The Return of the Space Cowboy - Jamiroquai

Introduction to Space Cowboy

0:00Peter, let me ask you a question. What do you get when you combine 70s vibe and instrumentation with some indigenous solidarity, with some environmental advocacy, with some Adidas sneakers, and a lot of drugs? Hmm. Run DMC? No. Jimmy Roquois.

0:30And a Fender Roach. You forgot that. Lots of Fender Roach. Hmm.

1:00Let's swing it a little bit. Let's swing it a little bit. Yeah, the bass. Just killing.

1:34Huh. Hey, come on. Hey, hey, yeah. Now act on cut to me.

1:56As I don't want from evil dreams.

2:01Hmm. Now that's evolution. Huh. Still, I don't know what it means.

2:11Yeah. And I got so hard for me to change.

2:17One doesn't mean as a way to run.

2:23Well, should I wear my fingers to the bone. To the bone. That's what I truly deserve. Ha. Ha.

2:53Ha. i'm adam manis and i'm peter martin and you're listening to the you'll hear podcast music explored explored brought to you today by opus studio good opus studio jazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs peter today yeah we're talking about jamiroquois incredible 1994 release space cowboy the return of the space cowboy the return of the space officially uh this is one of our most requested albums of the past couple months a lot of people asking for it uh that's the opening

3:25track just another story or at least it was on the original release i think now on some of the streaming it starts with the second what i consider to be the second track still in this time the remastered but it starts with this like eight minute 50 second long just another story this epic intro takes forever to get going an incredible start to the album like you're in for something kind of crazy that's to filter out all the non-fusion funk nerds that's right non-musicians that's right you are not welcome here you are not welcome here no this is unless you have

4:00persistence and you stick around this is a big album for me 1994 i was uh 16 and i remember you know who introduced me to this album friend of yours willie akins no um keep guessing you have two more guesses friend of yours good friend of yours christopher thomas no um not from st louis from new york city robert glasper no okay it was uh your very good friend and friend of the show gregory hutchinson a world-class drummer so when i know you knew him back when i was 16 yeah

4:31my friend dave johnstone shout out to dave who is a johnson johnstone johnson johnstone dave johnstone very sure drummer now in la uh dave had a job for jazz st louis picking up artists at the i think the airport or maybe their hotel and shuffling them around hold on jazz club pick probably the greyhound station yeah and they sent a teenage driver in his in his like you know like late model minivan to go pick up these artists yeah so we picked up gregory hutchinson and he brought

5:02his friend along what i know he brought his yeah his his uh his nerdy piano friend along uh i feel like it was like greg hutchinson and i forget who else but anyway we're just chatting with hutch and and dave and hutch start talking about this album and i had seen the video for space cowboy i think on like the box or like one of those one of those things where you call in and you order something for a dollar 99 or whatever but i didn't know much about it and i remember like thinking like i'm gonna go get this and i went to street side records the very next day yeah and i bought space cowboy so

5:33thanks hutch for the rest so he was playing it on the way or he just told you about it he they were him and dave were chatting and he was like he i think he was like just over in london and maybe hung with these guys or something he's like you guys should you guys check out jamiroquois kind of one of those things yeah but uh that's how i was introduced to this album that's awesome so uh jamiroquois

Signing and Band Formation

5:51was formed in the early 90s this is it's an interesting story because lead singer uh jk signed a deal to sony for eight albums for one million pounds uh and it was just him signed one million pounds we're not doing that again it was just him signed it wasn't the band jamiroquois it was just jk signed to this record deal but he ended up doing it with the band jamiroquois and this incarnation of how many records they sold that decade that was uh sony got a pretty good

6:21deal he got a great million pounds sounds like a lot but eight albums yeah the the jamiroquois pretty much like swept up in the 90s they had four great albums but uh this incarnation of jamiroquois jk on vocals and all the production toby smith on the keys and a lot of the songwriting co-writing credits with jk they the two of them wrote most of the material almost everything right yeah almost everything uh and toby smith also playing a bunch of vintage keyboards which we'll talk about in a little bit yeah uh a young 20 year old stewart zender on the bass and this is kind of stewart's

