Chords for Graham Maby Discusses Formation of The Joe Jackson Band #joejackson #bassplayer #britishrock
Tempo:
126.25 bpm
Chords used:
Gb
Ab
C
G
Cm
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[Cm]
[Bb]
[Gb] [N] I mean the first gigs we did we pretty much had to organize them ourselves because there
was nowhere to play.
It was slim pickings back then in the early 70s in England.
But you were in a band called Arms and Legs.
Well, terrible name.
All my early bands had terrible names.
Arms and Legs was originally called Edward Bear.
That was the band that Joe Jackson was in.
It was a cover band he had joined when he was like 19 years old because he was going
to school, music school in London, and he was broke.
So he joined this band to make some money on the weekends.
And then the guys that formed the band had been doing it for years and decided to, they
wanted to retire or something.
So Joe was kind of scurrying around trying to replace these guys and keep the thing going
because they actually had gigs.
And so that's where I came in.
So and then some years went by and we got a record deal.
And if you can believe it, the record company said, you have to change your name because
there's already a band with that name.
Right, they had a hit.
Yeah, one hit wonder.
We didn't know.
They were Canadian, I think.
Yes, yes, they were.
I had no idea.
So we had to change our name.
So we ended up, our record producer came up with the name Arms and Legs, which we hated,
but it was marginally better than Edward Bear.
So yeah, so we did have a record deal for a minute in like 1975.
We made three singles and they all bombed.
But the premise was that if one of them was a success, then we could make an album.
We'd be allowed to make an album.
And of course, they were all dismal failures and we got dropped.
And that was that.
Did you ever hear any of those singles on the radio?
Yeah, I think the last one, I think I did hear the last one, which is called Anymore
Wine written by Mark Andrews, who was the lead singer.
Joe wasn't the lead singer.
And it actually did get the most radio play out of all of them.
But the irony is that by the time I heard that on the radio, the band had already broken up.
It was one of those classic scenarios, you know.
So yeah, but it was interesting because we did get to record at Air Studios in London.
We did one of our, I think that song, Anymore Wine, was recorded at Air Studios.
And I remember it was really exciting because we'd never been in a studio like that before.
And we kept wondering if we would see George Martin or something.
And the room down the hall was where Jeff Beck had recorded Blow by Blow.
So we looked in there like it was sort of like a holy shrine, you know, because that
was like, you know.
Like Jeff Beck was doing that and we were doing this like poxy little pop song.
So anyway.
But then Joe starts his own band and asks you to be a member, yes?
Well, Joe and I had been at this point friends for some time.
So Joe left the band in disgust when we got dropped, you know.
And he went off and made some money doing cabaret gigs and this and that and writing some songs.
And we kept in touch the whole time.
So this is by now 1977.
And he, you know, at some point he said, I want to record these demos.
So we did them in three batches of four songs each.
[Ab] And by the time we finished we had 12 [Gb] demos.
And I can remember sitting at home listening to them and thinking, wow, this is really good.
You know, this could do something, you know.
Because I'd already had the thought that after the first debacle that we had our chance and
we didn't, nothing happened.
We all went back to our day jobs.
And so all of a sudden I thought, well, this is actually pretty good.
And Joe was very, you know, he was very focused, ambitious.
He was going up to London.
He was going to play these demos to people.
And you know, worst case scenario, he was going to put it out himself if he couldn't.
So he had a kind of a plan.
And then one day the phone rang and Joe said, I got a deal.
You can quit your job.
Come up to London.
We're going to make a record, you know.
And of course that was like, yeah, great.
In a way it was no surprise because I thought the stuff was [Gm] quality.
So you envisioned him having hits at least or at least having a chance at having a
That's a good question because I thought, yeah, [C] I thought that material was really good.
But I remember before we did those demos, after the first band had broken up, Arms and
Legs had broken up, I remember him saying, yeah, you know, sod that.
I'm going to go off on my own and, you know, I'm going to do my own thing and I hope you
would be involved in it, you know.
