Certain Songs #793: Joe Jackson - "I'm The Man"

Album: I’m The Man
Year: 1979

Fuck yeah, “I’m The Man!”

It goes without saying that my favorite Joe Jackson song is the raver that that gave his second album not just its title, but its reason for existing.

With guitarist Gary Sanford frantically throwing out chords while drummer David Houghton and all-time killer bassist Graham Maby lay down cover fire, Jackson sets himself as the “I Write The Songs” guy of useless ephemera.

Pretty soon now
Why ‘know I’m gonna make a comeback
And like the birds and the bees in the trees
It’s a sure-fire smash
I’ll speak
To the masses throughout the media
And if you got anything to say to me
You can say it with cash
‘Cause I got the trash and you got the cash
So baby we should get along fine
So give me all your money
Cause I know you think I’m funny
Can’t you hear me laughing
Can’t you see me smile

With without even pausing for even a breath, they locomotive into an all-hands-on-deck chorus with the rest of his band chanting “I’m The Man” over and over and over and over and over and over while joe gives us just a taste of all of the neato things he’s brought us over the years.

I’m the man
(I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man)
I’m the man
(I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man)
That gave you the hula hoop
(I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man)
I’m the man
(I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man)
That gave you the yo-yo

And with the whole song stopping at the end of each chorus so that Maby, Sanford and Houghton call all echo “yo-yo” on their respective instruments, “I’m The Man” would have been just fine as it was, but not an all-time classic. It’s after the second chorus where “I’m The Man” rockets into the stratosphere.

That chorus comes after a verse where Jackson takes credit for Kung Fu, skateboards and Jaws, but instead of going into a third verse they decide to do an good old-fashioned rave up with Sanford strumming his guitar like his hands are on fire and only way to put them out is to repeatedly slam them against the strings while Maby is using his bass to make the fire hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter and all of a sudden, they all explode all over Houghton’s drum kit as Jackson yells for his life:

RIGHT NOW!!
I think I’m gonna plan a new trend
Because the line on the graph’s getting low
And we can’t have that
AND YOU THINK YOU’RE IMMUNE!!
But I can sell you anything
Anything from a thin safety pin
To a pork pie hat

That explosion into the third verse of “I’m The Man” utterly dramatic and completely thrilling, and not even a freak-out double-time ending where they’re all screaming the title without regard for time or space or order matches it for me.

I loved it so much that I was always thrilled when Aqua Bob played it as well, even if I always thought that Mark sang it as “I’m a man” instead of “I’m the man.” (Though I could be wrong.)

Fan-made video for “I’m The Man”