INTERESTING JAMI TIDBITS #2 | "Jamiroquai High Times: Singles 1992-2006" Linear Notes By Dan Gennoe Transcription

Hello JAMIROQUAI Subreddit!

Here is some more good reading from my past years on the JamiroTalk.net.

Back in 2006, Jamiroquai was leaving Sony/BMG after JK had enough of their persistent annoyances during their album making process. So, after some negotiations, Jamiroquai finished their 10 album deal with Sony/BMG by releasing a "Greatest Hits" compilation, entitled "High Times The Singles 1992-2006", featuring all their classic singles remastered with two NEW songs as bonus tracks, "Radio" & "Runaway". In the CD/DVD releases of this compilation was a GREAT retrospective linear notes write-up about the history of Jamiroquai by writer Dan Gennoe. So for the sake of those who never got this release/read this, here is a transcription of those awesome linear notes. Enjoy!

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"God Bless Our High Times.." By Dan Gennoe (From 2006's "High Times The Singles 1992-2006" Jamiroquai Compilation)

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So how did it happen?

One minute Jay Kays running around Ealing, West London, A skinny kid with a skateboard, big hat and Technicolor dreamcoat. Next minute he's sold more than 20 million albums and is releasing a greatest hits? How a decade and a half flies by. More to the point, how life changes. Household name? Back in 1991 no one could spell Jamiroquai, let alone say it. Now he's a national institution, albeit one with a lot of speeding tickets.

In typical fashion, only one person really saw it coming. While everyone else was trying to work out what to make of this funk loving young white guy, who sounded like a black girl, danced in a de ance of gravity and sang about the end of the world, Jay himself was already making plans for global domination. Ask about the Buffalo Man figure and he'll tell you that he drew it himself, knowing that every world beating brand needs a logo. Ask about the hats and he'll point out that even way back when, he knew that when fame came knocking, having a hat as a trademark meant being able to walk down the street unrecognized when he took it off. All this while he was living in a squat in W5, bumming cigarettes off commuters outside Ealing Broadway Tube. Now that's vision.

The name should have been the real clue as to the way things were going to be Jamiroquai. A compound of Jam, as in the musical sense, and Iroquai, loosely based on the native American Indian tribe who Jay admired for their philosophy and reverence of the earth. It was a statement in every sense. It came with a cool funk vibe and spelt out the eco-political concerns, which informed every inch of 1992's debut album, Emergency On Planet Earth.

Critically though, it was a name as unique as the man, the band and the music. That went against every pre-packaged, homogenised pop principle going. Music business 101: pick a name that's short and sweet, something meaningless that everyone can say.

Still, when it comes to going against conventional wisdom, Jay Kays never exactly been shy. Literally, he's made a career of it. Against a backdrop of goodtime bubble gum pop, courtesy of Messrs. Stock, Aitken and Waterman, he delivered When You Gonna Learn as his debut single on Acid Jazz, a vintage rare groove record, with sweet horns, a string quartet, didgeridoo and chorus about man's destruction of the planet. Five years later, at the height of Britpop, when guitar was once again king, he was bringing disco back to life with the spaceage boogie of Cosmic Girl. And just as has fractious relationship with the British tabloids hit rock bottom and everyone with an opinion was saying it was all over for him, he came storming back with a modern-day classic, Little L.

From day one, the voice, the intergalactic imagery, the headgear, the moves, it's all been about the Difference --- the difference between him and everyone else, the difference between his and conventional wisdom; the difference between what he's meant to say and what he just said. Like all true pop icons, his success has been built on talent, style, individuality and a definite sense of where he's going.

Forgetting, just for a moment, his ability to add bite to the sweetest of melodies and imagine heat-haze horns, it's his unwillingness to compromise, either himself or Jamiroquai, which has made him stand out from the crowd. From rare groove to space-age disco and grinding computer funk, he's consistantly taken his own distinct route. And it's that which has allowed Jamiroquai to stay the course, riding out every fickle pop trend the charts have thrown at them. Truly, there is nothing else quite like Jamiroquai.

That individuality, along with Jay's outpspokenness and refusal to play the PC pop star, hasn't always won him friends. A select few of us aside, the music press took an instant dislike to him. By the time he's signed his unprecedented 8 album deal with Sony Records and released second single, anti-war anthem Too Young To Die, he'd been labelled arrogant, cocky, and difficult. Meanwhile, his ecological and political cocerns, encapsulated in Emergency On Planet Earth's impassioned sleeve notes or the angry social commentary of 1994s follow-up album, The Return Of The Space Cowboy, proved a constant source of amusement to his detractors. Seriously, how times have changed. In 1993, singing about pillaging of the planet, ending illegal wars and cancelling third world debt got you laughed at, today it'd get you a knighthood.

Certainly, Jays no saint, and the difference between his cockiness and confidence, like determination and arrongance, can be a matter of opinion. As a journalist interviewing him, it's a coin toss. On a good day, he's the life and soul of the party, the most charming man you could hope to meet. It it's a bad day, you know about it. There's no pretense. No fake smile or pre-rehearsed sound bites. He speaks his mind and is never afraid of giving his full, frank, unedited opinion. And any journalist who says that's not exactly what we need from our popstars, is lying.

Pissed off or carefree. Happy or sad. Life and soul or quiet and reflective. There is no distinction between the man and the music. One minute he's twitchy and excitable, the go anywhere, do anything determined force of nature behind the guttural grinds of Deeper Underground and Feels Just Like It Should. The next he's off somewhere else, lost in Corner Of The Earth's bitter sweet romance. And just as Virtual Insanity's warning against genetic engineering --- released the day Dolly The Sheep was unveiled to the world --- was born of geniune fear and abhorranc, so too Alright's party swagger and High Time's sunshine come from a geniune passion to enjoy every moment.

Critic or fan, no one can claim Jay Kays not a genuine character in every sense of the word. Likewise, the music is from the soul. It's a outlet of someone who's genuinely got something to say, and isn't afraid to say it. It was a antidote to the processed pop of the early 90s, and it's what's kept Jamiroquai at the top of their game for a decade and a half.

It's been 15 years of unbelievable High Times: 6 multi-platinum albums, 5 MTV Awards, a Grammy, an Ivor Novello Award and every one of the spectacular gigs, from London to Tokyo, Milan to Sao Paulo, which reinforced Jamiroquai's reputation as an electrifying live act. And there have been the lows; the departure of original soulmates, keyboardist Toby Smith and bassist Stuart Zender, being nominated for 15 Brit Awards and not winning any, the love-hate relationship with the darker side of rock n roll excess and hate-hate relationship with the so-called precision driver who wrote off Jay's prized Purple Lamborghini the day before the Cosmic Girl video shoot.

At times it's been a warp speed playboy adventure of dizzying videos, fast cars and beautiful women. At times, Jay will remind you, it's been a test of staying power, determination and sheer stubbornness; a thick skin and unshakable self-belief have been as key to Jamiroquai's success as the blissed-out grooves and that know-it-anywhere voice.

But ask anyone from back in the Ealing days and they'll tell you, he may have swapped a squat for a rock star mansion in the shape of his beautiful Buckinghamshire Manor, he may have traded-up from a skateboard to an outragious Black Ferrari Enzo, only 399 ever made, but he's still the same driven kid, with big ideas and wicked grin.

*As Eddie Piller, who originally put out When You Gonna Learn on his Acid Jazz label puts it, He's fundamentally the same, but in a much bigger way. He's like three times bigger in terms of his projection of his personality, but he's always been the same cheeky, irreverent, cocky little superstar, even when he only had 50p and a bus pass in his pocket.

The two new tracks, glistening disco shimmy Runaway and Radio's filthy swagger, say it all. For all the trappings of success and the ups and downs it brings it, Jay still has the same fantastic energy. He's still as vocal and outspoken as ever --- don't get him started about George W. He's still as driven as he was the day he drew the buffalo man or decided that every superstar needs a hat. He's still excitable, impatient and running at a million miles on hour with everyone around desperately trying to keep up. He's still absolutely unique and above all else, he's still one hundred percent as passionate about music as he ever was. Long may he stay that way.*

Dan Gennoe, 2006