And I remember saying to him, yeah, I'd love to, you know, because I thought he was super talented.
And he was really the only legitimate musician I knew.
Everyone else taught themselves like me, but Joe was actually going to music school in London.
Right, right.
In his class was Annie Lennox and Simon Rattle, who's now Sir Simon Rattle.
And so, yeah, so that was Joe.
So I kind of had a
always had a respect for his talent.
However, I remember thinking, well, I don't know about you being the lead singer, you know,
because I didn't, you know, he had a long way to go with his voice at that point.
But he really did work on that.
Well, the tide was changing also as punk rock, so we were going back to the three minute pop [G] song at the time.
Right.
And of course, it was more style than execution at that point, so, you know.
Right, right, right, right, right.
Yeah, there were people that had only been playing a few weeks that were in the top ten, you know.
So, God bless them, you know.
There were some good songs too.
There were great songs.
[Ab] You know, so.
Now, your bass style actually kind of, I remember the first [C] record, defied convention back then
because with regard to the sound, it was very up front.
Well, that was a production decision, but the sound, that was just the sound I was into at the time.
And the fact that in the mixes they ended up pushing the bass, that was obviously nothing to do with me.
Uh-huh.
But, yeah, I'd been using a pick and I'd been using these black flat wound strings.
And [G] was that a Fender or a Rickenbacker at the time?
No, it was an Ibanez.
It was an Ibanez.
It was a knockoff.
Okay.
It was called an Ibanez Silver Series, a knockoff of a jazz bass basically, that they made back in the 70s just for a few years.
And that was my only instrument.
That was the only instrument I owned.
And I was playing through Fender Bassman 135, which is still one of the best bass rigs I ever owned.
And I wish I still had it.
Using a pick because I liked the sound of the pick.
And with the treble up because I liked the sound.
I don't know.
It was just the sound I liked at the time.
And so by the time we went into Eden Studios in 1978 and made that record, that was the sound, you know.
So, and of course a year later I was using my fingers and rolling the treble back because I decided I wanted to sound different, you know.
[Bb]
[Gb] [N] I mean the first gigs we did we pretty much had to organize them ourselves because there
was nowhere to play.
It was slim pickings back then in the early 70s in England.
But you were in a band called Arms and Legs.
Well, terrible name.
All my early bands had terrible names.
Arms and Legs was originally called Edward Bear.
That was the band that Joe Jackson was in.
It was a cover band he had joined when he was like 19 years old because he was going
to school, music school in London, and he was broke.
So he joined this band to make some money on the weekends.
And then the guys that formed the band had been doing it for years and decided to, they
wanted to retire or something.
So Joe was kind of scurrying around trying to replace these guys and keep the thing going
because they actually had gigs.
And so that's where I came in.
So and then some years went by and we got a record deal.
And if you can believe it, the record company said, you have to change your name because
there's already a band with that name.
Right, they had a hit.
Yeah, one hit wonder.
We didn't know.
They were Canadian, I think.
Yes, yes, they were.
I had no idea.
So we had to change our name.
So we ended up, our record producer came up with the name Arms and Legs, which we hated,
but it was marginally better than Edward Bear.
So yeah, so we did have a record deal for a minute in like 1975.
We made three singles and they all bombed.
But the premise was that if one of them was a success, then we could make an album.
We'd be allowed to make an album.
And of course, they were all dismal failures and we got dropped.
And that was that.
Did you ever hear any of those singles on the radio?
Yeah, I think the last one, I think I did hear the last one, which is called Anymore
Wine written by Mark Andrews, who was the lead singer.
Joe wasn't the lead singer.
And it actually did get the most radio play out of all of them.
But the irony is that by the time I heard that on the radio, the band had already broken up.
It was one of those classic scenarios, you know.
So yeah, but it was interesting because we did get to record at Air Studios in London.
We did one of our, I think that song, Anymore Wine, was recorded at Air Studios.
And I remember it was really exciting because we'd never been in a studio like that before.
And we kept wondering if we would see George Martin or something.
