10 Albums Influence 4-of-10

So, over on the Book of Face, I just did a challenge:  "Choose 10 albums that greatly influenced my taste in music.  post one album per day for 10 consecutive days.  No explanations, no reviews, just album covers."

Obviously, I had to do it.  But as hard as it was to pick 10 personally influential albums, it was harder yet to post with no explanations!!  Fortunately, I have no such restriction on my blog.  'Cause I make the rules!  So here we go, a reposting of the 10 albums I posted on Facebook, but now with a short explanation of each explain WHY I chose it as influential. And not exactly consequtive days, but hopefully close!

Note:  these are presented in the same random order I used over there....

Day 4 of 10

Joe Jackson - Look Sharp - 1979

Summer of 1979...  I had just finished my freshman year of college, and was home for the summer.  And it was a pretty dynamic time for new music.  The previous 12 months had seen debuts from band s like The Cars, The Police, Dire Straits,   Bands like Blondie, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Cheap Trick and Tom Petty were ascending.   Lots of good stuff, and my tastes were broadening from my high school days...  . And my brother slipped Joe Jackson into the mix.  Or maybe shoved.  And this quickly became one of my favorite albums, of that "new wave". 

Joe Jackson was one of my favorite artists throughout the 80's, and I picked up each of his first 8 alums pretty much when they were released.  I was able to see him twice in the decade (Merriwether Post Pavilion, in the DC suburbs).

40+ years later, still love this album.