[kj] Your TOP TEN FAVORITE JOKE Blunders!

[jpwhkj at aol.com]

I'm going to leave out individual tracks.  There have been some 
shockers, but that's true of any band.  The real blunders have been 
wider.

1. The long gap between Fire Dances and Night Time. They wrote some 
great music in that period (Blue Feather, etc) but missed the chance to 
make the logical progression...

2. The loss of "total anonymity" in the mid-eighties: the photos, the 
bouffant hair, the sense that they were trying to have chart success 
for its own sake.  I think Jaz coming out from behind te keyboards was 
part of this...

3. The disintregration of band during OTG.

4. Atkins. Supposedly a good drummer (though I'm not qualified to 
judge, technically) but his involvement appears to have been negative 
in the long run.

5. The gradual decrease in distinctiveness of Geordie's guitar.  The 
man is extraordinarily talented, and probably has contributed more to 
the uniqueness of the Joke sound than anyone else.  If, as Todd 
reckons, some of the decline was simply lack of available equipment, 
Jaz should have coughed to buy some new stuff.  If KJ is really such a 
dominant aspect of Jaz's life, then spend some of the readies from 
classical success etc on decent kit.  It's all deductible, right?

6. Fucking up on tours: Democracy and now the 2006 one.

7. Broken promises generally.  Actually, it's more a case of Jaz's 
predictions not coming true, be they Joke-related or 
end-of-world-related.

8. Allowing ideas and theories to rule your music.  Geomancy is going 
to make you successful?  Uh... I don't think so.  OTG - I rest my case. 
  The Joke were at their best when they were doing it by instinct - in 
the early days.

9. Lyrical decline.  The lyrics have become longer and increasingly 
straightforward.  Less is more, as far as I'm concerned.  By '86 it was 
teenage poetry level, and it's gradually become worse.  Jaz swearing.  
Jaz shouting rather than singing or chanting.

10.  Losing Big Paul.  So much of the previous 9 items is related to 
this.  Killing Joke was originally a piece of creative tension.  With 
Big Paul gone I don't feel there was anyone who could stand up to Jaz's 
attempts to steer the band in whatever direction was currently in 
favour.