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A Cure For Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage
Since the release of his first best-selling album Look Sharp in 1979, Joe Jackson has forged a singular career in music through his originality as a composer and his notoriously independent stance toward music-business fashion. He has also been a famously private person, whose lack of interest in his own celebrity has been interpreted by some as aloofness. That reputation is shattered by A Cure for Gravity, Jackson's enormously funny and revealing memoir of growing up musical, from a culturally impoverished childhood in a rough English port town to the Royal Academy of Music, through London's Punk and New Wave scenes, up to the brink of pop stardom. Jackson describes his life as a teenage Beethoven fanatic; his early piano gigs for audiences of glass-throwing skinheads; and his days on the road with long-forgotten club bands. Far from a standard-issue celebrity autobiography, A Cure for Gravity is a smart, passionate book about music, the creative process, and coming of age as an artist.
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1999
37 people are currently reading
324 people want to read
About the author
Joe Jackson
3 books8 followersGoodreads spelling: Joe^^^^Jackson (with 4 spaces).
Joe Jackson (born as David Ian Jackson) is a British musician. Jackson is probably best known for the hit singles Is She Really Going Out With Him? and Steppin' Out. Jackson grew up in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.
In 1978 a producer heard his tape, and got him signed to A&M Records. The album Look Sharp! was recorded straight away, and was released in 1979, quickly followed by I'm the Man and Beat Crazy in 1980.
He is also an author, having written A Cure for Gravity published in 1999, which Jackson has described as a "book about music, thinly disguised as a memoir". It traces his early musical life from childhood until his 24th birthday. Life as a pop star, he suggested, was hardly worth writing about.
Currently he lives in Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany.
Joe Jackson (born as David Ian Jackson) is a British musician. Jackson is probably best known for the hit singles Is She Really Going Out With Him? and Steppin' Out. Jackson grew up in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.
In 1978 a producer heard his tape, and got him signed to A&M Records. The album Look Sharp! was recorded straight away, and was released in 1979, quickly followed by I'm the Man and Beat Crazy in 1980.
He is also an author, having written A Cure for Gravity published in 1999, which Jackson has described as a "book about music, thinly disguised as a memoir". It traces his early musical life from childhood until his 24th birthday. Life as a pop star, he suggested, was hardly worth writing about.
Currently he lives in Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
November 6, 2011
Some of my friends probably wouldn't buy it, but I was a pretty melancholy kid. Stuff affected me pretty heavily, from the offhand comments of kids and adults who didn't know they were being mean to the scenes from movies that didn't know they were being poignant. My melancholy extended to music and particularly music videos, which I watched with cultlike devotion. Among the more resonant are a couple of Joe Jackson songs off his album Night and Day: "Breaking Us in Two," in which a woman packs her things and walks the long cobblestone road to the train station to start a new life, only to then gain some fresh perspective on her current life; and "Real Men," in which a young boy (probably about my age) struggles in vain to understand what constitutes masculinity. It wasn't till twenty years later that I actually bought any Joe Jackson music, first the single "Common People" that he did with William Shatner (buy it; it's killer) and then the two-disc retrospective of his long career, which includes his hits "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" and "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want," and a wide variety of other songs. Jackson is an eclectic songwriter, drawing on his classical training and jazz interest while working hard to remain true to his working-class roots and connected to a real, popular-level audience. And yet he's something of a perennial outsider, never quite at home in any environment. The videos for both songs that resonated so strongly for me have him not as the love interest or the protagonist but as narrator/commentator, in but not of the story being told; his pop music has always reflected his appreciation for other genres, and his forays into other genres have never shed his identification with pop.
That homelessness carries through his book A Cure for Gravity, written before "Common People" but well after "You Can't Get What You Want" fell off the charts. I found myself comparing the book regularly to Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, which covers a similar time period and point in an artist's blossoming career: Martin writes up to the point where he moves from stand-up comedy to film acting; Jackson writes from childhood through to the release of his breakout album Look Sharp! Both writers are philosophical about their craft and the culture they inhabit, but the books remain quite different, demonstrating the divides of chosen art form, age (Martin is nine years older than Jackson, a fact reflected heavily in how each experienced the 1960s), place of origin (wide-open Texas for Martin; working-class north England for Jackson) and outlook. Martin writes seemingly from retirement, with the voice of someone looking back on a life of relative ease; even his hardships are cast as welcome learning opportunities, and his point is, more than anything, appreciation for life and what comes of it. Jackson's book is roughly twice as long and reflects a hardscrabble life, a perpetual outsider's look back on what he's struggled to make of his world. His portraits of influential people aren't uncharitable but they are sometimes startlingly frank. He's not retiring or even resting as he writes; his long passages of memoir are frequently supplanted by well-considered arguments about the public role of music, the responsibility of artistry, the twin temptations of both a cultural aristocracy and a consumerist culture that rejects challenge and demands to be catered to. Martin writes a memoir; Jackson writes an "agendoir."