And the room down the hall was where Jeff Beck had recorded Blow by Blow.
So we looked in there like it was sort of like a holy shrine, you know, because that
was like, you know.
Like Jeff Beck was doing that and we were doing this like poxy little pop song.
So anyway.
But then Joe starts his own band and asks you to be a member, yes?
Well, Joe and I had been at this point friends for some time.
So Joe left the band in disgust when we got dropped, you know.
And he went off and made some money doing cabaret gigs and this and that and writing some songs.
And we kept in touch the whole time.
So this is by now 1977.
And he, you know, at some point he said, I want to record these demos.
So we did them in three batches of four songs each.
[Ab] And by the time we finished we had 12 [Gb] demos.
And I can remember sitting at home listening to them and thinking, wow, this is really good.
You know, this could do something, you know.
Because I'd already had the thought that after the first debacle that we had our chance and
we didn't, nothing happened.
We all went back to our day jobs.
And so all of a sudden I thought, well, this is actually pretty good.
And Joe was very, you know, he was very focused, ambitious.
He was going up to London.
He was going to play these demos to people.
And you know, worst case scenario, he was going to put it out himself if he couldn't.
So he had a kind of a plan.
And then one day the phone rang and Joe said, I got a deal.
You can quit your job.
Come up to London.
We're going to make a record, you know.
And of course that was like, yeah, great.
In a way it was no surprise because I thought the stuff was [Gm] quality.
So you envisioned him having hits at least or at least having a chance at having a
That's a good question because I thought, yeah, [C] I thought that material was really good.
But I remember before we did those demos, after the first band had broken up, Arms and
Legs had broken up, I remember him saying, yeah, you know, sod that.
I'm going to go off on my own and, you know, I'm going to do my own thing and I hope you
would be involved in it, you know.
And I remember saying to him, yeah, I'd love to, you know, because I thought he was super talented.
And he was really the only legitimate musician I knew.
Everyone else taught themselves like me, but Joe was actually going to music school in London.
Right, right.
In his class was Annie Lennox and Simon Rattle, who's now Sir Simon Rattle.
And so, yeah, so that was Joe.
So I kind of had a
always had a respect for his talent.
However, I remember thinking, well, I don't know about you being the lead singer, you know,
because I didn't, you know, he had a long way to go with his voice at that point.
But he really did work on that.
Well, the tide was changing also as punk rock, so we were going back to the three minute pop [G] song at the time.
Right.
And of course, it was more style than execution at that point, so, you know.
Right, right, right, right, right.
Yeah, there were people that had only been playing a few weeks that were in the top ten, you know.
So, God bless them, you know.
There were some good songs too.
There were great songs.
[Ab] You know, so.
Now, your bass style actually kind of, I remember the first [C] record, defied convention back then
because with regard to the sound, it was very up front.
Well, that was a production decision, but the sound, that was just the sound I was into at the time.
And the fact that in the mixes they ended up pushing the bass, that was obviously nothing to do with me.
Uh-huh.
But, yeah, I'd been using a pick and I'd been using these black flat wound strings.
And [G] was that a Fender or a Rickenbacker at the time?
No, it was an Ibanez.
It was an Ibanez.
It was a knockoff.
Okay.
It was called an Ibanez Silver Series, a knockoff of a jazz bass basically, that they made back in the 70s just for a few years.
And that was my only instrument.
That was the only instrument I owned.
And I was playing through Fender Bassman 135, which is still one of the best bass rigs I ever owned.
And I wish I still had it.
Using a pick because I liked the sound of the pick.
And with the treble up because I liked the sound.
I don't know.
It was just the sound I liked at the time.
And so by the time we went into Eden Studios in 1978 and made that record, that was the sound, you know.
So, and of course a year later I was using my fingers and rolling the treble back because I decided I wanted to sound different, you know.
Key:
Gb
Ab
C
G
Cm
Gb
Ab
C
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Gb] _ _ _ [N] I mean _ _ _ _ _ _ _ the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ first gigs _ _ we did we pretty much had to organize them ourselves because there
was nowhere to play.