6:54album like stewart steals frankly almost everything he's on but like especially this album this is a as we heard just off the top it's a bass player's record man i almost see this as like zender's interaction with this band especially this album it's almost like a pino paladino yeah d'angelo kind of situation it's similar it's like this quiet assassin that's always there and when you i when you really listen they are busy af and zender but but i mean like oh we're talking about in the pocket lane tasty but great but also driving driving the whole sound right to round out

7:28the band we've got derrick mckenzie on drums this was derrick's first record with the band and go ahead and wallace buchanan on the didgeridoo and then we got simon katz on a couple tracks on electric guitar but not a lot of guitar in this album you know what stands out to me too from this jk's voice is one of the most distinctive voices now he pays homage to a lot of people that came before him but just listen to this just drums and voice from just another story so much style that high tenor voice that just cuts through everything very high pitched voice

8:19but like really enjoyable in the mix yeah with this band with a lot of mellow mids happening in the in the keys jk's voice always kind of like stands out to me yeah yeah good placement uh the next

Stillness in Time and Harmony

8:31tune the second track is a banger as well stillness in time this one feels so steve-y to me yeah those are the claps yeah the harmony the way he's singing it yeah the way he's singing it yeah

9:10what i'm saying man you know as a young man again just getting into harmony getting into stevie getting into early michael jackson stuff like there wasn't a lot else on the radio that sounded

9:40like this it was a lot of it was a lot of grunge frankly or like corny r&b corny mid-90s aren't not i mean i mean all the love for the corny mid-90s r&b but nothing that sounded right like from that stevie earth wind and fire mj off the wall corny just not as harmonically imaginative like this was kind of you know i mean and then you filter in chicory herbie hancock a lot of that there's a ton of fly functional harmony yeah there's a ton of modal interchange happening all over this yeah you

10:12mentioned the clav nice little white clav

10:21almost a bossa nova-esque pattern

10:26there's the roads of the course here's the clav

10:31together just keeping some rhythm going so it's two different clavs two different clavs yeah

10:43just the clavs

10:48that's interesting and that's all toby smith toby smith probably laid the roads down first

11:06yeah isn't that great yeah stillness in time is the second track there yeah yeah i think that's the first one on the the way they have it on like apple music now which makes sense because it's way catchier it's four minutes long right you know just another story it takes a while to get going yeah it's nine minutes long it's a tough first track but to me i don't know i never minded it

Half the Man and UK Success

11:25yeah third track is half the man oh yeah real playful some psychedelic synths going on here

11:49oh yesterday so just road space here

12:10just the base on the road so far

12:15and then the real bass comes in oh yeah i was gonna say it's on that left-hand bass

12:21very very effective is that guitar there sounds like yeah great guitar solo here

13:02great guitar solo here they're putting the jam in jamiroquois yeah you know what i'm saying that top synth sound is very like um

13:34very stevie-esque not the actual sound but the line and where it comes in there i'm trying to think the sound it's like bernie wore ls yes bernie totally good call good call but can i give you a little fun fact please this kind of blew my mind jamiroquois yeah or as we also know of them as jamiroquois uh were the third best-selling uk act of the 90s yeah man 1990s yeah after guess who who will be number one i mean it's got to be this it's got to be the spice girls spice girls yes and number two i

14:06i don't know i would have forgot about these gentlemen although they came back together recently didn't they oasis oh yeah there's a documentary about them that's what it was coming back together yeah that's great and then jamiroquois because they were always huge in the uk that's what like people who were into jamiroquois here used to say like they're an enormous band in the uk and it wasn't until their album i think it was called traveling without moving yeah with uh the virtual insanity and the video yeah vh1 and that was huge here yeah but it wasn't until that like like space cowboy wasn't huge