I don't mean that as a critique, although I did occasionally find myself silently accusing Jackson of the pretentiousness that he often defends himself against throughout the book. I find his argument for/against pretentiousness pretty compelling, however. From pages 84-85: "All those old structures [of musical training and apprenticeship] have broken down, and now anyone with a few quid to spend can simply walk into a record shop [note: written in 1999; now you don't have to walk anywhere] and choose from five centuries' worth of music from all over the world. . . . All very well for the 'consumer,' but how often do we consider how it affects the artist? Where does he start, when everything is transient and disconnected? How does he know who to be, when his roots are themselves rootless? . . . Sometimes I think that categories are proliferating to such an extent that nearly everyone, eventually, will be a subgenre of one. Maybe then we'll appreciate content a bit more than style--or rediscover the true meaning of style."
Leave it to Joe Jackson, perennial outsider, first-person observer/narrator of the vicissitudes of life, to take the opportunity to write a memoir and turn it into a manifesto for artists. The book is at times abrasive, occasionally self-indulgent, sometimes indecipherably British. But it's one of my favorite books of the year, partly because Joe Jackson has proved throughout his career that he knows how to get to me, and partly because he's more or less right about the public role of music, the responsibility of artistry, the twin temptations of both a cultural aristocracy and a consumerist culture that rejects challenge and demands to be catered to. Partly, also, because I was too young to enjoy the New Wave that Jackson represents as it was happening, and I relish every window into it I come across. So, for all its pretentiousness, for all its uncomfortable frankness, for all its commingling of autobiography and cultural agenda, I'm thankful to Jackson for writing A Cure for Gravity, and I anticipate dipping back into it now and again to revisit my own past and to get insight into my own future.
That homelessness carries through his book A Cure for Gravity, written before "Common People" but well after "You Can't Get What You Want" fell off the charts. I found myself comparing the book regularly to Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, which covers a similar time period and point in an artist's blossoming career: Martin writes up to the point where he moves from stand-up comedy to film acting; Jackson writes from childhood through to the release of his breakout album Look Sharp! Both writers are philosophical about their craft and the culture they inhabit, but the books remain quite different, demonstrating the divides of chosen art form, age (Martin is nine years older than Jackson, a fact reflected heavily in how each experienced the 1960s), place of origin (wide-open Texas for Martin; working-class north England for Jackson) and outlook. Martin writes seemingly from retirement, with the voice of someone looking back on a life of relative ease; even his hardships are cast as welcome learning opportunities, and his point is, more than anything, appreciation for life and what comes of it. Jackson's book is roughly twice as long and reflects a hardscrabble life, a perpetual outsider's look back on what he's struggled to make of his world. His portraits of influential people aren't uncharitable but they are sometimes startlingly frank. He's not retiring or even resting as he writes; his long passages of memoir are frequently supplanted by well-considered arguments about the public role of music, the responsibility of artistry, the twin temptations of both a cultural aristocracy and a consumerist culture that rejects challenge and demands to be catered to. Martin writes a memoir; Jackson writes an "agendoir."
I don't mean that as a critique, although I did occasionally find myself silently accusing Jackson of the pretentiousness that he often defends himself against throughout the book. I find his argument for/against pretentiousness pretty compelling, however. From pages 84-85: "All those old structures [of musical training and apprenticeship] have broken down, and now anyone with a few quid to spend can simply walk into a record shop [note: written in 1999; now you don't have to walk anywhere] and choose from five centuries' worth of music from all over the world. . . . All very well for the 'consumer,' but how often do we consider how it affects the artist? Where does he start, when everything is transient and disconnected? How does he know who to be, when his roots are themselves rootless? . . . Sometimes I think that categories are proliferating to such an extent that nearly everyone, eventually, will be a subgenre of one. Maybe then we'll appreciate content a bit more than style--or rediscover the true meaning of style."
Leave it to Joe Jackson, perennial outsider, first-person observer/narrator of the vicissitudes of life, to take the opportunity to write a memoir and turn it into a manifesto for artists. The book is at times abrasive, occasionally self-indulgent, sometimes indecipherably British. But it's one of my favorite books of the year, partly because Joe Jackson has proved throughout his career that he knows how to get to me, and partly because he's more or less right about the public role of music, the responsibility of artistry, the twin temptations of both a cultural aristocracy and a consumerist culture that rejects challenge and demands to be catered to. Partly, also, because I was too young to enjoy the New Wave that Jackson represents as it was happening, and I relish every window into it I come across. So, for all its pretentiousness, for all its uncomfortable frankness, for all its commingling of autobiography and cultural agenda, I'm thankful to Jackson for writing A Cure for Gravity, and I anticipate dipping back into it now and again to revisit my own past and to get insight into my own future.
May 10, 2018
4,25 sterren - Nederlandse paperback - Ik heb dyslexie -
- Hij was vrij vaag maar het had iets van doen met een onweerstaanbare exentiekeling zijn en verhalen schrijven. Ik zou later schrijver worden. Het zou een paar jaar duren voor het in me opkwam dat een schrijver meer dan woorden kon gebruiken. -
Ik ken het liedje is she realy going out with him. Het zit onlosmakelijk verbonden met mijn tienerjaren. Ik dacht is he realy going out with her..... ik was het befaamde muurbloempje die graag spelletjes speelde met oma en haar vriendinnen. Ook ik heb geworsteld zoals Joe Jackson. En net zoals hij ben ik boven water gekomen. Life can be a bitch.
