Jilted John

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Has anyone ever listened to this poor sap? His bio on the back cover is especially funny:

ihttp://www.shuttleworths.co.uk/jj/images/tlsback.jpg

― slick dickens (slickdickens), Tuesday, 15 August 2006 22:57 (nineteen years ago)

ihttp://www.shuttleworths.co.uk/jj/images/tlsback.jpg

― slick dickens (slickdickens), Tuesday, 15 August 2006 22:59 (nineteen years ago)

Good album, Top 10 hit in the UK. He acheived his ambition to be a full-time actor, at least. My favourite is "Baz's Party".

OPO: Jilted John
John Shuttleworth question
Gordon's Not A Moron

― everything (everything), Tuesday, 15 August 2006 23:05 (nineteen years ago)

I believe the only way his records could have possibly sold in the U.S. would have been as a joke artist. I dunno about you folks in the UK, but here in the US sometimes artists like JJ can develope a cult following if they are so bad they are great.

― slick dickens (slickdickens), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 00:05 (nineteen years ago)

"Fancy Mice" is epic

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 00:09 (nineteen years ago)

Er... you do realize...

He does realize, doesn't he? Maybe he doesn't. Nobody tell him.

― Pessimist (Pessimist), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)

realize what?

― slick dickens (slickdickens), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 00:29 (nineteen years ago)

He doesn't realise.

― rattusnorvegicus (ratty!!), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 01:06 (nineteen years ago)

realize that brits have poor taste in music? i figured that one out a long time ago.

― slick dickens (slickdickens), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 01:15 (nineteen years ago)

lol

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 01:29 (nineteen years ago)

Lolz! Best thread ever!

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 07:10 (nineteen years ago)

You lot had Debby Boone at number one for 98 weeks around the time of Jilted John so you've got a nerve to talk.

"Jilted John" is one of the greatest singles ever made, isn't it? It's one of the very few singles which you know from the first bar is being done out of love rather than to make money.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 07:50 (nineteen years ago)

.. and Martin Hannet's biggest selling single being one of his first, I believe...

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 07:53 (nineteen years ago)

Good call from Marcello, but that was my brother who bought Debby Boone, not me!

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 07:55 (nineteen years ago)

In Britain "You Light Up My Life" peaked at a miserable #48.

Mind you, at the same time we had "Mull Of Kintyre" at number one for another 98 weeks so we can't really crow.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 07:56 (nineteen years ago)

You know, I just read something to the effect that the relative failure of "Mull of Kintyre" (I don't think it charted here, and "Girls School," the other side, went to Number 34 or something) prompted McCartney to end his association with EMI stateside as soon as he had the chance. Have we done a TS?

Number 48 is hilarious. Over here, that record would chase you down the street and find you, no matter how fast you ran away . . .

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:00 (nineteen years ago)

Does anyone remember that guy Magic Michael who did the terrific Tom Jones knockoff on "A Bunch of Stiffs"?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:01 (nineteen years ago)

I'd rather have "Mull" than "Light"...

Wasn't that the one that had lots of deaf kids doing sign language behind D.Boon(e)?

xpost THAT WAS A GREAT TRACK!! YES I DO!!!

but apparently was too 'odd' a character to become the star he looked and sounded like!

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:02 (nineteen years ago)

Too bad. That was an incredible (Nick Lowe-produced, right?) track. Those Stiff compilations still rank in my mind among favorite albums, whether from high-school days or any other.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:04 (nineteen years ago)

I swear Nick Lowe is the guy you'd want to be stuck on a desert island with. All those 40-pound productions = dude would have an airplane built from nothing within three hours.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:07 (nineteen years ago)

I met him (nick, that is), backstage after he played the Hexagon.

We chatted for 10 mins. Damn nice bloke.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:11 (nineteen years ago)

Bear in mind also that while "Mull of Kintyre" was at the top here, stuck for six weeks at number two behind it was the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band and their interpretation of "The Floral Dance."

Full explanation of this phenomenon would require in-depth analysis of the force of nature that is Terry Wogan.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:18 (nineteen years ago)

I got to meet him once, too. Asked him -- in 1995 -- about a line I'd never deciphered in "They Called It Rock." He couldn't recall it, but he said "Was it something about selling shoes?" and that was enough to help me figure out something I'd been listening to for, at the time, 17 years. I admire lots of people in the business, but he's still an Ultimate Hero to me.

xpost

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:20 (nineteen years ago)

Marcello, was it you who's mentioned that Terry Wogan record before? I actually downloaded it -- I thought it was cute.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

It's yet another of those huge, uniquely British hits seemingly inherent in the mid-'70s where you actually do wonder: "what would the Americans make of all this?"

Nick Lowe probably deserves the term "all-round good egg" more than nearly everyone else in the music business I would have thought.