14:36here like it was you know like you would if you were into this kind of music you knew about it but yeah but this is kind of like greg hutchinson apparently this is like the the the the players album yeah of their oeuvre i think so i think this is like the least poppy one mill or emergency on planet earth the first album too is also yeah there's something about the way they captured this they're a little bit more savvy recording wise on this album and i think toby smith a little sweet spot and stuart zander really take care of this album in a great way as we're going to find

15:08out here on the next track light years

Light Years and Funk Influences

15:11this is very parliament like

15:41the whole intro coming in

15:47and this is very cool that's continuing ostinato

16:25i'm never ever gonna get to use that fly in the family stone absolutely absolutely this horn line here

17:12i remember you know how some albums like like they're like a lesson for you yeah i remember transcribing that horn line like that ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba and just like noticing where what the notes it were compared to what the chords were yeah and i was like oh like leaning on those kind of chord tones that's the nines around the nines you know that's how a melody fits into fits into that chord program yeah it was a it was a big learning uh moment for me this one too has this section that really reminds me of jungle boogie this part

17:42i mean it's yeah to me it's obvious yeah yeah holy that could have been a lawsuit almost it's close yeah i mean let's be honest here like we could have almost done a whole episode on just throwback albums because this whole album is like its influences yeah it wears on its sleeve yeah we know it's stevie very referential cool in the gang i would even say like gap band and ohio players

18:16and ewf and the george clinton i mean the parliament connection there when as soon as you mentioned that i was like yes like especially there's a bunch of tracks where the reference goes straight into that you know the way it's arranged you know for sure yeah great stuff next up

Manifest Destiny and Indigenous Solidarity

18:31is manifest destiny again a bass feature to start hot hot hot hot

19:03hot hot hot As I remember, it was 400 years or more Since you came to crucify And they were taken far away from home There were promises of paradise But if they had been told that they

19:37That they would have been sold this way Do we think he's in favor of Manifest Destiny? I don't Or is it a critical analysis? I think it might be a critical analysis Magna Carta? Manifest Destiny? Yeah, so JK was, I think still is probably Just very much into solidarity with indigenous cultures And indigenous cultures In a very 90s way In a very 90s way No shade, no shade Again, coupled with heavy drug use during this period

20:10Yeah, no, I didn't I mean, I should have known I didn't see that in my notes though Yeah Still, I love that track Great horns Great horns, yeah Great ninths in the chords too And then in the bass Up to that ninth Yeah, man Again, Stuart Zender Just zending us away I see what you did there

The Kids and Syncopation

20:37Thank you very much, sir

The Kids and Syncopation

20:38Next up, this was a single in Japan only But this is one of my favorite tracks on the album Thank you for that fun fact This is The Kids Ha!

20:48Now again nasty Yeah, great J-pop That syncopation Zender's doing J-K's Like his

21:21Attenuation to like the blues scale And the minor pentatonic He's pretty advanced I know His way he plays around with that I say the revolution will They're televised I guess it will Everybody's talking about the kids The kids need to get their heads in place On every day this world we have to face But I just can't seem to find my proper place Cause it's like this Kids get them Slimey weather

21:5115 years of raw pleasure Yeah, watch for now Watch for now Watch for now Watch for now Kids get them Underground Everybody deals to the front of them Watch for now Because the kids get fucking so Everybody's talking about the kids It won't be a number But we get our own And every kid can truly feel at home I told you you should get the dog a bone Get the dog a bone Everybody play me at school

22:23Better get my pleasure Breaking all the rules Cause now someone begins And life is cool Well, I guess I'm just an educated fool Everybody talk about the kids The horns, man Let's have a listen to some of the stems On the kids Because this is one of my favorite tracks For the bass line itself Like that I don't even know That syncopation Yeah When he breaks in between the beat

22:53Is super effective Whoa Some kind of envelope filter Gate Oh man When you get it with the drums It really jumps on So when we just I just want to just tell people real quick Cause sometimes you can start to be like

23:24Why does that feel good Or why does it feel the way that it feels When we talk about syncopation So you got This upbeat Down, up, down, up, down Up, up, up, up And playing around with that Rhythmic resolution and drama Is kind of where it's at on this Yeah, cause it starts on the Yeah And even within that Yeah And there it's like

