''Blaze of Glory'' is the tenth studio album by English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

musician Joe Jackson, released in 1989. Jackson has stated that the album and the songs themselves were an examination of his generation as the 1980s were ending, ranging from the optimism of the 1950s ("Tomorrow's World") to the politics of terrorism ("Rant and Rave") and the Cold War ("Evil Empire"), to yuppies ("Discipline") and rockers who are well past their prime (" Nineteen Forever"). The title track compares the legacy of a classic rock musician who died young ("...went out in a blaze of glory") with the current wannabes ("They're just cartoons" who "think they're Superman" but "can't even fly"). Although ''Blaze of Glory'' was a modest seller, the resultant single "Nineteen Forever" reached No. 4 in the US Hot Modern Rock Tracks

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. Jackson felt the album was one of his best efforts and

toured ''Toured (A Live Album)'' was a live album by Huntington Beach pop punk band Big Drill Car. The concert was recorded live at New York's CBGB's on September 3, 1991, at the beginning of a nineteen-week tour known as ''The Batch World Tour'', in su ...

to perform and support it with an eleven piece band in the U.S. and Europe from June to November 1989, and was disappointed with both the critical and commercial reaction as well as his record label's lack of support.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Nick Robinson of ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' summarised, "By taking a reflective but by no means dated look at his past work, Jackson has come up with a definitive collection of musical styles and moods that flow gracefully – each one showing a different side to his songwriting character." Kevin Murphy of ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Re ...

'' considered it to show Jackson "back to his adventurous and ambitious best" with a "diverse collection of moods that knit together to tell the story of his life from quizzical child to cynical adult". He added that the album is "typical Jackson – all jazz-tinged Sixties brass, string-swamped sentimentality and glimpses of pub rock theatrics – but done with a greater confidence and richness."

Track listing

All songs written, arranged and produced by Joe Jackson.

Personnel

Musicians * Joe Jackson – lead vocals (1, 2, 7, 8, 11, 12),

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

(1), acoustic piano (2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12),

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

(3), synthesizers (4), synth solo (5), backing vocals (6, 8, 11), acoustic piano solo (7), harmony vocals (8), all vocals (9, 10), keyboards (11) * Ed Roynesdal – synthesizer programming, sampling,

Kurzweil K250 The Kurzweil K250, manufactured by Kurzweil Music Systems, was an early electronic musical instrument which produced sound from sampled sounds compressed in ROM, faster than common mass storage such as a disk drive. Acoustic sounds from bras ...

sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

, drum programming, synthesizers (6, 8, 9), acoustic piano (7, 9),

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

(7),

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

(8), keyboards (11), violin (12) * Tom Teeley – guitars (1, 2, 3, 5, 8), electric guitar (6), backing vocals (8, 11), acoustic guitar (10) * Vinnie Zummo – 12-string guitar (1, 2), guitars (4, 11), acoustic guitar (5, 6, 10, 12), electric 12-string guitar (5),

electric sitar An electric sitar is a type of electric guitar designed to mimic the sound of the sitar, a traditional musical instrument of India. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these instruments bear varying degrees of resemblance to the traditional ...

(8),

nylon guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor ...

solo (10), nylon guitar (12) *

Graham Maby Graham Maby (born 1 September 1952), is an English bass guitar player. He has recorded and toured with Joe Jackson since his first album, appearing on most of Jackson's albums and tours. He has continued to record and tour with Jackson even w ...

– bass (1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 12), lead vocals (1), backing vocals (8, 11) * Rick Ford – bass (5, 11), 6-string fretless bass solo (9), fretless bass (10) * Anthony Cox – acoustic bass (6) * Gary Burke – Kurzweil drums (1, 2, 3, 6), drums (5, 7, 8, 10, 11) * Sue Hadjopoulos –

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

s (7, 10) * Tony Aiello –

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(1), tenor saxophone (2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 11), tenor sax solo (8), soprano saxophone (11) * Steve Elson – alto saxophone (2), baritone saxophone (3, 7, 11) * Chris Hunter – alto saxophone (2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 11) * Charley Gordon – trombone (2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 11) * Tony Barrero – trumpet (2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 11), second trumpet solo (7) * Michael Morreale – trumpet (2, 3, 6-9, 11), first trumpet solo (7) * Gene Orloff – string conductor (4) * Glenn Dicterow – violin solo (4) * Charles McCracken – cello (12) * Joy Askew – lead vocals (1, 2, 11), backing vocals (1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12) * Drew Barfield – backing vocals (1, 7, 8, 11, 12), lead vocals (2, 4, 7, 11) Production * Joe Jackson – producer, arrangements, art direction * Ed Roynesdal – associate producer * Joe Barbaria – engineer, mixing * Paul Goodman – string recording (4) * Thom Cadley – recording assistant * Bridget Daly – mix assistant * Scott Hull – digital editing *

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...

– mastering *

Masterdisk Masterdisk is an American multimedia company in New York, located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production. Their clients include such no ...

(New York City, New York) – editing and mastering location * Richard Frankel – art direction * Pat Gorman – art direction * Frank Orlinsky – art direction * Manhattan Design – design * Sandra Haber – photography * Laura Levine – band photography * Martin Kirkup and Steve Jensen with Direct Management Group – management

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

Blaze of Glory
album information a
''The Joe Jackson Archive''
{{Authority control 1989 albums Joe Jackson (musician) albums A&M Records albums