A lot of music autobiographies have passed my way in recent years relating to musicians with direct or peripheral connections to the Canterbury scene. They seem to fall into a variety of categories: the ghostwritten and mass produced (Karl Jenkins), the unexpectedly confessional (Mike Oldfield), biography as creative writing artform (Carol Grimes), the humorous and self-deprecating (Bill MacCormick) and the riotous (Pam Windo). When I got news over the summer via Burning Shed of the fact that Jakko M Jakszyk (guitarist, vocalist and composer) was publishing his own autobiography, locating a copy became essential: as well as being a friend to Facelift over the years in its various guises, Jakko’s life has been so utterly extraordinary, within and without music, that there was always going to be one hell of a tale to tell.
‘Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair’, the title a poignant nod to the last words said to him by Camille, his adopted mother, is essentially a story with three different strands.
The first is probably what will attract most readers of this blog – Jakko’s tortuous route through the fandom of – and ultimately performing with – musicians written about on these pages, which included close relationships with Dave Stewart and Pip Pyle; interactions with Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth; members of Henry Cow; and we can include by extension both his solo work and ultimately becoming Robert Fripp’s henchman in the last (to date) incarnation of King Crimson.
The second thread is the parallel universe which has satisfied other creative urges and one suspects largely funded the first: the acting, the voiceover work, work as a producer, as commissioned composer, and a quite extraordinary body of work which has crossed over, directly with artists as varied as Ray Davies, Al Murray, Lenny Henry, Nigel Planer, Sam Brown, Tom Robinson, Danny Thompson, Tony Hawkes. Or slightly more tangential connections en route with Neil Sedaka, Cliff Richard, Chris de Burgh, Uri Geller… and Michael Jackson…!
But it is the third component which makes Jakko’s story (and ultimately this book) so utterly compelling: its personal backdrop. Jakko has always been disarmingly honest in interviews about his complex personal situation. But even though this has also permeated some of his musical output too (the autobiographical pieces ‘The Road To Ballina’, originally commissioned for Radio 3, as well as tracks and liner notes within solo albums such as ‘Mustard Gas and Roses’, ‘The Bruised Romantic Glee Club’ and ‘Secrets and Lies’), there is still so much more to say in what is clearly an ongoing process. For those of you not familiar with the story: Jakko’s upbringing was as something of a child prodigy in terms of music, acting and even football; whilst at the same time grappling with a complicated family background: brought up north of London by adoptive parents from Poland and France respectively, and learning of his ‘real’ parentage by an acclaimed Irish singer and an unidentified American serviceman.
‘My adoptive parents came from different cultures and from a different time, almost…. At times, they may as well have come from a different planet’. Somehow the stifling and seemingly anachronistic circumstances of his upbringing didn’t seem to quell either his spirit, or temper his precociousness (he admits at one point to having been ‘bloody unbearable’) – even as a mid teen in the mid Seventies he managed attendance at various seminal gigs, often as a lone wolf – (one of the book’s highlights is the story of him being stranded after a Henry Cow gig and being picked up and taken back home by the band). The unearthing of further details throughout the book is extraordinary, and it is only Jakko’s known willingness to share this information that perhaps softens a voyeuristic guilt in the reader in wanting him to return to this particular narrative in amongst other unlikely revelations. Yes, so he encounters Michael Jackson in a studio; OK, he hangs out with Gene Simmons; sure, he seems to be on friendship terms with most of the Comic Strip and Young Ones; and he even once told Pete Waterman to ‘fuck off’. But when do we get back to the narrative about tracking down sibling X over in the States?
The book is engagingly written, with humour, some self-deprecation and clarity of direction, all resonant of erstwhile mentor Dave Stewart; and compels all the more because of its confessional element – for the most part Jakko doesn’t complain about his vicissitudes overly, although he certainly marvels at their frequent occurrences, and is all too aware of quite what an unfathomable life he has endured which extends well beyond his musical world. For example, there is an extraordinary diversion at one point in which he has a prolonged exchange of views with Millwall Football Club on the subject of racism.
There are uplifting moments: the reconciliation with his adopted father, and the discovery of new siblings, but this is no inexorable advance to a fairy tale conclusion: the deception close to home alluded to in tracks such ‘No One Left To Lie To’ on ‘Bruised Romantic Glee Club’, or even more tellingly through the title of his last solo album ‘Secrets and Lies’, is laid unsentimentally bare. And, having diligently concealed the identities of previous partners in earlier parts of the book, the gloves come off rather in later chapters… in detailing the breakdown of his marriage, his fractured dealings with one erstwhile member of King Crimson, and eventually the deterioration of his relationship with most of the members of his ‘found’ family. There is a sense indeed that all of the latter processes are still ongoing, and therefore the tone is still more than a little raw..
This is in strict contrast to the almost exultant progress of Jakko within the ranks of King Crimson-related projects, from Seventies fandom (he even reveals that his childhood dog was named ‘Fripp’), through membership of the 21st Schizoid Band from 2002 (with ex Crimson members), through to eventually meeting the aforementioned Robert Fripp, working initially with him on the ‘Scarcity of Miracles’ album, until becoming, as was apparent on the recent King Crimson documentary ‘In The Court of the Crimson King’, a favoured right hand man within the core Crimson band. Subsequent accounts of increasingly lavish gigs abroad with the band might start to blur into one another after a while (in the same manner as the celebrity connections also do), but one senses that both have helped provide a well-deserved sense of self-validation in direct contrast to the tribulations of his early musical career.
Readers of Facelift in its various guises will know that I am a sucker for Jakko’s solo work: and even though I knew that all of his first three albums had been almost farcically derailed at various junctures in the Eighties, the full details finally emerge here. So does the backdrop to his wonderful Seventies band 64 Spoons; the almost mythical Rapid Eye Movement (with Dave Stewart, Pip Pyle and Rick Biddulph); his key role in Dave Stewart’s early solo work; Dizrhythmia; and his brief but eventful journey with Level 42.
As I write, social media posts inform me that Jakko continues to inhabit a peculiar hybrid world: on the one hand he is currently in Italy with old compadre from The Lodge, John Greaves (alongside Annie Whitehead, Annie Barbazza and Mel Collins) – I am sure this will be critically well received there but might otherwise pass largely under the radar. On the other hand the autobiography itself is being publicised through a series of interviews with premier film critic Mark Kermode, whilst the launch itself on 11 October at West Hampstead Arts Club will be curated by acclaimed comedian Stewart Lee. The Jakko rollercoaster story continues apace… and there will undoubtedly be further bumps en route….
Thanks to Jakko for sharing an early version of the book and for permission to use some of the images contained within it for this piece
An Evening with Jakko Jakszyk with Stewart Lee – https://www.tickettailor.com/events/westhampsteadartsclub/1375951
Order the book at Burning Shed – https://burningshed.com/jakko-m-jakszyk_whos-the-boy-with-the-lovely-hair_book
Jakko also speaks at the Berkhamstead Book festival on Sun 3 November https://bookfestival.berkofest.com/
Jakko continues his run of gigs in Italy with the John Greaves band in October
The Canterbury scene(zine) continued.... 