Joe-Jackson with sax

 

 

SONG
Look Sharp!
ARTIST
Joe Jackson
ALBUM
Look Sharp!
WRITERS
Joe Jackson
LICENSES
UMG (on behalf of EMI); Kobalt Music Publishing, ASCAP, LatinAutor, LatinAutorPerf, AMRA, and 6 Music Rights Societies

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Joe Jackson Illustration Portrait

Born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England, David Jackson spent his first year in nearby Swadlincote, Derbyshire. He grew up in the Paulsgrove area of Portsmouth **, where he attended the Portsmouth Technical High School. Jackson’s parents moved to nearby Gosport when he was a teenager. He learned to play the violin but soon switched to piano and prevailed on his father to install one in the hall of their Paulsgrove council house. Jackson began playing piano in bars at the age of 16 and also won a scholarship to study musical composition at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Look Sharp was our introduction to the music of David “Joe” Jackson. What did we think of this young man channeling the musical stylings of the 30s and 40s with lyrics sharply tuned to the zeitgeist of the day? We thought about how much we loved musical surfers not tied to the pop norms of the moment.  We thought about how amazing a lyricist he was and not bad on the keys.  Now we dive into the music and will update this article each week with new and old tracks that we enjoy and think you will too.

 

**Paulsgrove is an area of northern PortsmouthHampshire, England. Initially a small independent hamlet for many centuries, it was admitted to the city limits in 1920 and grew rapidly after the end of the Second World War.