23:54The 16th Yeah It's like the grid Where does it lay in the grid? Yeah, that combination of the downbeats And then we're gonna get all upbeats On the way back A pretty common device To get that syncopated feel And this was like This was recorded still at a time I mean it was probably digital Whatever, maybe analog I don't know But it was not And I mean there was Pro Tools around But it was finicky as I would call it Yeah, it was baby Pro Tools too I don't know if this was Yeah, it wasn't a lot of like Quantizing to the grid at this time I mean it was starting to happen I don't think they were doing that

24:24But this doesn't sound like it No This doesn't sound like it This album sounds so good too Like all the keys, the bass, the drums Sounds so good on this album I mean if anything measures out to the grid It's probably because There was like a click track or something I'm sure there was a click track, yeah Hey everyone, taking a break real quick We throw around a lot of music theory terms Here in the show If you're googling things like What is a triad? Hold on, I'm googling What is a triad? What is a Lydian chord? How do you spell Lydian? I don't know how to play that, bro Good news We have all the answers for you In the Liner Notes You'll find the Liner Notes companion guide

24:56With clear, simple explanations Of the concepts we explore in this episode In the episode description Download the Liner Notes for this episode For free today

Mr Moon and Bass Lines

25:05Next up is one of my favorite tracks Mr. Moon Where are we going? A little knee deep Kind of vibes, you know A little slap, a little Marcus Miller Have you gone straight Or lost your way

25:35Should have seen me yesterday Well I knew this kind of love What's better in the stars It's only once or twice That you're in line With Mr. Moon Then it was you You took me on your clap And gave me flowers for my pain But with some degree of certainty My destiny Seemed to slip away from me Okay, so I got a controversial take

26:05Go A little hot take Go, go, go I don't think J.K. knew what the changes to this were No, no, no Okay, he's not fitting in the changes all the time No, but he floats on it in a way Like he could hear the changes, right? But he's not getting caught up in the like I have to fit exactly in the way Traditionally, harmonically I need He's kind of floating above it harmonically It works And it works, exactly Great hook on Mr. Moon I'm going to skip ahead just a little bit That I think I'm blind To put chance upon this circumstance It's something of a miracle So spiritual

26:36Spurging out that physical Searching for the love I can't have found Oh, now I'm lost in your love And what's really tricky about this harmonically is

27:11Something On the bass He's not playing the roots of the chords He's playing some He's playing its own harmonic pattern You hear it?

27:20That's the vibe Like there's a There's a pattern But there's an unsettledness to it I'm going to skip I'm going to skip ahead just a little bit Just a little bit Just a little bit Just a little bit I love a little bit Just a little bit Just give me a chance I'll do what you want me to Every matter what's the end Do you hear that? Do you hear that? Do you hear that? Do you? Y'all better turn me on Y'all the world that makes me smile Yeah, oh Great hook here It's Mr. Moon Mr. Moon

27:50Mr. Moon Who knows And if it's Mr. Moon Who gives a sound Then that's the sound That goes out Never know what to do Till I'm there with you Hey, hey Oh, now And he doubled up the vocals But it was all in unison Yeah, that's right Bass and drums on this

28:10That's funky I'll tell you, man It's Zender's album 20 years old Just crushing this whole thing

Scam and String Arrangements

28:33He's 20 20 Next up is Scam Oh Oh, Peter String arranging And the horn arranging On this one Is killer Like aggressive-ass strings Yeah Brothers Johnson vibe

29:16Yeah, totally It's like the telephone filter Phone filter What up? What up? You know who I'm Now I'm thinking of Around this same time Who also wore his influences Equally on his sleeve Yeah Is someone like Lenny Kravitz Right? Where it sounds like Those rock bands From the late 60s Early 70s

29:47Like kind of on the nose Yeah, yeah You know what I mean? Cream And this is very similar to that Yeah Like the influences Are all right there On the surface Another one I don't know if we mentioned it EWF For sure A lot of EWF For sure The octave melody Of Mr. Moon That we were just listening to His phrasing man So I mean Vocally