- gebruik intussen niet Madonna als rolmodel als je eigenlijk van Joni Mitchell houdt. Of andersom. Vermink je voet niet door hem in Assepoesters muiltje te willen persen. Ik heb dat soort dingen zelf geprobeerd, maar inmiddels weet ik het zeker : ik ben een van de lelijke stiefzusters. - 😲🚕😀
- Hij was vrij vaag maar het had iets van doen met een onweerstaanbare exentiekeling zijn en verhalen schrijven. Ik zou later schrijver worden. Het zou een paar jaar duren voor het in me opkwam dat een schrijver meer dan woorden kon gebruiken. -
Ik ken het liedje is she realy going out with him. Het zit onlosmakelijk verbonden met mijn tienerjaren. Ik dacht is he realy going out with her..... ik was het befaamde muurbloempje die graag spelletjes speelde met oma en haar vriendinnen. Ook ik heb geworsteld zoals Joe Jackson. En net zoals hij ben ik boven water gekomen. Life can be a bitch.
- gebruik intussen niet Madonna als rolmodel als je eigenlijk van Joni Mitchell houdt. Of andersom. Vermink je voet niet door hem in Assepoesters muiltje te willen persen. Ik heb dat soort dingen zelf geprobeerd, maar inmiddels weet ik het zeker : ik ben een van de lelijke stiefzusters. - 😲🚕😀
July 25, 2012
I love this book and have read it a few times (granted I am a massive Joe Jackson fan). The life story is fascinating in and of itself, but the book's true beauty lies in Jackson's own musings on music, songwriting, the music business, and staying true to one's own voice in the face of a myriad of things pulling in different directions. A great read, but especially germane for musicians.
Also, a rare "pop" autobiography actually written by the subject himself. Joe is the man (in a good way, that is).
Also, a rare "pop" autobiography actually written by the subject himself. Joe is the man (in a good way, that is).
July 23, 2015
I've never liked memoirs by pop culture stars. They're usually so self involved that they become boring, and so poorly written that they become infuriating. This one is different. It soon becomes clear that Joe Jackson is not a rock star so much as he is a musician. So this is not the usual run through of of sordid stories, naming names of who did what to whom, so much as it is a coming of age story. Jackson is so determined to make music his career since that is pretty much all he can do. He's not so much a charismatic leader like a Mick Jaegger, or someone with a political agenda to get across via music like Billy Bragg, he's primarily a musician, that's it, and play music and be a musician is all he wanted to do or be. Here is the story of how he was able to make music his career, and be at least somewhat successful at it, with a little luck, humility, clear thinking, and a lot of perseverance.
You do not need to be a Joe Jackson fan to enjoy the book either. While I enjoyed his music when I was in my New Wave high school days so many years ago, at the time he was just one of many of the great artists who appeared in popular music at the time for me. If anything, I was just a casual fan. While I still have a few of his albums, I would not consider myself a huge fan. I mean this as an endorsement for the book though! I certainly have a much clearer idea of what it was like to be a kid in England in the mid 70's.
He also does a good job of self analysis, with insightful stories about his family and his other relationships, which is certainly unusual for a pop star memoir.
One other thing. If you are a fan of Jackson's music, you'll find out why it is that his early records have such great bass parts. I've always thought his bass player was one of the best in the business, and he helps to explain why.
You do not need to be a Joe Jackson fan to enjoy the book either. While I enjoyed his music when I was in my New Wave high school days so many years ago, at the time he was just one of many of the great artists who appeared in popular music at the time for me. If anything, I was just a casual fan. While I still have a few of his albums, I would not consider myself a huge fan. I mean this as an endorsement for the book though! I certainly have a much clearer idea of what it was like to be a kid in England in the mid 70's.
He also does a good job of self analysis, with insightful stories about his family and his other relationships, which is certainly unusual for a pop star memoir.
One other thing. If you are a fan of Jackson's music, you'll find out why it is that his early records have such great bass parts. I've always thought his bass player was one of the best in the business, and he helps to explain why.
April 20, 2024
A really solid memoir from a musician that frankly I know nothing about! But in many ways I feel Joe Jackson is a kindred soul with a lot of his musical loves, influences and philosophy. The last half got a bit monotonous with too many stories of small time gigs as he was clawing his way upward in the music business, but overall this was an enjoyable read.
March 11, 2011
I like this well enough. I'm glad it less about "JJ the Popstar" and more about "JJ the awkward geek and how he became a Pop Star" He does overdo the self-deprecation a bit, and can get a bit floofy with his descriptions, but he's pretty humble and funny and likeable. I always got the impression that he would be a horribly strict and difficult person to work for, but that opinion has been totally demolished. It's cute how he's all "OH MY GOD PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT TO PLAY MY MUSIC!!!!"
Read
December 15, 2021One of the best books I have ever read, hands down.