It _ was slim pickings back then in the early 70s _ in England.
But you were in a band called Arms and Legs.
Well, _ terrible name.
All my early bands had terrible names. _ _
_ _ Arms and Legs was originally called Edward Bear.
_ That was the band that Joe Jackson was in.
It was a cover band he had joined when he was like 19 years old because he was going
to school, music school in London, and he was broke.
So he joined this band to make some money on the weekends.
And then the guys that formed the band had been doing it for years and decided to, they
wanted to retire or something.
So Joe was kind of scurrying around trying to replace these guys and keep the thing going
because they actually had gigs.
And so that's where I came in.
So and then some years went by and we got a record deal.
_ And if you can believe it, the record company said, you have to change your name because
there's already a band with that name.
Right, they had a hit.
Yeah, one hit wonder.
We didn't know.
They were Canadian, I think.
Yes, yes, they were.
I had no idea.
So we had to change our name.
So we ended up, our record producer _ _ came up with the name Arms and Legs, which we hated,
but it was _ marginally better than _ Edward Bear.
So yeah, _ so we did have a record deal for a minute in like 1975. _
We made three singles _ and they all bombed.
But the premise was that if one of them was a success, then we could make an album.
We'd be allowed to make an album.
And of course, they were all dismal failures and we got dropped.
And that was that.
Did you ever hear any of those singles on the radio? _
Yeah, I think the last one, I think I did hear the last one, which is called Anymore
Wine written by Mark Andrews, who was the lead singer.
Joe wasn't the lead singer.
_ _ And it actually did get the most radio play out of all of them.
But the irony is that by the time I heard that on the radio, the band had already broken up.
It was one of those classic scenarios, you know.
_ _ _ So yeah, but it was interesting because we did get to record at Air Studios in London.
_ We did one of our, I think that song, Anymore Wine, was recorded at Air Studios.
And I remember it was really exciting because we'd never been in a studio like that before. _
_ _ _ _ And we kept wondering if we would see George Martin or something.
And the room down the hall _ was where Jeff Beck had recorded Blow by Blow.
So we looked in there like it was sort of like a holy shrine, you know, because that
was like, you know.
Like Jeff Beck was doing that and we were doing this like poxy little pop song.
_ So anyway.
But then Joe starts his own band and asks you to be a member, yes?
Well, Joe and I had been at this point friends for some time.
So Joe left the band in disgust when we got dropped, you know.
And he went off and made some money doing cabaret gigs and this and that and writing some songs.
And we kept in touch the whole time.
So this is by now 1977. _ _
And he, you know, at some point he said, I want to record these demos.
So we did them in three batches of four songs each.
[Ab] And by the time we finished we had 12 [Gb] demos.
_ And I can remember sitting at home listening to them and thinking, wow, this is really good.
You know, this could do something, you know.
Because I'd already had the thought that after the first debacle that we had our chance and
we didn't, nothing happened.
We all went back to our day jobs.
And so all of a sudden I thought, well, this is actually pretty good.
And Joe was very, you know, he was very focused, ambitious.
He was going up to London.
He was going to play these demos to people. _
_ _ And you know, worst case scenario, he was going to put it out himself if he couldn't.
So he had a kind of a _ plan.
And then one day the phone rang and Joe said, I got a deal.
You can quit your job.
Come up to London.
We're going to make a record, you know.
And of course that was like, yeah, great.
In a way it was no surprise because I thought the stuff was [Gm] quality.
So you _ envisioned him having hits at least or at least having a chance at having a_
That's a good question because I thought, yeah, [C] I thought that material was really good.
But I remember before we did those demos, after the first band had broken up, Arms and
Legs had broken up, I remember him saying, yeah, you know, sod that.
I'm going to go off on my own and, you know, I'm going to do my own thing and I hope you
would be involved in it, you know.
And I remember saying to him, yeah, I'd love to, you know, because I thought he was super talented. _
And he was really the only legitimate musician I knew.
Everyone else taught themselves like me, but Joe was actually going to music school in London.
