JACK JONES performing in ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE: A Relationship With Music
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
The Beatles, a band who have forever forged both their names and their music into the history books. Their songs still illicit the strongest of emotions in people and are timeless in their own right.
Bringing together the wonderful music of The Beatles, four outstanding vocalists that include such names as Thirsty Merc’s Rai Thistlethwayte, Ciaran Gribbin and Jackson Thomas as well as Auckland’s own Philharmonia orchestra sounds like a match made in heaven. And this weekend All You Need Is Love will be delivering just that, by bringing to life thirty of The Beatles musical masterpieces. This is not a tribute show, but rather a celebration of The Beatles themselves and the wondrous body of work that they gifted the world.
Jack Jones is one of four vocalists performing at this amazing event; lead singer of Southern Seas, Jones is a household name who has toured the world with artists such as Spandau Ballet, Whitesnake, Alice Cooper and Carlos Santana. Jones has a deep and personal connection to The Beatles work and has sung at every one of the Australian performances of these wondrous shows.
This weekend sees Jack Jones appear at the New Zealand premiere, so I caught up with Jack to discuss the show, his love of The Beatles and the many relationships one can have with music…
All You Need Is Love is making its New Zealand premiere, I am sure you must be rather excited and proud to be part of such an event!
“I am, I only do a few – like outside of my own career – little things like this and it’s because, well, I love the Beatles! But to also celebrate music with an orchestra and a few other mates. It’s pretty exciting and you know it’s not often you get the opportunity to sing in front of an orchestra, so every chance I get to take to do this gig I do it and thankfully they keep asking me back, so it’s great!”
Well yes, I was just about to say that it’s certainly not your first Beatles performance because you have quite an impressive amount of shows under your belt. What is it about performing the music itself that keeps bringing you back?
“I think it’s just as I get older, I continually rediscover and have a new sense of appreciation for The Beatles. A. For what they did, B. For the time period in which they did it in. I mean really, ten years and the band was over? And that’s pretty amazing to go from like Beatles For Sale and records like that to Revolver to Sgt. Peppers, Let It Be, Abbey Road, The White Album. You know that is a pretty impressive body of work for a band.
And such diversity! I heard a story about The Beatles – and I don’t know if this is true because I’m sure everyone tells stories about The Beatles – in the beginning they were like niche records and they would hear that someone in another town would know another chord in a song that they had heard. So they would all get on the train and they would go to wherever this other place was and meet the person with the chord, learn the chord, figure out how to use it and then on the train on the way back they would write a song that would have that chord in it, so that they could use it later.”
Wow, that is amazing!
“And I just thought wow! You know there was no YouTube etc. And even when I was growing up, just the relationship with music was different. And I know that it always sounds like ‘Oh these old farts talking about it’s not like the old days or whatever’ – I don’t even mean it like that. It’s just my relationship with music was so much different because you heard a song on the radio, you liked it; for me I would go to bed at night and I would have my cassette player on record/pause, so just as I fell asleep I would un-pause it and I would be recording the radio.
I would listen [the next day] – fast forwarding through all the ads – to the songs. And if I heard something that I liked I would go back and listen to the announcement of it, and then I would go to my local record store – which sounds so boring now – I would tell them the song, I’d order the song which was probably an import and it would take six weeks…”
[laughs]
“…and I would wear that cassette out, waiting until I got the vinyl. And there was something really beautiful about that. To me anyways, and I think I have a higher level of – I don’t want to say appreciation because that sounds a bit pompous or pious – but I definitely have a deeper understanding of how music occurred to me. And it’s very different to today.
Now I love using Shazam, I love being able to hear a song and go ‘I like that song *bang* what is it, who is it?’ But conversely there is a longing that isn’t there because it’s so instantly solved and satisfied. And there was something beautiful about that other way of experiencing music and I kind of think to myself that in some ways I kinda miss that. So bands like The Beatles, discovering a band like The Beatles – which I discovered late – is a big thing in your life. It’s a big and very tactful experience, and I you know I still discover; I love Elbow and Aqualung, I love bands like that, and I discovered those in a similar kind of way. But now I guess I discover music differently.
But they’re the things that keep me coming back to The Beatles because they remind me of a time when music had a certain magic about it.”
I hear you. When I was a teenager, I had to save up to be able to buy my favourite albums; now I just stream them on my phone. But I do still buy records, I like the tangible.
“Yeah and people don’t talk about this much these days but also when you hear that music, it’s nice to hear it how it was intended to be heard. The thing I love about vinyl is that you have two kinda arcs with a record, because you’ve got the first side and the second side. Whereas when you make a CD now, well the people that still make like twelve track albums/album formatted product, you know it’s one arc, it’s from track one til the end of track twelve.
An album [vinyl] you always hear where the first side finishes ad the second side starts. Because you know you’ve got to get to the end of the first side and then you’re like [speaks in a hushed tone] ‘Oh, I gotta turn the record over now’.”
[mutual laughter]
With vinyl you have to prepare yourself. It’s like a ceremony I think listening to a record for the first time. A ritual.