Given to me by a good friend and told that I would enjoy, she couldn't have been more correct, but equally think absolutely everyone who enjoys reading about people and music would eat this one up. Not just a memoir about Jackson's life but a time capsule of the rock era and the gig/ music scene at the time. The memoir sections are life-affirming and beautifully written. The rock era integrated messages are vibrant and therefore transportive. A quick and thoroughly enjoyable read! My favourite quote from the memoir:
"I had a strange feeling, a feeling that I have only had a few times in my life: a sense that something big was happening, an awareness of Fate, like massive cogs and gears turning and clicking into place. I was probably in love, and definitely in trouble."
Given to me by a good friend and told that I would enjoy, she couldn't have been more correct, but equally think absolutely everyone who enjoys reading about people and music would eat this one up. Not just a memoir about Jackson's life but a time capsule of the rock era and the gig/ music scene at the time. The memoir sections are life-affirming and beautifully written. The rock era integrated messages are vibrant and therefore transportive. A quick and thoroughly enjoyable read! My favourite quote from the memoir:
"I had a strange feeling, a feeling that I have only had a few times in my life: a sense that something big was happening, an awareness of Fate, like massive cogs and gears turning and clicking into place. I was probably in love, and definitely in trouble."
October 13, 2024
Als Joe Jackson fan moet je dit
boek gelezen hebben
boek gelezen hebben
October 16, 2016
This was not the book I was expecting.
Joe Jackson's recording career has spanned decades - from the late 1970s until the present. But this memoir ends where that recording career began - with the release of his excellent debut album Look Sharp.
"A Cure For Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage" details Jackson's education and the evolution of his musical style before he secured a recording contract.
Jackson was an outsider in the working class town of Portsmouth, England. He was sickly and introspective and no good at sports, which made him unpopular with his classmates. And he was obsessed with music, which made him odd.
But he loved music enough to pursue it - almost single-mindedly - for his entire youth. He attended the Royal Academy of Music during the Day, while performing at small pubs nights and weekends with rock & roll or punk bands. He was the musical director of a cabaret in order to save money to record an album of his own material.
Through Jackson's education and his musical experience, he encountered many characters and many different styles of music and he was influenced by them all. This helps to explain why his recorded music crosses so many different genres - from jazz to rock to reggae to new wave to classical. "When people ask who has influenced me", he writes, "I always sense that they're expecting to hear certain names: John Lennon, David Bowie, Graham Parker. The truth is that I'm influenced by everything, but especially by the people I've worked with closely, people no one else has heard of."
Jackson's style is often clever and frequently self-effacing. He acknowledges his youthful awkwardness and his lack of success with women. And he tells stories of driving for hours and waiting all day outside a pub, then changing in a small restroom to perform for a small, audience that didn't want to hear a band or didn't like the music they played. He speaks freely of his musical frustrations and his inability to find his voice. But his love of music kept him going.
Jackson was driven to succeed in music, never considering any other career. "I had to succeed in music," he insists. "I was no good at anything else."
Although Joe Jackson had a hit album at age 22, "A Cure for Gravity" chronicles what it took him to get there. The book gave me new insights into an artist I have loved since my high school days when I first heard his music on an A&M sampler LP and (a few months later) when I saw his concert at the Punch and Judy Theater in Grosse Pointe, MI. "A Cure for Gravity" is a delightful story that this lifetime Joe Jackson fan enjoyed immensely.
Joe Jackson's recording career has spanned decades - from the late 1970s until the present. But this memoir ends where that recording career began - with the release of his excellent debut album Look Sharp.
"A Cure For Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage" details Jackson's education and the evolution of his musical style before he secured a recording contract.
Jackson was an outsider in the working class town of Portsmouth, England. He was sickly and introspective and no good at sports, which made him unpopular with his classmates. And he was obsessed with music, which made him odd.
But he loved music enough to pursue it - almost single-mindedly - for his entire youth. He attended the Royal Academy of Music during the Day, while performing at small pubs nights and weekends with rock & roll or punk bands. He was the musical director of a cabaret in order to save money to record an album of his own material.
Through Jackson's education and his musical experience, he encountered many characters and many different styles of music and he was influenced by them all. This helps to explain why his recorded music crosses so many different genres - from jazz to rock to reggae to new wave to classical. "When people ask who has influenced me", he writes, "I always sense that they're expecting to hear certain names: John Lennon, David Bowie, Graham Parker. The truth is that I'm influenced by everything, but especially by the people I've worked with closely, people no one else has heard of."
Jackson's style is often clever and frequently self-effacing. He acknowledges his youthful awkwardness and his lack of success with women. And he tells stories of driving for hours and waiting all day outside a pub, then changing in a small restroom to perform for a small, audience that didn't want to hear a band or didn't like the music they played. He speaks freely of his musical frustrations and his inability to find his voice. But his love of music kept him going.
Jackson was driven to succeed in music, never considering any other career. "I had to succeed in music," he insists. "I was no good at anything else."
Although Joe Jackson had a hit album at age 22, "A Cure for Gravity" chronicles what it took him to get there. The book gave me new insights into an artist I have loved since my high school days when I first heard his music on an A&M sampler LP and (a few months later) when I saw his concert at the Punch and Judy Theater in Grosse Pointe, MI. "A Cure for Gravity" is a delightful story that this lifetime Joe Jackson fan enjoyed immensely.
