All Together Now

It used to be we had to wait, but that was OK.

Growing up in the 1970’s and 1980’s, our main source for new music was FM radio. Our favorite station would play all the same Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, Doobie Brothers music we had been listening to for years and knew so well, but every now and then something new would break through. Something different. Something surprising. Something we couldn’t wait to hear again.

These special, surprising songs were never put into heavy rotation. And so we would wait. We would wait until we could hear these special songs again.

Probably I first heard “Is She Really Going Out with Him” by Joe Jackson at summer camp, played on those 8-track boom boxes gingerly carried around by our 20 year-old counselors, making a few summertime dollars until they went back to college in the fall. They introduced us to new music not because they cared that we were exposed to new artists and ideas, but just because they were so damn cool, and we wanted to be like them. If they listened to music, then we listened too.

They were our arbitrators of taste, and the gate keepers of what would become our summertime memories. This is how I first became aware of Bruce Springsteen, Hall & Oates, and countless other bands, some long forgotten (I’m looking at you Ram Jam!), others still living in our memory..

Playing knock-hockey in the camp playground on a warm July afternoon, a counselor walked by and he was blasting “Is She Really Going Out with Him” by Joe Jackson. It was somehow grand and funky at the same time. Sad and funny. Silly and exceedingly creative. It had such a clean sound. I wanted to hear it again, but I could only hear it again if I was lucky enough to be in the vicinity of a cool counselor while he was blasting it for everyone to hear.

I came home at the end of the summer, and could not wait to hear this curious, exciting song again. I had no money to speak of, so I could not go out and buy the single. All I could do was wait, and dream of a time (still decades into the future) I could just log in to Spotify or Apple Music and hear every single song I ever wanted to hear at any time. But for now, all I could do was sit in our living room in the warm afternoon sun, surf the channels on my parents’ stereo, and wait. But that was OK. The longer I had to wait for the song, the more I enjoyed the song when it finally came on the radio.

Joe Jackson (born David Jackson) grew up smack dab in the middle of England, and began performing in clubs and pubs in the early 1970’s after learning to play violin and piano in the hallway of his middle-class suburban home as a boy. After some early career starts and stops, Joe Jackson created the Joe Jackson Band, and signed a contract with A&M Records.

Released in 1979 as a single, “Is She Really Going Out with Him” almost got lost amongst other new wave and punk songs creeping into our consciousness at the time, but this song was something different. This song had legs.

The song begins with an almost thunderous intro made by only a few instruments. The tension builds with every new note as the music gets louder, and then only after a couple of bars we go suddenly quiet, and all we hear is a piano accompanied by a purposeful bass and a syncopated guitar. We hear Jackson’s low throttle voice with a cymbal keeping time, and a guitar making squeaks and pops.

“Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street
From my window I’m staring while my coffee goes cold
Look over there (WHERE?)
There, there’s a lady that I used to know
She’s married now, or engaged, or something, so I am told“

Jackson wrote this as a satirical take on dating, and poking fun at those who were cynical of the idea of women going out with men who were not good looking. It was a lark. A joke. Joe Jackson, who would go on to bend genres, infusing jazz into pop music, bringing wisdom and thoughtfulness to Top 40 radio, was only having a little fun. And he did it so well.

Loud music suddenly becoming quiet. The little squeaks coming out of the guitar. The call and response of the band. Look over there…WHERE?!?! The simple lyrics sung by the old soul. A regression to teenage power pop.

Is she really going out with him?
Is she really gonna take him home tonight?
Is she really going out with him?
‘Cause if my eyes don’t deceive me
There’s something going wrong around here

Joe Jackson was bringing something new to Top 40 pop music. Erudite and sophisticated though he may have been, here he was only looking for a hook, and maybe a wink and a smile behind the angst of desire and jealousy.

“Tonight’s the night when I go to all the parties down my street
I wash my hair and I kid myself I look real smooth
Look over there (WHERE?)
There, here comes Jeanie with her new boyfriend
They say that looks don’t count for much
If so, there goes your proof“

We can imagine this shy, lonely man peering outside his window all day. Imagining himself holding hands with a pretty woman. Convincing himself that he is worthy of affection. Hoping that maybe, when comparing himself to other guys in the neighborhood, he actually does stand a chance.

“But if looks could kill
There’s a man there who’s more down as dead
‘Cause I’ve had my fill
Listen you, take your hands from her head
I get so mean around this scene
Hey, hey, hey“

“Is She Really Going Out With Him” would never rise above #21 on the Billboard charts in 1978. Thankfully, as a result, it never got very heavy radio play, which means I never got sick of hearing it over and over again, which means that to this day, over 40 years after its release, it is still something special every time I hear it.

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“Is She Really Going Out with Him”
Written and Performed by Joe Jackson
Released October 1978