Mr. Joe Jackson Presents Max Champion in What a Racket!

by Joe Jackson

Overview

Never let it be said that Joe Jackson lacks ideas. Over the course of a complex, sometimes confounding career, Jackson has dabbled in almost every style of post-war popular music, so it's only fitting that he turns back the dial to the start of the 20th century for What a Racket!, a collection of 11 songs styled after the salad days of Music Hall. It's a high concept made even grander by Jackson inventing a character called Max Champion who, according to a concocted lore, was born in 1882 and died on the Western Front in World War I. Jackson "discovered" the Champion songs in the 2010s, then set about to cut What a Racket! as a way to preserve the tunes. The resulting record is indeed a racket -- a joyous, bawdy one filled with barreling pianos, shouted affirmations, careening horns, dirty puns, and boozy singalongs. Jackson walks the thin line separating satire and tribute, exaggerating his cockney accent and barely disguising his double entendres. His gusto is the reason why What a Racket! is such a delight: it's as audacious in its execution as it is in its conception. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	11/24/2023
Label:	Ear / Ear Music
UPC:	4029759189916
Rank:	26710

Tracks

1. : Why Why Why? [Overture]
2. The Sporting Life
3. Dear Old Mum: A London-Irish Lament.
4. Monty Mundy (Is Maltese)!
5. The Shades of Night.
6. What a Racket!
7. The Bishop and the Actress.
8. Think of the Show!: A Thespian's Lament.
9. Never So Nice in the Morning
10. Health & Safety
11. Worse Things Happen at Sea

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Joe Jackson   Primary Artist
Hetty Leno   Viloncello
Dan Fyffe   Clarinet (Bass),Clarinet
Max Champion   Baritone (Vocal)
Bessie Macdermott   Violin
Albert Bonehill   Violin
Jack Chevalier   Pans,Pots,Drums,Cymbals,Mallets
George Tilley   Trombone
Harry Penrose   Viola
Eugene Robey   Contrabass
Vesta Merson   Flute,Piccolo
Gus Leybourne   Trumpet

Technical Credits

Max Champion   Arranger,Composer
Joe Jackson   Recording Supervision
Patrick Dillett   Recording Supervision