January 28, 2023
Celebrity memoirs were among the few kinds of books I could finish during the pandemic. I read memoirs by actors, comedians, and probably most of all, musicians. Joe Jackson was one of my favorite arts of the 80s, and he's a fantastic writer: charming, observant, and insightful. He talks about the cognitive dissonance he experienced as a working-class kid who loved classical music and eventually wins a scholarship to the Royal Academy of music. Apart from being a talented multi-instrumentalist, he's also someone who thinks deeply about music and its role in both his life and the wider world.
December 18, 2011
I had this impending sense of dread as I read this book. It is the dread that comes with closing in on what has been a fine read, but noticing that, with only a few chapters left, the parts you REALLY want to hear about won't get covered. True enough, Jackson gives us over 260 pages of a great musical coming-of-age story, and then chucks the years we actually know him for into about fifteen. This is intentional (see page 274, where he literally announces the end of the tome since, you know, all that stuff that you bought in the 80s and beyond that might have had cool back stories too is simply "public record").
If you want to hear some more horror stories about English cats in bad venues with band problems, this one is certainly as entertaining (and more erudite) than the rest. But I've heard those stories. Those are Joe Jackson stories, sure, but so are the stories after 1980. I know I have a host of questions I'd ask if given the opportunity. Sadly, none of them are answered by an otherwise strong effort.
If you want to hear some more horror stories about English cats in bad venues with band problems, this one is certainly as entertaining (and more erudite) than the rest. But I've heard those stories. Those are Joe Jackson stories, sure, but so are the stories after 1980. I know I have a host of questions I'd ask if given the opportunity. Sadly, none of them are answered by an otherwise strong effort.
May 10, 2018
I waver between three and four stars on this. JJ is/was a fave of mine, and I’m glad to see he’s still recording music and touring, and this was a decent bio of his early days. I hope he’ll release a follow-up some day, as he’s made some interesting choices that I’d love to learn more about. Hell, just about every album starting with Night & Day was an interesting choice, and that was 25 years ago.
April 19, 2012
I quite liked his style, and learning about his coming of age as an artist. To be honest, I would've liked to here more about his life after things got rolling, but we get what he's willing to give.
June 24, 2012
This book leaves me- each time I read it- affected. It's not only the story that touches me but the storytelling. I'd recommend that someone read it with no expectations or questions. Just enjoy the ride
April 1, 2025
je pense que, en tant que société, on n'est pas assez reconnaissants du fait qu'on vit dans le même monde que Joe Jackson
July 27, 2020
Joe Jackson opens A Cure for Gravity with a description of an eventful 1975 gig in Basingstoke. He follows up with musings on where his love of music came from, his first musical memories (The Runaway Train, and Exodus), his working class upbringing in Portsmouth and first attempts at gigging. The autobiography only takes us as far as Joe Jackson aged 24, when he achieves success with his first album, Look Sharp!.
His writing style is engaging and he has some cracking descriptions, such as "Beethoven .... is like one of those inspired chefs who can just throw a tomato and an onion and a couple of herbs into a pan and somehow manage to produce, in a few minutes, something both original and utterly delicious. Brahms, by comparison, is the musical equivalent of jam-sweetened porridge." I enjoyed the book as much as I did Tracey Thorne's Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star and Mark Ellen's Rock Stars Stole My Life!, and it brought back memories of my own brush with the music industry in the late 1980s.
The book was published in 1999, before Simon Cowell decided that anyone with an attitude could make it in the music industry. Jackson has experienced working as an independent musician in addition to as part of a heavily promoted, industry-backed act, in the guise of Koffee 'n' Kreme, who came to fame on New Faces, a 70s precursor to The X Factor. His success came with the good fortune never to owe his record company money, which guaranteed that he could do pretty much whatever he liked. But that was the "culmination of a lifetime of struggle." His story is not about becoming a pop star, nor is it about fame. It's a warts and all exposé of the hard work that goes into making music and making money from it. Jackson concedes that there was a bit of luck in how he eventually "made it", but his book stresses the key elements of success: education, intelligence and hard work.
In the last chapter, Jackson muses on the future of music in a world where our cultural agenda is being shaped by "the bottom lines of big corporations who want to sell us stuff, and preferably stuff that’s easy to sell." He says, "if we want music to survive, we must teach kids to appreciate it."
His writing style is engaging and he has some cracking descriptions, such as "Beethoven .... is like one of those inspired chefs who can just throw a tomato and an onion and a couple of herbs into a pan and somehow manage to produce, in a few minutes, something both original and utterly delicious. Brahms, by comparison, is the musical equivalent of jam-sweetened porridge." I enjoyed the book as much as I did Tracey Thorne's Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star and Mark Ellen's Rock Stars Stole My Life!, and it brought back memories of my own brush with the music industry in the late 1980s.
The book was published in 1999, before Simon Cowell decided that anyone with an attitude could make it in the music industry. Jackson has experienced working as an independent musician in addition to as part of a heavily promoted, industry-backed act, in the guise of Koffee 'n' Kreme, who came to fame on New Faces, a 70s precursor to The X Factor. His success came with the good fortune never to owe his record company money, which guaranteed that he could do pretty much whatever he liked. But that was the "culmination of a lifetime of struggle." His story is not about becoming a pop star, nor is it about fame. It's a warts and all exposé of the hard work that goes into making music and making money from it. Jackson concedes that there was a bit of luck in how he eventually "made it", but his book stresses the key elements of success: education, intelligence and hard work.
In the last chapter, Jackson muses on the future of music in a world where our cultural agenda is being shaped by "the bottom lines of big corporations who want to sell us stuff, and preferably stuff that’s easy to sell." He says, "if we want music to survive, we must teach kids to appreciate it."
August 27, 2024
I got this from my cousin with whom I’d seen Joe Jackson perform at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas on the Night and Day II tour on December 7, 2000. It was a thrill to finally see him, even if I’d largely stopped paying attention to his music after 1984’s Body and Soul, if only in the hopes of seeing some of my favorite songs done live as I’d heard them time and again on my turntable. I didn’t know anything about Joe Jackson the man and little more about Joe Jackson the musician other than, like his contemporary Elvis Costello, he was musically restless, constantly seeking new modes of expression. The show was fantastic, his band top-notch, but, never having experienced this before, I left with a slight tinge of disappointment as Jackson and his band had reworked his classic material into new, unfamiliar arrangements.
Joe Jackson’s A Cure for Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage isn’t exactly a rags-to-riches tale, but it’s not too far afield either. In between the sheets of his story from growing up “white trash” (as an American girlfriend told him when she saw his childhood neighborhood, Paulsgrove, in Portsmouth, aka Pompey, on England’s south coast, years later), attending the Royal Academy of Music, gigging in any, and every, possible way, just to be playing music, the release of his first album, Look Sharp!, and, in six brief pages, of an already-brief 285-page book, the roughly 20 years post-debut (the usual: pop success, disillusionment, rediscovery), Jackson waxes philosophical about music, about life, and about a life in music with clarity, honesty, intelligence, passion, a wicked sense of humor, and just a dash of mildly-cantankerous soapbox sermonizing.
Jackson lost me in the 1990s as he lost his way with pop music and then turned to classical and instrumental music. In 2003, he was back—with Volume 4, the first Joe Jackson Band album since 1980’s Beat Crazy. Since then, he has remained as musically restless as ever, recording as a not-quite-jazz piano-bass-drums trio (Rain), releasing an idiosyncratic tribute to Duke Ellington (Duke), and, most recently, a rousing and pitch-perfect British music hall pastiche (What a Racket!). If none of them have reached the heights of his first six albums, they’ve at least held my interest, and, in many cases, done much more than that. It’s not always wise to get to know your musical heroes better than they reveal themselves through their music, but with A Cure for Gravity, getting to know Joe Jackson the man has helped me better appreciate Joe Jackson the musician. You can’t ask for much more than that.
Joe Jackson’s A Cure for Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage isn’t exactly a rags-to-riches tale, but it’s not too far afield either. In between the sheets of his story from growing up “white trash” (as an American girlfriend told him when she saw his childhood neighborhood, Paulsgrove, in Portsmouth, aka Pompey, on England’s south coast, years later), attending the Royal Academy of Music, gigging in any, and every, possible way, just to be playing music, the release of his first album, Look Sharp!, and, in six brief pages, of an already-brief 285-page book, the roughly 20 years post-debut (the usual: pop success, disillusionment, rediscovery), Jackson waxes philosophical about music, about life, and about a life in music with clarity, honesty, intelligence, passion, a wicked sense of humor, and just a dash of mildly-cantankerous soapbox sermonizing.
Jackson lost me in the 1990s as he lost his way with pop music and then turned to classical and instrumental music. In 2003, he was back—with Volume 4, the first Joe Jackson Band album since 1980’s Beat Crazy. Since then, he has remained as musically restless as ever, recording as a not-quite-jazz piano-bass-drums trio (Rain), releasing an idiosyncratic tribute to Duke Ellington (Duke), and, most recently, a rousing and pitch-perfect British music hall pastiche (What a Racket!). If none of them have reached the heights of his first six albums, they’ve at least held my interest, and, in many cases, done much more than that. It’s not always wise to get to know your musical heroes better than they reveal themselves through their music, but with A Cure for Gravity, getting to know Joe Jackson the man has helped me better appreciate Joe Jackson the musician. You can’t ask for much more than that.
February 28, 2023
About twenty pages into this book, I did not care for it very much and considered putting it down. This is the reason I rarely put books down; by the end, I loved it. Joe Jackson is one of the very few rock musicians with the balls to write an autobiography that ends just as his career begins to take off. And that is the charm of this book - nearly 280 pages of a talented British musician learning describing his journey from a childhood love for classical music to studying violin to being one of the leaders of the New Wave era in the late 1970s.
Fortunately, Jackson is as good of a writer as he is a lyricist. This book is gritty at times, where you can smell the stale beer on the pub floors from his late night performances, but at other times it is a loving, delicate description of his affair with the wide world of music.
Although I was aware of his hits in the 70s and 80s, I did not become a devoted fan until around 1990. At that time, I bought all of his albums and saw him perform live shortly after that. Over the last 30 years, I knew very little about him. When I saw this hard-to-find book in an LA used book store, I grabbed it immediately. I had heard that Jackson was classically trained, a fact that is not surprising when you listen to his beautiful piano melodies. Jackson is at his best when he describes his emotions and sensitivities concerning Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Mahler, to name a few. Even more fascinating is when he describes the metamorphosis that led him away from classical music and toward rock and roll. And, of course, the long struggle, weird gigs and other obstructions along the way. By the time he had his first hit ("Is She Really Going Out With Him" in 1979), he was a very seasoned, weathered, and ambitious twenty-four year old long ready to conquer the world. There are a lot of mysteries surrounding Joe Jackson, and this book solved them all for me.
Fortunately, Jackson is as good of a writer as he is a lyricist. This book is gritty at times, where you can smell the stale beer on the pub floors from his late night performances, but at other times it is a loving, delicate description of his affair with the wide world of music.
Although I was aware of his hits in the 70s and 80s, I did not become a devoted fan until around 1990. At that time, I bought all of his albums and saw him perform live shortly after that. Over the last 30 years, I knew very little about him. When I saw this hard-to-find book in an LA used book store, I grabbed it immediately. I had heard that Jackson was classically trained, a fact that is not surprising when you listen to his beautiful piano melodies. Jackson is at his best when he describes his emotions and sensitivities concerning Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Mahler, to name a few. Even more fascinating is when he describes the metamorphosis that led him away from classical music and toward rock and roll. And, of course, the long struggle, weird gigs and other obstructions along the way. By the time he had his first hit ("Is She Really Going Out With Him" in 1979), he was a very seasoned, weathered, and ambitious twenty-four year old long ready to conquer the world. There are a lot of mysteries surrounding Joe Jackson, and this book solved them all for me.
July 25, 2023
I am to telling any music nerd, any musician, anyone who loves music in any capacity or just wants to have a good time to pick up this book now!
Joe Jackson not only has a stockpile of outrageous anecdotes that could only come from years in the music industry, but also a lot of great insight about music in the past and present zeitgeist and what makes music so incredibly special. I wouldn't quite call his takes profound, but I would call them refreshingly intelligent and open-minded. Most seasoned musicians chastise popular musicians for being unskilled or too preoccupied with aesthetics, but Joe Jackson understands that being an entertainer and being a trained artist are both equally valuable when it comes to music. I found Jackson's perspective on class divide and culture particularly enlightening. The book has become oddly poignant within a wide variety of contexts in our current age of social media:
There were definitely things that irked me about the work, but overall I found it to be incredibly fun and thoughtful.
Joe Jackson not only has a stockpile of outrageous anecdotes that could only come from years in the music industry, but also a lot of great insight about music in the past and present zeitgeist and what makes music so incredibly special. I wouldn't quite call his takes profound, but I would call them refreshingly intelligent and open-minded. Most seasoned musicians chastise popular musicians for being unskilled or too preoccupied with aesthetics, but Joe Jackson understands that being an entertainer and being a trained artist are both equally valuable when it comes to music. I found Jackson's perspective on class divide and culture particularly enlightening. The book has become oddly poignant within a wide variety of contexts in our current age of social media:
"Our cultural agenda is no longer being shaped either by 'elitist' experts or by 'the will of the People,' so much as by the bottom lines of big corporations who want to sell us stuff, and preferably stuff that's easy to sell... We're going to have to rebel, and we can't do that by dying our hair green and thrashing electric guitars, not anymore. That kind of rebellion is already packaged and available at your local supermarket at the special bargain of $9.99 (plus tax). No: in the Corporate Age, the rebels must be people with not only passion but intelligence, discernment, and good taste."
There were definitely things that irked me about the work, but overall I found it to be incredibly fun and thoughtful.
July 2, 2024
My father is probably among the biggest Joe Jackson fans in the great state of New Jersey, and this means that I grew up hearing plenty of his songs. Jackson has been a staple in the family record collection for as long as I can remember, but I didn't know very much about him as the man behind his great music until I read A Cure For Gravity.
The best description I can give is that it's not the sort of music memoir that consists of repetitive stories about life on the road and sordid tales of sex, drugs, and/or rock and roll. Instead of succumbing to sensationalism, Jackson frankly describes his musical beginnings, recounting gigs both good and bad (and some of them sounded disastrously bad), with the book culminating in the recording of his 1979 debut album, Look Sharp!
I think fans of Joe Jackson are obviously going to be the target audience for this, but anyone with an interest in music would probably get something out of it. As for me, I think it's the perfect companion to his discography. It definitely put me in the mood to get some of his albums out of the record cabinet and onto my turntable.
The best description I can give is that it's not the sort of music memoir that consists of repetitive stories about life on the road and sordid tales of sex, drugs, and/or rock and roll. Instead of succumbing to sensationalism, Jackson frankly describes his musical beginnings, recounting gigs both good and bad (and some of them sounded disastrously bad), with the book culminating in the recording of his 1979 debut album, Look Sharp!
I think fans of Joe Jackson are obviously going to be the target audience for this, but anyone with an interest in music would probably get something out of it. As for me, I think it's the perfect companion to his discography. It definitely put me in the mood to get some of his albums out of the record cabinet and onto my turntable.
