex yet still affectionate relationship to the place in which he grew up, bringing out its charms as one of Jackson’s best compositions. 

Listen: Home Town (Big World Version) | Home Town (live version) 

Down to London 

Joe Jackson takes another tack on the theme of home towns in “Down to London”, a key track from 1989’s Blaze of Glory.  A kitchen sink tale of hopefuls trying to see over their limited horizons, the setting is a city of revolutionary artistic movements and lost souls in equal measure. Spiced with a Sixties pop flavour, this cut is a celebration and a warning in a story that’s as resonant now as it was since London was first founded. 

Listen: Down to London 

Me and You Against the World 

Ending the 1980s in a titular blaze of glory, “Me and You Against the World” is the sonic equivalent of youthful fervour to change the world through sheer force of will. Joe Jackson makes us feel that it’s all possible in this tune that features a towering arrangement of brass, call and response vocals, ringing guitars, and a singalong refrain. This cut sets the scene to preserving the belief that positive change is possible, applicable to any era. 

Listen: Me and You Against the World 

Stranger Than Fiction 

A bona-fide pop single with Sixties references suitable for a new decade on 1991’s Laughter & Lust, “Stranger Than Fiction” is adorned by organ, big backing vocals, and a cornucopia of percussion. This is a grown-up tale about how the details of life in their ordinariness can reveal profundity when you’re in love. This song in Jackson’s catalogue that distinguishes itself in its contentedness would be the last of its kind for a few years from here. 

Listen: Stranger Than Fiction 

Happyland 

Removing himself from the pop landscape for a while in the Nineties, Joe Jackson continued in his neo-classical composition explorations. By 2000, he’d revisit his complicated relationship with New York City, a theme found on his Night & Day album. “Happyland” is a gem from Night & Day II finding him blending all those elements with vivid imagery and wistfulness in equal measure. Its complex emotional profile matches its compositional sophistication in an affectionate song of memory, tragedy, and love. 

Listen: Happyland 

Still Alive 

Returning to the pop-rock fold by 2004, Joe Jackson gathered his original band together that joined him on his first three records. The appropriately-titled Volume 4 has Joe Jackson and his guys combining their unique dynamics with deeper poise that takes them beyond a straightforward nostalgia trip. “Still Alive” leans into a shared love of Sixties British guitar pop with patented irony reflected in the song’s title, played as it is by his old army buddies in a new century. 

Listen: Still Alive 

A Place in the Rain 

For 2008’s Rain, Jackson retains Graham Maby on bass and Dave Houghton on drums for a collection of pop songs arranged for a jazz trio who contrarily don’t play jazz at all. Jackson’s piano takes centre stage as he sings of taking deliberate measures to change one’s place and times. Perhaps, like Night & Day before it, these themes are driven by a move to a new city – this time Berlin. “A Place in the Rain” closes the record with a hopeful note, although decidedly under overcast skies. 

Listen: A Place in the Rain 

Rush Across the Road 

Like a burst of sunshine on the Rain album, “Rush Across the Road” can be easily viewed as an almost thirty-year follow-up to “Is She Really Going Out with Him”. It has the narrator seeing the pretty woman once knew (this time without her gorilla) walking down his street as a chance to redeem past resentments and embrace affection instead. This song is one Jackson’s most good-natured, reflective of how the years can banish old insecurities much easier than we ever thought they could. 

Listen: Rush Across the Road 

A Little Smile 

Joe Jackson did the rounds for 2015’s Fast Forward, recording in various cities and with equally varied line-ups of musicians. “A Little Smile” reflects Jackson’s skill at balancing shadows and light in his arrangements. This is a song about being in conflict balanced with the belief that it only takes a little bit of love and respect to get out of it again. In this, he demonstrates another skill proven throughout – that optimism like this doesn’t have to sound saccharine. 

Listen: A Little Smile 

Strange Land 

“Strange Land” from 2019’s Fool captures the feeling that one’s time has passed without a map by which to proceed into the next era. This song updates a familiar Joe Jackson theme of being on the outside, marked by lyrical jazz textures and a stop-start arrangement that communicates hesitancy. It also reminds listeners that when uncertainty endures, an impulse to ask questions gives us the chance to gain new perspectives as old worlds pass to make way for new ones. 

Listen: Strange Land 

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Runners up and bubbling under: 

• Happy Loving Couples 

• Fools in Love 

• Kinda Kute 

• Got the Time 

• It’s Different for Girls 

• Cancer 

• A Slow Song 

• Happy Ending 

• The Verdict 

• Soul Kiss 

• Nineteen Forever 

• Evil Empire 

• The Jet Set 

• Only the Future 

• Hell of a Town 

• Awkward Age 

• Blue Flame 

• Invisible Man 

• The Blue Time 

• Fabulously Absolute 

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Joe Jackson didn’t exactly fit into any one scene or genre as he developed his career. He still refuses to stay in one artistic province for very long. Yet at the same time, he is an artist with a unique and instantly recognizable artistic voice, with a thread running through everything he’s done that make him one of the most singular artists of the modern rock era.  

Joe Jackson is an active and artistically curious artist today. You can catch up to him at joejackson.com for news and new releases.  

Also, check out this link for a whole TEN MORE great Joe Jackson songs also written by your humble Delete Bin writer and Editor-in-Chief. 

Enjoy! 

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A fairly bizarre new Joe Jackson single from his album coming out next year 😂

https://youtu.be/q4Foa4ftzBA

#JoeJackson #2026Albums #2026Records