Wouldn't you have loved to have been Nick Lowe on the morning his Bodyguard soundtrack royalties cheque arrived in the post?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:23 (nineteen years ago)

A friend of mine interviewed him around that time; apparently he was genuinely surprised. A fine gentleman.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:27 (nineteen years ago)

I asked him about the 'castrating castro' line, apparently it was something that a cab driver in the states had told him was actual fact.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:29 (nineteen years ago)

HahahahahaHAHAhaaaa . . .

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:30 (nineteen years ago)

Think about that song as a John Prine track: acoustic guitar and just a raised eyebrow. It would work.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:33 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not sure there's anything about the Jilted John record that's so difficult for Americans to get. We go through puberty too, you know.

The full-length always surprises me with the way it edges slowly over into new wave, and a really terrific kind of new wave, too -- there's such a great early-80s smoothie in there, from the more two-toned Gordon singles to the suave synth sounds on "Goodbye Karen" ... I really love the sound of a lot of it.

"Fancy Mice" is draining, yes. Best thing on here: "The Birthday Kiss."

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 13:24 (nineteen years ago)

"Mrs Pickering" is well worth tracking down.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

>> I'm not sure there's anything about the Jilted John record that's so difficult for Americans to get.

The OP seems to have some difficulties with it!

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 13:42 (nineteen years ago)

Dudes, watch one Rockpile video on youtube! Then watch another and another! They will knock your socks off!

― Ruud Haarvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

A friend of mine has a good Nick Lowe story. He met him because he was working on a project with Clive Isle of Langerhans or whatever his name is. They were all in the pub and my buddy was trying to save his per diem, so when it was time to order asked the bartender for a half-pint of something, at which point The Basher said "No son of mine drinks half-pints!" reaching over to throw some money on the bar so my friend could get a proper drink.

― Ruud Haarvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

Wasn't "Nick Lowe Bought Me A Drink" some kind of catchphrase, or t-shirt design or something back in '77. Seriously.

― everything (everything), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I was trying to find a scan of that badge for here but failed.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

Same here. Is this something that cannot be found on the internet?

― everything (everything), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

The catchphrase I remember was "It's OK to like Nick Lowe." A cool kid in my high school had that button.

― Ruud Haarvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

A great record. Fancy Mice could have written by Madness or Ian Dury too, and Baz's Party is excellent also. Should have been a Top10 smash like the single was.

― zeus (zeus), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 20:06 (nineteen years ago)

Wahey! http://youtube.com/watch?v=iN45OjB-cCU

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

Er...Wayhey also?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MrYoQuGfo4w&mode=related&search=

― everything (everything), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

hahaha wtf

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

Here we go! too free faw.

― slick dickens (slickdickens), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 22:42 (nineteen years ago)

I just watched the video. HAH! that's pure campeh gold! He has some issues with Gordon, don't he?

That dude is a lot like Peter Noonan but better. his band is bizarre..the guitarists are straight outta Devo.

― slick dickens (slickdickens), Thursday, 17 August 2006 01:11 (nineteen years ago)

Bernard Kelly.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 17 August 2006 07:24 (nineteen years ago)

is that martin hannett waving the acoustic guitar around in the background in that video?

in the US sometimes artists like JJ can develope a cult following if they are so bad they are great.

i really don't understand that.... there's absolutely nothing bad about jilted john, the music is possibly the catchiest of that late punk / early post punk era, the lyrics are witty, and the dude's voice is not operatic or able to effect natural compression like today's artists, but thankfully that hasn't always been the valued norm. you want bad with cult following, by a door and window record.

― Dan Gr (certain), Friday, 18 August 2006 11:13 (nineteen years ago)

I love the way J. John becomes posher as the album progresses. He sounds like Johnny Rotten's kid brother on "Going Steady," but a mere four songs later on "I Was A Pre-Pubescent" he's Neil Hannon.

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Saturday, 19 August 2006 03:45 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, I have tried to listen to him. And more. He had some great singles and after all, Martin Hannett was involved, yeah? But overall, as an album, I confess I don't pull it out much. Great pop sensibility, though, and there is one song on the CD reissue where I'd swear it was Vini Reilly playing. In any case, I must reiterate there are some great pop tunes here, even if I haven't quite had the chance to fully appreciate them yet.

― A Cracker Jack On Crack (Bimble...), Saturday, 19 August 2006 06:22 (nineteen years ago)

I like the concept behind Jilted John - most artists do their best shit when somebody breaks their heart, but I could never get into his stuff. The "Jilted John" song appears on one of the Rhino "DIY"/"history-of-punk" CD's that I have, and I usually reprogrammed it so I wouldn't have to hear it (and a few other loser songs). However, that TOP OF THE POPS clip was a giggle.

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Saturday, 19 August 2006 09:42 (nineteen years ago)

You lot had Debby Boone at number one for 98 weeks around the time of Jilted John so you've got a nerve to talk.

hahahah too true

― A Cracker Jack On Crack (Bimble...), Saturday, 19 August 2006 23:34 (nineteen years ago)

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