The Joe Jackson Interviews

Riverdance: Clash of the Dancers. Jean Butler and Micheal Flatley present opposing perspectives on Riverdance and each other

From the 'Backstory of Riverdance: Clash of the Dancers,' section of my new eBook comes the best description of this podcast. 'In 1996 when I interviewed Michael Flatley, how could I have known that our little chat would leave Jean Butler incensed? Or know that, a year later, she would deliver via another interview, with me, what me editor correctly described as a "blistering broadside" against Flatley? Or that the latter would end up scolding me as if I was a wayward child?' But I also say in the intro to this podcast,' I tell a tale about the origins of Riverdance which has not been told elsewhere to this day. Certainly, the behind-the-scenes story has bever been told in this way and it probably won’t be because of confidentiality clauses that were written into Riverdance contracts after an interview I did with its composer Bill Whelen. But this eBook focuses on Butler and Flatley.'

Yes, in the eBook and the podcast I gave more space to Jean Butler becuase I have always believed that she has too often been written out of the story.  

 

 

Roseanne Cash talks about her father Johnny, Sun Records, and the "revolutionary" recording You Don't Know Me by Ray Charles

This podcast single - running roughly five minutes - could be part of my The Song that Changed My Life series but it's actually part of a one-hour interview with the great Roseanne Cash, in which she and I talk about the "great energy" in the Sun Records studio in Memphis, her father Johnny Cash, the 'Million Dollar Quartet,' and most of all her love for the recording she choose to kick off the radio show, You Don't Know Me, by Ray Charles. I shall do a podcast about Roseanne and her dad, but this one is in memory of Ray and the role he played in redefining country music. 

Louis Walsh. An excerpt from the eBook, Louis Walsh My Story. Louis remembers days of having "all sorts of groupies", smoking dope and trying cocaine.

The title of this podcast is playfully provocative, although more seriously it is based on my new Amazon eBook, Louis Walsh. My Story. Also, the sound is not great because the clip comes from an interview Louis and I did in 2000 in a noisy Dublin restaurant. But I am making the clip available as a podcast, partly becuase it gives us an insight into the young Louis Walsh, listening to Motown records, dancing the Hucklebuck, and the slightly older Louis who managed rock bands such as Time Machine. It was then, as he says during this podcast, that Walsh tried dope and cocaine, though he now claims not to have told me the latter. Much as I love the guy, it is a silly claim given that the quote was used in both a national Irish newspaper and national Irish magazine in 2000. So, here, for the record, is that exchange, which is only an incidental detail in. Louis Walsh. My Story. 

Are they gay rock songs or are they not? Joe Jackson 1994 discusses the books Rock on the Wild Side and The Vinyl Closet

In 2020 this discussion may seem quaint to many, as I say in the intro. But some people inexplicably may still find it difficult to take on board the fact that songs such as Strangers in the Night, not to mention Ob La Di Ob La Da, or U2's One, are seen as gay rock songs. Listen and decide for yourself. It's certainly a fun chat!  

Dory Previn and Tori Amos. Joe Jackson 1998 explores the similarities between both artists

In 1992, while interviewing Tori Amos for the first time - the interview is in my eBook Tori Amos Soul Searching and Uncensored - I introduced her to the music of one of my life-long music heroes, and later in my life, a friend and mentor of mine, Dory Previn. Six years later, on Irish radio, I discussed with Mike Murphy the similarities between both artists and the magnificence of their arts. I hope this podcast leads to people discovering the absurdly underrated work of the late Dory Previn. 

Joe Jackson thanks Ben Weisman for writing Follow that Dream and they discuss Bruce Springsteen's version of the song

I am the Elvis fan who took to heart at the age of 12, the song Follow that Dream. It was part of the impulse behind the fact that in 1992 I ended up interviewing in a hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee, Ben Weisman who wrote the music for the song, and for 56 other songs - more than those written by anyone else - which Elvis recorded. Meeting your heroes is one thing, but getting to thank them and inspire them is a dream of an entirely different nature and one well worth following! 

Joe Jackson's 2020 tribute to Kirsty MacColl 1959-2000

Since uploading my Podcast single Kirsty MacColl talks about Fairytale of New York, yesterday, I watched an immensely moving documentary on YouTube called Who killed Kirsty MacColl. I had forgotten that we are coming up to the twentieth anniversary of her tragic death. So, it seems that posting just a few minutes of Kirsty talking about Shane and that song, is a travesty of the memory of the woman, her life, and art. At least that's how I feel this morning. So, by way of celebrating Kirsty MacColl, who died this time twenty years ago as a result of a boating accident, I am uploading for the first time the full conversation we had in 1993 at the time of the release of her latest album Titanic Days. How could I have known - or she - what was being predicted when I asked her the following question about the song Titanic Days, "why does it end like that - it sounds like she is sinking.' Eerie. 

How I discovered that Heartbreak Hotel is based on an Irish tune! A Joe Jackson Singles podcast

I love rewriting the history of rock 'n' roll, I say not entirely seriously during this podcast, which is part of my Singles series lasting less than five minutes. Then again, I am not entirely joking either. This clip comes from a chat I had with Mike Murphy - Ireland's best-ever Arts show presenter - about Elvis's 1970s recordings. I tell him that while I was attending a Chieftains recording session, singer Tom Jones explained to me that the Chieftains reckoned that Heartbreak Hotel was based on an Irish dance tuned, slowed down. Decide for yourself!

Neil Sedaka 1990 talks about his his early and latter day music, gay rumours, Elvis's version of Solitaire and much more

In 1990 Neil Sedaka was due to appear in Ireland, so we did this fifteen-minute phone interview for The Irish Times. As a child I loved some of Sedaka's earliest hits, then, as a teenager, I bought his comeback albums such as Emergence and I noted on a johnny Mathis album my dad owned that Sedaka composed a great song called The Wolrd I Threw Away. And all of this was before his comeback with classic sings such as Solitaire, which was recorded by, among a million other singers, Elvis, in a version Sedka says here he didn't like. We also talk about his music overall and what had been recent gay rumours surrounding the death of his long-time co-writer Howard Greenfield. I am posting this podcast about Sedaka because I see that he is one of the few performers giving free gigs from home during the pandemic. No doubt he is being discovered by many people.

Kirsty MacColl 1993 talks about Fairytale of New York and rumours of Shane McGowan's seemingly impending demise!

This is a Joe Jackson Interviews Podcast single lasting roughly five minutes. It's a clip of Kirsty MacColl and me in 1993, talking about folk purist responses to the music of The Pogues, celebrating the magnificence of the song Fairytale of New York - which "young people" prefer, I suggested at the time, rather than stereotypical Christmas songs and they did, despite the "offensive" words! - and both worried about Shane McGowan's wellbeing