“Yeah! That’s exactly right. I’m all for instilling that ritual in as many people as I come across because I think there is something so beautiful about it. And you know it’s even about the experience of listening to it; I remember that anticipation! And like you said before, it’s so tangible. You’re pulling out the liner notes, you’re reading who played on the songs, or what the lyrics are if it was a The Cure record. You’re reading who produced it, who played percussion…”
[laughs] The thank you section at the end!
“Yeah. All that stuff just doesn’t really exist as much in the experience of music. And to me some of that is the precious stuff. It was also the stuff that really made you feel like you had ownership over an artist too, or that they were like your discovery. Now it’s just so kinda easy. We always shared tapes back in the day, but that was because we were going to buy the record. It’s a different commerce I guess, I don’t know how else to describe it, how it’s now kinda money-based; but it’s just a different way of being exposed to music and sharing it now. There are so many great aspects to it, I love it, but it was a long time before The Beatles were actually on iTunes…
…but I think they held out for the right reasons.”
[mutual laughter]
I think you’re right though when you bring up the word commerce, because on the other side of it I think it is a lot harder for artists now. The market is flooded, it’s more difficult for an emerging artist to get their head above the noise. Artists used to make their money from album sales, but now they make hardly anything off streaming music, so they have to tour constantly which I don’t think is healthy.
“And it’s funny, because when you go back to bands like The Beatles – their touring schedule back in the early years, back in the Hamburg years, they were playing five sets a night, seven nights a week; you would think ‘where did these guys get the time to write songs?’
But it was a different way of life, and you’re right about getting above the noise… But these shows are a celebration of the music that came from all of that hard work and craft. And you know that’s the thing about The Beatles, that crafting of those songs. You can just hear the evolution through from ‘Ticket to Ride’ and ‘She Loves You’ to ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Penny Lane’.”
Strawberry Fields! I find that song fascinating, just the tempo changes, and the way it is put together. It’s just a fascinating song, no matter how many times you hear it.
“Yeah, it’s got like thirteen key changes/modulations in it. It’s a real piece of song snipping that these days you don’t hear that much because a lot of DJ’s are becoming producers and the result of that is little pieces of songs that make a song. This has to have a story – and not all music has to have that, I’m not saying that that’s the criteria, obviously it isn’t because it’s changed – but for me, when it comes to the craft and being a songwriter myself I’m so mesmerized, engaged and inspired by music that is constructed like that.
Because there is so much interest in it for me and it’s so inspiring to hear that someone has really taken the time to tell a story and to dress it up in some kind of clothes that captivate you and engage you when listening to it. It’s just a beautiful thing, I love music; I don’t know if you can tell that…”
[mutual laughter]
“But I love it, it gets me up every day. And I’m constantly inspired and looking for inspiration. And these shows also give me an opportunity to really re-experience that music and again full orchestra, the nature with the way the band plays, these guys are awesome, they’re fantastic musicians!
Something that is a big distinction that we try to convey to people with this show too is that it is not a Beatles tribute, as much as it is a tribute to The Beatles, or a homage to The Beatles. It’s not like I do all the John songs, or someone does all the Paul songs, or someone else is playing Ringo or George. It’s not like that. We spread the songs around; everyone sings in their own way, the band doesn’t drift too far off the reservation, they stay pretty true to the arrangements and the sonic template because we think that’s important for people that want to hear The Beatles, but we don’t sing them exactly the same. We do our own kind of thing; we sing them as ourselves. And that keeps it fresh too.
But it’s going to be a great little gig!”
Indeed it is! Right a couple of quick little Beatles questions for you; favourite Beatles album?
“Very hard! You know what? I love Revolver, I do love Revolver. But also, it’s Sgt. Peppers [Lonely Hearts Club Band]. I love songs like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘Taxman’ – what a great song!
Look it’s a very, very tough call, because you take Sgt. Peppers and The White Album, which is phenomenal. I mean that’s an album of a band breaking up though basically. You’ve got Paul playing drums and stuff; that was when they all had home studios and they were coming with songs almost finished where they had almost played everything on them.
I do love Sgt. Peppers because of the way it broke so many rules and was so ground-breaking with the recording techniques and how adventurous they were. It’s a pretty exciting record for that.”
And lastly, do you remember the first ever Beatles song you heard?
“Yeah, ‘Let It Be’”
Oh lovely, mine was ‘Twist and Shout’ when I was a kid. I didn’t know who The Beatles were at that point, but I remember hearing that song and how it brought me such great joy that I just wanted to hear it all the time!
“Yeah, I remember hearing ‘Let It Be’ and just thinking that it sounded so good, it just sounded great. It was warm, and it had such a beauty in how it first showed to you. Just all the piano, it was pretty cool.
And with the show, Nicholas Buck has done amazing arrangements for these songs, so we are very, very blessed to have such great arrangements and of course we have your APO orchestra! So, I can’t wait! I’m so jazzed to have that experience with them. It’s going to be a really fun night!”
All You Need Is Love will have a one off performance tomorrow night (28th July 2019) at the ASB Theatre in the Aotea Centre. There are VERY limited tickets left via Ticketmaster, so get in quick so you don’t miss out!
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