November 18, 2021
A hard-to-find treat. Jackson's book, published in 1999, covers his childhood up to the cusp of fame with the release of Look Sharp! in 1979. It is an honest look at his life and career and if you set it down at any moment, it would seem an alternative history of a musician that didn't make it at all and ended up living a quiet life in Portsmouth or grinding it out on the cabaret circuit rather than leading to the career that he's had. He has a great mix of highlights from early life on the road, insights into his evolving insights into his relationship with, music, fame, and his identity as a creative. For me it was a sign of how one of my favorite, most articulate, thoughtful and at times prickly musicians has come to peace with his craft and his place. Recommended and worth re-reading.
July 29, 2020
Not all musician autobiographies provide this amount of depth and insight. As someone familiar with Jackson only through his new wave hits from the '80s, I was somewhat surprised to learn that he had such extensive formal training. I've long enjoyed the tunes of his I know, but I never suspected he was into Stravinsky and such.
If the author sometimes comes off as bitter, naive, or even condescending, I attribute this to his looking back upon a younger version of himself. Ultimately the overall mood is one of wistful remembrance mixed with a splash of hard-earned acceptance. Sometimes one must navigate a difficult path to arrive at a good place, which is made all the sweeter by recollection of the journey.
If the author sometimes comes off as bitter, naive, or even condescending, I attribute this to his looking back upon a younger version of himself. Ultimately the overall mood is one of wistful remembrance mixed with a splash of hard-earned acceptance. Sometimes one must navigate a difficult path to arrive at a good place, which is made all the sweeter by recollection of the journey.
October 23, 2018
As a long-time fan of Joe Jackson's music, I was interesting in his story: where he came from, what inspired him, what influenced him. It was all there, delightfully so, written in a thoughtful manner by an obviously thoughtful, introspective person. It was a joy to discover his early influences (classical music, in particular Shostakovich), a riot to find out he graduated from the RAM with paper in percussion, and not a surprise at all to learn that his desire to "connect with people" via his music was what drove him more than money, fame, or glamour (although, spiv-rock? Really?). Highly recommend this book to learn about a seminal presence in late 20th-century popular music.
December 29, 2021
This book is great for anyone who ever wanted to start a rock band or going to the music industry as a career and also I love Joe Jackson these multi-talented and this book as I discovered it recently has reinvigorated my interest in what Joe Jackson has been doing lately I also love the way that he Associates music with religion I've often told friends and loved ones that music is my True Religion music affects me and touches me like no religion or quite frankly any person has highly recommend this book great Insight greed musing about commoditization of music and the basic art form of the creation of music
July 1, 2020
One of the best book about music and musicians I read.
From the Portsmouth streets to the Royal Music College, from classical music to Pub music to New Wave, from violin to percussions to piano, from Portsmiouth to London and from London to the world. The artist tells his story, his failures and his successes, interwined with poignant reflections about music, art, life and philosophy. All interspected with humour, witty thoughts and at times very serious reflections. A must read for every music lover, no matter what kind of music s/he loves.
From the Portsmouth streets to the Royal Music College, from classical music to Pub music to New Wave, from violin to percussions to piano, from Portsmiouth to London and from London to the world. The artist tells his story, his failures and his successes, interwined with poignant reflections about music, art, life and philosophy. All interspected with humour, witty thoughts and at times very serious reflections. A must read for every music lover, no matter what kind of music s/he loves.
January 30, 2024
Even if you are not a fan of Joe Jackson, if you are a fan of music, you should read this book. Jackson tells the tell of his childhood, his early carreer and the many, many paths he took on the way to the release of his first album. But he also talks about his love of music - the joy of hearing an orchestra live for the first time, and the joy of seeing a punk band for the first time. My tastes are pretty eclectic, and happily that's something I share with Joe Jackson. His insights will make me search for great new music even harder.
January 5, 2024
This book covers the part of Joe Jackson's life where he's struggling to make it as a musician. He's extremely honest, humorous, and a really good writer too. Lots of interesting characters along his journey. There's a lot of philosophizing on the topic of music and I really enjoyed his thoughts. I've been a fan of his music and songwriting since the late '70's. I really enjoyed reading about how he pulled himself up from performing in a string of mediocre bands and finally found success.
January 11, 2020
This tale of growing up in 60s/70s Pompey and Turk Town was a joy to read. A funny and fantastic journey from a local hero and my favourite recording artist of all time will take you from Burton on Trent to the pinnacle of the Spiv Rock scene via the exotic locations of Paulsgrove and Bridgemary. JJ is just as accomplished in the world of words as he is in the medium of music.
March 25, 2020
That rare thing, a literate rock [auto]biography! And the subject is an interesting person, not the usual one-dimensional rock star. In fact, this isn't about his stardom at all: it describes his life up to the point at which he became successful, and it's all the more interesting for that.
February 19, 2021
I've always liked Joe Jackson's music, and this book shows him to be thoughtful and self-deprecating. The book is focused strongly on music (understandably).
His musical life story is an interesting one.
His musical life story is an interesting one.
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