_ Right, right.
In his class was Annie Lennox and Simon Rattle, who's now Sir Simon Rattle.
And so, yeah, so that was Joe.
So I kind of had a_
always had a respect for his talent.
However, _ I remember thinking, well, I don't know about you being the lead singer, you know,
because I didn't, you know, he had a long way to go with his voice at that point.
_ But he really did work on that.
Well, the tide was changing also as punk rock, so we were going back to the three minute pop [G] song at the time.
Right.
And of course, it was more style than execution at that point, so, you know.
Right, right, right, right, right.
Yeah, there were people that had only been playing a few weeks that were in the top ten, you know.
So, _ God bless them, you know.
There were some good songs too.
There were great songs.
[Ab] You know, so.
_ Now, your bass style actually kind of, I remember the first [C] record, defied convention back then
because with regard to the sound, it was very up front.
Well, that was a production decision, but the sound, that was just the sound I was into at the time.
And the fact that in the mixes they ended up pushing the bass, that was obviously nothing to do with me.
Uh-huh.
But, _ yeah, I'd been using a pick and I'd been using these black flat wound strings.
_ And [G] was that a Fender or a Rickenbacker at the time?
No, it was an Ibanez.
It was an Ibanez.
It was a knockoff.
Okay.
It was called an Ibanez Silver Series, a knockoff of a jazz bass basically, that they made back in the 70s just for a few years.
And that was my only instrument.
That was the only instrument I owned.
And I was playing through Fender Bassman 135, which is still one of the best bass rigs I ever owned.
_ And I wish I still had it. _
_ Using a pick because I liked the sound of the pick.
_ _ _ And with the treble up because I liked the sound.
I don't know.
It was just the sound I liked at the time.
And so by the time we went into Eden Studios in 1978 and made that record, that was the sound, you know.
So, and of course a year later I was using my fingers and rolling the treble back because I decided I wanted to sound different, you know. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Gb] _ _ _ [N] I mean _ _ _ _ _ _ _ the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ first gigs _ _ we did we pretty much had to organize them ourselves because there
was nowhere to play.
It _ was slim pickings back then in the early 70s _ in England.
But you were in a band called Arms and Legs.
Well, _ terrible name.
All my early bands had terrible names. _ _
_ _ Arms and Legs was originally called Edward Bear.
_ That was the band that Joe Jackson was in.
It was a cover band he had joined when he was like 19 years old because he was going
to school, music school in London, and he was broke.
So he joined this band to make some money on the weekends.
And then the guys that formed the band had been doing it for years and decided to, they
wanted to retire or something.
So Joe was kind of scurrying around trying to replace these guys and keep the thing going
because they actually had gigs.
And so that's where I came in.
So and then some years went by and we got a record deal.
_ And if you can believe it, the record company said, you have to change your name because
there's already a band with that name.
Right, they had a hit.
Yeah, one hit wonder.
We didn't know.
They were Canadian, I think.
Yes, yes, they were.
I had no idea.
So we had to change our name.
So we ended up, our record producer _ _ came up with the name Arms and Legs, which we hated,
but it was _ marginally better than _ Edward Bear.
So yeah, _ so we did have a record deal for a minute in like 1975. _
We made three singles _ and they all bombed.
But the premise was that if one of them was a success, then we could make an album.
We'd be allowed to make an album.
And of course, they were all dismal failures and we got dropped.
And that was that.
Did you ever hear any of those singles on the radio? _
Yeah, I think the last one, I think I did hear the last one, which is called Anymore
Wine written by Mark Andrews, who was the lead singer.
Joe wasn't the lead singer.
_ _ And it actually did get the most radio play out of all of them.
But the irony is that by the time I heard that on the radio, the band had already broken up.
It was one of those classic scenarios, you know.
_ _ _ So yeah, but it was interesting because we did get to record at Air Studios in London.
_ We did one of our, I think that song, Anymore Wine, was recorded at Air Studios.