30:18He doesn't have Stevie Wonder's No Voice in range Who does? Nobody But he's got a lot of his Like his rhythmic And punctuation You know what I mean? His phrasing He's really got that down He's got it down A little bit of Strings and horns The drums I like strings and horns Very BG-esque

30:49Those strings Great writing there And again Like this is All on an album That went to number two On the UK albums charts It's good to hear

31:19It's good to hear

Journey to Arnhem Land

31:20It's the UK Yeah Alright here we are Peter We're about to go on a journey A journey To Arnhem Land Where is that? It's in northern Australia Okay And This is one of the many tracks In the 90s All these 90s Jamiroquai albums Featured The Didgeridoo Yeah Played by Wallace Buchanan Who was a British man Yeah Of African descent Which is nowhere near Either of those places Nowhere near Northern Australia But remember when all the continents Were connected They all fit together Yeah So this is fun Because it's kind of something That wouldn't happen today

31:52It's like It's like a nod to a culture That no one here is a part of Explain why Let's go deep Let's do a deep dive We're living in a different society Than we were in 1994 It doesn't feel like that long ago And also Peter Shit slaps man This is good It's really good The start of this is awesome Everything's played so nicely

32:29The entrances of each Little riff Man the pitch on the didgeridoo You know It's like Constantly going But You So there's like a pulsation To the pulse

32:59That pushes up and down Above and below the pitch That drone How great is that This is one of my favorite parts of the album This might be my Apex moment I'm just saying I'm just saying Up to that ninth again Up to that ninth again

33:41The bass Yeah Up to the minor triad And then up to the ninth No lyrics The didgeridoo tracks On all these 90s Jamiro Koi albums Are all instrumental Yeah And they all slap so hard They're so good I've been to Australia Several times I never I heard it didgeridoo But it didn't sound like this I mean it kind of did Huh So the didgeridoo is the Onomatopoeic name

34:12Given to the instrument By westerners It's also known as The mandiple The yadaki Or the mago In northern Australian Aboriginal culture And it is Such a cool instrument You buzz your lips On it It's like coated With beeswax And then you can also As you're hearing Like use your voice box To manipulate the sound It does have a voice box He's like Right You know like And you can push the You can pulsate that pitch Up and down Circular breathing Is a huge part of the technique

34:43For playing it So it just never stops Yeah The penultimate track Morning Glory Yeah Harp Stevie Wonder bass Moot bass Or Temento Hmm

35:19Hmm This one was written by JK and Stuart Zender.

35:49Oh, now take me think, say I want to go there, I want to go to the morning glory.

36:19La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la

36:49Percussion stuff, too. I love the reverb on that track. So good. And that brings us, Peter, to the last track on the album. The title track. The title track of the album. Yeah. The best track of the album?

Title Track and 1994 Albums

37:00Space Cowboy.

Title Track and 1994 Albums

37:01Space Cowboy.

37:30That's so Stevie. What's this?

38:00The video just had pot leaves everywhere.

38:13This was big in the clubs, I remember, in the mid-90s. Not that I was in a club in the mid-90s, but if I was, it was bumping. You were in the jazz club. Jazz club. That little syncopation. That little syncopation. Yeah. A little anticipation.

38:43Everything on the upbeat. And just Space Cowboy. That's so George Clinton, right? The imagery. The imagery.

39:13I could go on for another four and a half minutes. And it does. And it does. Yeah, right. Almost every track on here is long. It's long. I mean, it's not called Jam Iroquois. No, and they do jam. I mean, this was kind of an OG jam band in a way. Vamp. Vamp band. Vamp band. Yeah. We'll get into it. Okay. So some cool things happening. Like you mentioned the harmony. We're in the key of D flat. Yeah. D flat major seven. A little half dimension. And it does this little like.

39:44No, just a major. Just a minor. Oh, really? A minor 11. Yeah. I'm sure about that. I'm sure about that. Okay. It's definitely not that. Okay. Everything is good and brown. Just the. It's actually. There's not even a nine. C minor nine. It's just. You want to play it again? Yeah. I just want to. I just want to. That's moving up from the relative minor to the five. Everything is good and brown. Damn. Oh, you're right. You're right. You're right. I was just testing you.

40:16So D major seven. Now we're sure about that. To the C minor seven with the added 11. There's no nine on the chord. That's what it was. Yeah. So it's just like this F that's in there. Then to a B major nine. So that. Very Stevie harmonic. And then the five. Although not going between that chord, but to go a whole step down to the major. Yeah. It does it again. Close that hand.

40:40Now this is a kind of a cool transition here. So from the, yeah, to the four, but it's like a four sus nine to the five sus nine. So it's like an E over F sharp. Yeah. And then a G flat over A flat. And then it does the modal interchange. Then it goes to D flat minor. And now we're doing four minor nine. I'm sorry. Two minor nine. Three minor nine. Right.

41:10And then that sixth chord, the relative minor nine. But these are all just minor nine chords. Moving up. Whole step. Moving up. And that's it. That's the whole song. But it's, it's really cleverly done.

41:29Yeah. A flat, uh, seven, sus, 13. G flat over A flat. Yeah. G flat major seven over A flat. And then the second time going to the four sus. That's, yeah, that's such a woo, aha movement. But then he moves right off of it. And a little bass thing. JK just singing all on top of it too. Peter, let's get to some categories. This is my Desert Island track. Space Cowboy. The title track is my Desert Island track. Wait a second. That's my, this is my Desert Island track. It's easily the best song on the album. It's the bestly, it's like, it's like. You would be so happy.

41:59It's like, you'd be on the club on the little, you'd forget to go hunt and gather during the day, which would be important. You would. But the, the sound of the Rhodes on this, the sound of the drums on this, the hi-hat sound. Man, can we just play when the Rhodes comes in?

42:12That, that trim is just so perfectly timed. I mean, we all struggle that when we play Rhodes and we think we have it. This is a prototype right there. For sure. Let's hear a little bit of the stems. Oh, stem it up. You're going to give him his flowers? Stem flowers? Give him his flowers.

42:31That is a clean sounding track. Very clean. The drums are dry, clean. That I had. Yeah.

42:42Man, I love that kind of studio drumming. You know what? All these guys, and like the way this is written, like they were definitely some kids that grew up in the 80s listening to TV soundtracks. You know? Like Studio LA sound. Totally. Yeah. As we all do. Just dead-ass drums.

43:00Little Three is Company.

43:10Sound design. Killer. An incredible sounding track. One of my favorite tracks of the 90s. Like when I think of the 90s, I think of that track, even though it's very much rooted in music of the 70s. For Apex Moment, for me, I have when the bass comes in on the didgeridoo instrumental journey to Arnhem Land, that first, it comes in on the two, right?

43:43Like it's delayed. Notice JK also, well, he's not on this, but on every tune, he never comes in on the one. He's always very much anticipating. Very much anticipating. Sliding in there.

44:03This, this is my, that's my Apex. Oh yeah, it's killing, killing. Yeah. I think about that moment a lot. Cool. What about you? You got any Apex moments for this one? No, you know what? I, I, I didn't break it down like that this time. I, I can't be limited by, by such things. Quibble Bits, I have, I have a couple. The songwriting is B tier. You know, for how, how much we talked about their influences on their seat, on their sleeves, a lot of their influences, like if you're going to be inspired by Stevie Wonder, the problem is, is we're all going to compare you to Stevie Wonder.

44:36You know what I mean? And like, these songs are not as good as Stevie's songs. They're not good, as good lyrically. They're not as good as well composed. There's not as many great transitions and sections. It all sounds good. JK is, I like, I love his voice. I love his voice. But if you're going to sing a lot like Stevie, again, we're going to compare you to Stevie. And I think that's a hard thing to, to compare up to. I think if, if anything, it's like the fact that those influences are so, are worn so clearly is like, it's cool.

45:06And it's also like, yeah, but wouldn't I rather listen to Ohio players, you know? Okay. I mean, I, I, I think that there's enough references. I almost think there are more references than influences. I mean, there's definitely specific influences, but it's more like there's so many different references, um, Chick Corea, uh, EWF for sure. George Clinton, especially just in terms of like presentation and intros and structure and like, you know, themes and concepts.

45:37Stevie for sure. Um, but a lot of 80s soundtracks and stuff. So, I mean, to me, I don't like focus, like folk, I don't think anyone would be like, if you don't know, really know harmony and like the nerd stuff of it, I don't know that the Stevie influences are really that obvious actually, um, that somebody would be like, Oh, that sounds like Stevie wonder. No, you know, no, I agree with you there. And so I think that like, I don't, I don't begrudge JK for not singing as well as Stevie, even though he's lifting some of his stuff. First of all, that was done so much.

46:08And there's so many singers, especially R and B singers that would take different little, little things that weren't even the greatest parts of what Stevie did and just cop them outright. Right. And I think one thing about JK is like his, he's an original, right? Sure. So like you immediately know it's him and there's limits to him. Like there's limits to all of us. I think Stevie is more, I mean, even Stevie has limits, but whenever you reference Stevie, like he's such a, you know, he's got so many different weapons in his arsenal, right? Songwriting, vocals, um, the timbre of his voice, his harmonic prowess, his harmonic.

46:43I mean, it's just, it's off the charts. So, I mean, JK isn't that, so when he pulls that, I could see how you'd be like, wouldn't you rather? It's less than, I mean, the singing is one small example, but for me, it's just the songs themselves. Like there's nothing, I mean, we were just listening to those new, the new tracks that came out from Songs in the Key of Life vaults. Yeah, yeah. And they're so well written. They're so good. They fit together so great. They're produced so well. This is produced really well, but honestly, like I, for me, this is very nostalgic because of where it hit me in my life. But as a, as a grown ass man, I don't come back to this as much as I come back to the

47:15references that this is referencing. I could see that. Yeah. And that would, I would say that my only quibble bit with this is that, um, it's such great party music, which maybe is the most important kind of music. For sure. You know what I mean? Actually, in fact, I was listening to my car and I actually ran to my wife up on Delmar. We kind of stopped for a second. I rolled down the window and I was bumping this and she was like, oh, party up in there. You know? And I mean, what, what a great thing about that. Um, but then there's a certain amount of unevenness to me as a musician in that some

47:48of the harmony is so advanced and like, it's not off-putting. It's just a little bit incongruous with the party element of it. And I think that's what makes it interesting too. Um, but sometimes it feels like it's just, it's like referencing different worlds and then the didgeridoo and like this different stuff. And it's all great stuff. There's nothing on here. And like the production is so, no quibble bits with the production on this. It sounds beautiful. And, and, and, you know, it's high level production when there's some of the stuff is wetter and some of the stuff is drier and it all works really good.

48:20But it's also not like, there's nothing on here or any of Jamiroquai stuff. Individually where I'm just, I'm moved to the point of like, wow, it's not a masterpiece. But the whole album is like, I can listen to this whole album and be really happy. It's an easy list. And moved, you know, and the playing and, and like whatever limits are there. Like it's, it's crafted in a way that really works. This is a band. It's a band. And this is a band and this is a sound. And like, there's a reason they sold 26 million records in the, in the nineties. You mentioned how good it sounds. We should shout out Michael Nielsen, the engineer and co-producer of this album who crushed it.

48:51Yeah. All right. That was a, that was a healthy quibble bits section. Accoutrements. I have eight because first of all, the title, Return of the Space Cowboy, like you said, the imagery of a space cowboy, very George Clinton-esque, Bootsy Collins-esque. Yeah. And it's a great image. And then of course, there's just like JK's vibe. The hats. It's a logo. It's a logo. The album cover is a logo. You know, like the kind of flared out jeans and the Adidas and then the horned hat. The horned hat is the ultimate accoutrement, right? Yeah. It's a physical accoutrement. When you can, when you can mesh the imagery of the album perfectly with the music.

49:22Yeah. That's a win. And I think they nailed it. For sure. I mean, I'm going nine on accoutrement. Yeah. That's good. Because it's so distinctive. That's kind of like the most original part in a way. Yeah. And it, and it harkens back to an era that actually some bands are getting back to it where it's like it's band, a sound and all the accoutrements are part of it. The stickers, the whole thing. Snobometer. I've got a four. There's a four. I mean, that's so, it could be six or five. It doesn't make a difference. It's not a one or a 10. It's four. I mean, I'm going to go six.

49:52I don't know how many of those, of the 26 million records were virtual insanity based sales. But I'm figuring out a lot of them, right? And so this is a little bit like, this is somewhat of an, this is a huge album, but, and it's got some hits on it, but this was a little bit of like, if you really know, you know. So that gives it a little bit more snobbiness. I get it. Right. You don't like it, but you get it. No, I get it. I mean, it's a weird one to put on the thermometer, honestly. Right. Because it is kind of snobby, but it's not, but it's also very accessible. It was a big hit. You know what I mean?

50:23Yeah. Like, it's kind of, is it better than Inner Visions? Oh, come on, man. I'm looking at, is it better than Kind of Blue? Yeah, we're not doing that because there's nothing to do with Kind of Blue, but is it better than Inner Visions? No. No. No, of course not. Some other albums that were released in 1994. Let's do that. Let's pick one of these. Okay. Is it better than Oasis? Definitely, maybe. I mean, I don't remember that record that well. I mean, to me, yeah. I'd rather listen to it now. Oasis was kind of jamming. Is it better than Soundgarden's Super Unknown is a great question for me specifically. Yeah, I was going to say, for any kind of, like, Soundgarden head.

50:55It is not better than Super Unknown. Okay. Is it better than Green Day's Dookie? I mean. That's also tough. But these are, like, right in your wheelhouse. I know, man. This is very much my junior year in high school. I don't think it is. I think Dookie is more iconic in America, at least. Right. Is it better than Nas' Illmatic? I mean. Come on. Like, talk about iconic and influential. That's a bigger record in terms of the pantheon of hip-hop. Hugely influential. But, I mean, better than? I don't know. Is it better than Biggie's Ready to Die?

51:26Again, another, you know. Actually, that record, that's interesting. A lot of these records, I feel kind of similar. Like, the Biggie Ready to Die, for sure. Well, let's keep going. But a lot of these are, like, they're not straight party albums, but they're stuff that I put on to, like, remember that time. They're nostalgic albums, right? Is it better than Portishead's Dummy? I think it's as good or maybe better than Dummy. And don't come for me, Portisheadheads. Portisheadheads. Is it better than TLC Crazy Sexy Cool?

51:57I'm going to say yes, it is. It wasn't bigger than that. It wasn't bigger than that. I love Crazy Sexy Cool, but I think I'd prefer Space Cowboy. Is it better than Boyzeman 2? Boyzeman 2. 11 slash 2.

52:10Which one is 2? I don't even know. Is that with End of the Road? I think it would be End of the Road. No, no, no. This would be too late for End of the Road, wouldn't it? Hold on. Thank you all around the world. You know. Vibin', I Sit Away, Jezebel, Khalil, Trying Times, I'll Make Love to You, On Bended Knee, 50 Candles, Water Runs Dry, and The Beatles, Yesterday. I mean, the only two tracks that I really know well are I'll Make Love to You and On Bended Knee. I'm going to say I'm going to put Space Cowboy above it.

52:42Okay. If it had End of the Road, whatever that one was, maybe not. That was before this. Sorry, I threw us off. These are big records in 94. Yeah, buddy. Remember when music was amazing? This was like, just see, and there was no like fragment. No one was buying cassettes or anything. All of those albums we just mentioned. These are all CDs only. Were, are very, very good albums. Like, really rich. Well, this was awesome, man. I think we nailed it. Right? Are the Jamiroquois heads coming for you? Or me? You'll hear it.