Jump for your love!
Many of the posts I write start as mental earworms – either a piece of music, or an idea, or a fragment of a sentence – go around in my head for days on end. And then it either dies down of its own accord, or I feed it by listening to the song, or turning a thought into a blog post.
‘Jump (For my Love)’ (1984) by the Pointer Sisters has been going around in my head for days. I played it originally on a daily radio show, where I have lots of Japanese listeners tune in, and I play games with them – like programming a sequence of songs around a theme. And you guessed it – ‘Jump’* has been one for this week.
It started with this song: ‘Jump’ (2023) by NiziU, a recent J-pop release that came as a request from the listeners.
I then added in this one by Funkatarium (1996) from a brilliant Belgian compilation I had, ‘Serie Noire’ mixed by the Glimmer Twins; it’s a kind of funk techno track, with a horn sample and like a ‘boxing match’ bell that hits hard through it.
Which then went back further, to another Jump track that I knew from back in my rave days, ‘Jump’ (1992) by the Movement; this had a slight rasta, ragga dub to it.
One more much further back – before my time – was ‘Jumpin Jive’ (1939) by Cab Calloway, which the Japanese listeners had requested over a year ago, this clip from the beautiful movie Stormy Weather (1943) starring Lena Horne.
And then coming back to the 80s, with the Pointer Sisters, Jump was a song that I regularly heard as a kid! It was one of those songs that was playing everywhere — like constantly on radio, sports matches and school discos.
But hearing it again on the radio stream was like magic! And when I started to listen to the lyrics much more closely — I was amazed by how romantic and sensual they were. As a kid, I knew it was about love.
But as a middle-aged man, the actual beauty and sensuality of the lyrics really came through, and made me want to know more about the song.
It wasn’t written by the Pointer Sisters — but obviously, they made it their own. But when I looked for the lyricist, I saw the name, Marti Sharron.
At first, I felt disappointed that a man had written the lyrics for these three beautiful women. How could he write something so heartfelt from a woman’s point of view?
And much against my better judgement, I decided to look this Marti up a bit further, as I wanted to know who could write like this!
And then appeared a picture of an attractive face framed by a blonde bob, and I was happy to discover that ‘Marti’ was in fact a woman.
Marti Sharron had spent most of her life trying to be successful — and then had a breakout hit with this song! Another she worked on was ‘Easy Lover’ by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins. But she had also passed away at 56. I couldn’t believe it!
When I was in my early thirties, I wanted to write a love story, and the thing that I wanted to focus on, was how ‘love was something you lean into’. You can feel a magnetic pull between yourself and the other person, and without even thinking, you would lean towards them and end up in a passionate kiss. Unfortunately, a few years later, a book called ‘Lean In’ came out, and after hearing people talking about it on podcasts, I knew my chance to use that description was dead in the water. It didn’t matter anyway: the many hours I had spent writing this love story had filled up a shoebox with notes and print-outs of solo chapters – but no finished product.
But it has made me think again that the key word for now might be ‘leaning in’ — but back in the 80s, ‘Jump’ seemed to be the magical word. Maybe this song reflected the attitude of the time, which perhaps was not always sensible, but there was a degree of passion, that was reflected in the mentality of the people, who were all 20 or 30 years older than me. The love songs of the very early eighties are amazing, and I find myself listening to them a lot!
A lot of it is thanks to the Japanese listeners, who also request these songs, and give me a chance to explore and express this area of sound and sentiment! Also, one of the Japanese listeners who has become a friend, commented that she was amazed how similar all of these ‘Jump’ songs were — they seemed to have the same energy, no matter what decade they came from!
I have liked someone very much lately, and it has been eating me up a little bit. The fact that it is maybe something that can’t really go anywhere. And I’ve kind of being going into these romantic revelries about her — regularly listening to emotional music, as a way of exploring my feelings, but also give me some comfort and excitement!
But going back to Jump, these are the lyrics; and maybe they don’t seem like much on their own. But if you listen to the song, and just relax, all of the attractive parts will jump out at you.
And perhaps the best part is the ‘middle-eight’ — where the song has a kind of transcedental break for about 8 bars — before returning to the main verse-chorus structure. In this case, it is ‘when you are near me . . . “
JUMP (FOR MY LOVE) — THE POINTER SISTERS (LYRICS BY MARTI SHARRON)
“Your eyes tell me how you want me
I can feel it in your heartbeat
I know you like what you see
Hold me, I’ll give you all that you need
Wrap your love around me
You’re so excited, I can feel you
Getting hotter, oh baby
I’ll take you down, I’ll take you down
Where no one’s ever gone before
And if you want more, if you want more
More, more
… Then jump for my love
Jump in and feel my touch
Jump if you want to taste my kisses
In the night then
… Jump, jump for my love
Jump, I know my heart can make you happy
Jump in, you know these arms
Can feel you up
Jump, if you want to taste my kisses
In the night then
Jump, jump for my love
… You told me, I’m the only woman for you
Nobody does you like I do
Then make a move before you try and
Go much farther, oh baby
You are the one, you are the one
And heaven waits here at my door
And if you want more
If you want more, more, more
… Then jump for my love
Jump in and feel my touch
Jump if you want to taste my kisses
In the night then
… Jump, jump for my love
Jump, I know my heart can make you happy
Jump in, you know these arms
Can feel you up
Jump, if you want to taste my kisses
In the night then
Jump, jump for my love
… When you are next to me, oh I come alive
Your love burns inside, ooh
Oh, it feels so right
Come to me if you want me tonight
… Jump…”
*And no, I didn’t forget House of Pain (with 66 million views) just in case you want it!