And I remember it was really exciting because we'd never been in a studio like that before. _
_ _ _ _ And we kept wondering if we would see George Martin or something.
And the room down the hall _ was where Jeff Beck had recorded Blow by Blow.
So we looked in there like it was sort of like a holy shrine, you know, because that
was like, you know.
Like Jeff Beck was doing that and we were doing this like poxy little pop song.
_ So anyway.
But then Joe starts his own band and asks you to be a member, yes?
Well, Joe and I had been at this point friends for some time.
So Joe left the band in disgust when we got dropped, you know.
And he went off and made some money doing cabaret gigs and this and that and writing some songs.
And we kept in touch the whole time.
So this is by now 1977. _ _
And he, you know, at some point he said, I want to record these demos.
So we did them in three batches of four songs each.
[Ab] And by the time we finished we had 12 [Gb] demos.
_ And I can remember sitting at home listening to them and thinking, wow, this is really good.
You know, this could do something, you know.
Because I'd already had the thought that after the first debacle that we had our chance and
we didn't, nothing happened.
We all went back to our day jobs.
And so all of a sudden I thought, well, this is actually pretty good.
And Joe was very, you know, he was very focused, ambitious.
He was going up to London.
He was going to play these demos to people. _
_ _ And you know, worst case scenario, he was going to put it out himself if he couldn't.
So he had a kind of a _ plan.
And then one day the phone rang and Joe said, I got a deal.
You can quit your job.
Come up to London.
We're going to make a record, you know.
And of course that was like, yeah, great.
In a way it was no surprise because I thought the stuff was [Gm] quality.
So you _ envisioned him having hits at least or at least having a chance at having a_
That's a good question because I thought, yeah, [C] I thought that material was really good.
But I remember before we did those demos, after the first band had broken up, Arms and
Legs had broken up, I remember him saying, yeah, you know, sod that.
I'm going to go off on my own and, you know, I'm going to do my own thing and I hope you
would be involved in it, you know.
And I remember saying to him, yeah, I'd love to, you know, because I thought he was super talented. _
And he was really the only legitimate musician I knew.
Everyone else taught themselves like me, but Joe was actually going to music school in London.
_ Right, right.
In his class was Annie Lennox and Simon Rattle, who's now Sir Simon Rattle.
And so, yeah, so that was Joe.
So I kind of had a_
always had a respect for his talent.
However, _ I remember thinking, well, I don't know about you being the lead singer, you know,
because I didn't, you know, he had a long way to go with his voice at that point.
_ But he really did work on that.
Well, the tide was changing also as punk rock, so we were going back to the three minute pop [G] song at the time.
Right.
And of course, it was more style than execution at that point, so, you know.
Right, right, right, right, right.
Yeah, there were people that had only been playing a few weeks that were in the top ten, you know.
So, _ God bless them, you know.
There were some good songs too.
There were great songs.
[Ab] You know, so.
_ Now, your bass style actually kind of, I remember the first [C] record, defied convention back then
because with regard to the sound, it was very up front.
Well, that was a production decision, but the sound, that was just the sound I was into at the time.
And the fact that in the mixes they ended up pushing the bass, that was obviously nothing to do with me.
Uh-huh.
But, _ yeah, I'd been using a pick and I'd been using these black flat wound strings.
_ And [G] was that a Fender or a Rickenbacker at the time?
No, it was an Ibanez.
It was an Ibanez.
It was a knockoff.
Okay.
It was called an Ibanez Silver Series, a knockoff of a jazz bass basically, that they made back in the 70s just for a few years.
And that was my only instrument.
That was the only instrument I owned.
And I was playing through Fender Bassman 135, which is still one of the best bass rigs I ever owned.
_ And I wish I still had it. _
_ Using a pick because I liked the sound of the pick.
_ _ _ And with the treble up because I liked the sound.
I don't know.
It was just the sound I liked at the time.
And so by the time we went into Eden Studios in 1978 and made that record, that was the sound, you know.
So, and of course a year later I was using my fingers and rolling the treble back because I decided I wanted to sound different, you know. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _