By pejepeine
Leaving This Planet: Songs about Jumping
I only learned recently that a recurring dream of mine is fairly common. It involves walking, springing on my toes and suddenly taking flight, bouncing higher and higher into the sky. It's more of a jumping dream than a flying one, and it's always exhilarating to spring away from the earth.
That thrill of briefly leaving the planet is also one of my first memories, leaping off a wall over some flowers onto a patch of grass – the fear and the excitement and that moment when there is nothing beneath your feet. I visited the wall I took my daredevil toddler's leap from a few years ago and it was less than two feet tall.
Jumping in songs is usually about dancing, it's often about sex and I was surprised by how often it's about suicide. But most of the songs I liked this week had a feeling of joyous uncontainable energy and spontaneity. Dancing needs a little thought, jumping just happens.
Jump Boys by The Undertones sums up that irrepressible energy. I'm not even sure what Jump Boys are, but they're clearly wild lads who enjoy life and don't care too much about consequences. I never saw The Undertones live, but I'm betting the title was an instruction as much as a description.
Marcia Griffiths and Bob Andy took the Train to Skaville/54/46 riddim, added a sensual vocal and an exultant horn riff and created one of the great Studio One classics, Feel Like Jumping. It's about love, and a feeling so strong that she doesn't know how to let it out. She also feels like shouting, crying, and dying, but jumping for joy is the first impulse.
I could have filled an entire list with jazz, jump blues and R&B, but Cab Calloway would always have been near the top, strutting his stuff in a zoot suit. Jumpin' Jive was one of his signature songs, and the video for jump fans to watch is the one featuring The Nicholas Brothers, who never saw a staircase they didn't want to leap over and land doing the splits from.
Roy Milton & His Solid Senders' Hop Skip & Jump is classic jump blues, with honking horn solos probably played by sweaty blokes bending double backwards. Little Walter's Mellow Down Easy starts with another invitation to jump and brings a scorching harmonica solo.
Rock 'n' roll, of course, was simply a variant of R&B and every bit as enthusiastic about jumping and hopping. Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps' frenetic rockabilly number Jump Back Honey, Jump Back is a blast, with great guitar and a driving snare drum.
Big Beat typified a swaggering mood in 90s Britain, as hundreds of bedroom musicians raised on punk, Run DMC and acid house pumped out crunching breakbeats perfect for a bit of drunken bouncing. Bentley Rhythm Ace's Spacehopper is a good example, and has aged well.
A spacehopper age …
Los Bengala are Spanish rockers in tigerskin jackets who introduce us to the Salto del Tigre (Tiger Pounce), a mythical sexual act involving a leap from a piece of furniture onto a willing partner. In this case, there's no one there, but despite serious injury the singer resolves to try again as he doesn't want to wait until judgement day to fall into hell.
Robert Smith of The Cure is a uniquely gifted songwriter who can somehow manage to make bitter songs sound happy and energetic songs sound weary. Jumping Someone Else's Train is great example, a single that built on their first, startling successes.
Skipping by The Associates is a swirling, cavernous song, and one of the highlights of the great Sulk album. The leaping comes not so much in the cryptic lyrics but in the vocal acrobatics of Billy McKenzie – a handsome chancer who could sound like Sinatra, Bowie, a boiling kettle and a jet plane taking off, often in the same song. It's sad to be reminded that these two lads are no longer with us.
Soulboys didn't pay much attention to The Pointer Sisters in the 80s. Like Tina Turner, their earlier stuff was revered, but the slick hits of the 80s were seen as a bit crossover, a bit MTV, a bit dry ice and wine bar. They sound a lot better to me now, and tragic little sister June did a fine job.
Destiny's Child were the biggest R&B group of the late 90s/ early 2000s, and Jumping, Jumping one of their biggest club hits. I always thought 11.30 was a bit early to see the dancefloor jumping, but I'm pretty sure I don't go to the same clubs as Beyoncé, Kelly and Michelle.
We finish with Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, who believed that “with some proper training there'll be gold upon my vest” in Fly Eddie Fly. Poor Eddie clearly failed to find that special training but remains famous for plucky British failure. His weedy voice is strangely soothing and I enjoyed this song.
The Airborne A-List Playlist:
The Undertones - Jump Boys (ShivSidecar)
Marcia Griffiths - Feel Like Jumping (Uncleben)
Cab Calloway - Jumpin' Jive (BanazirGalbasi)
Roy Milton & His Solid Senders - Hop Skip & Jump (Severin)
Little Walter - Mellow Down Easy (Nicko)
Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps - Jump back, Honey, Jump Back (TarquinSpodd)
Bentley Rhythm Ace - Spacehopper (vanwolf2)
Los Bengala - Salto del Tigre (Maki)
The Cure – Jumping Someone Else's Train (Happyclapper)
The Associates – Skipping (Shivsidecar)
The Pointer Sisters – Jump (For My Love) (Suzi)
Destiny's Child - Jumpin', Jumpin' (Loud Atlas)
Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards - Fly Eddie Fly (Marconius7)
The Bouncing B-List Playlist:
Amigo the Devil - First Day of the End of My Life (EnglishOutlaw)
Richard & Linda Thompson - Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? (Chris7572)
Pentangle - Jump Baby Jump (Suzi)
The Dukes - Leap Year Cha Cha (Fred Erickson)
Derrick Morgan - Moon Hop (Nicko)
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, with Ernest Ranglin - Jump Up ( Nilpferd)
The Carnaby - Jump and Dance (ShivSidecar)
Psymon Spine - Jump Rope (vanwolf2)
Basement Jaxx (feat. Slarta John) - Jump N Shout (Severin)
Erykah Badu, Lil' Wayne & Bilal - Jump in the Air and Stay There (Fred Erickson)
System Of A Down - Bounce (Loud Atlas)
House of Pain – Jump Around (SweetHomeAlabama)
Guru's Wildcard Pick:
King Africa – Salta 2000
Still popular at summer fiestas, this was the follow up to the massive global hit La Bomba and causes wild pogoing whenever played. It's also the only music video I've ever almost been in – I arrived on Lanzarote a couple of months before they filmed it and accidentally wandered into the beach party as I was going for a swim.
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: 29 February? A rare leap ... at songs about jumping. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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