Twenty Years Later: Jerry Joseph Covers Elvis Costello’s “The Other End (Of The Telescope)”

Following last year’s successful Songs Of Their Own video series of artists covering songs by the Grateful Dead, the Twenty Years Later video series features some of JamBase’s favorite musicians recording songs released in 1996. Looking back, the music released 20 years ago proved to be critical in both rock ‘n’ roll history and particularly within the jam band scene. The year 1996 saw seminal albums released by Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, moe., The String Cheese Incident, the Disco Biscuits, Keller Williams, Galactic, Medeski Martin & Wood, God Street Wine, Strangefolk and The Slip, helping to solidify the maturing jam scene.

There were also influential records issued in 1996 by the likes of artists as diverse as Beck, Jamiroquai, Modest Mouse, Rage Against The Machine, Johnny Cash, Pearl Jam, Sting, Tool, 2Pac and many others. The Twenty Years Later video series takes a look back at those releases, with participating artists covering songs from albums turning 20 this year. For this installment, Jerry Joseph focused on Elvis Costello’s “The Other End (Of The Telescope).”

Co-written by Aimee Mann and first appearing on her band ‘Til Tuesday’s 1988 album Everything’s Different Now, Costello provided backing vocals on the original release. Issued on the final Elvis Costello album to feature his backing group The Attractions – composed of keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas – “The Other End (Of The Telescope)” was the lead track and a single released from the 1996 LP All This Useless Beauty.

JamBase headquarters in San Francisco hosted Jerry Joseph who brought along his acoustic guitar to play a handful of songs. He spoke at length about the year 1996, which was particularly significant to him as after a series of life-altering incidents, the earliest incarnation of his Jackmormons band formed 20 years ago. In addition to offering a powerful cover of Costello’s composition, Jerry played a rendition of his original “Cosmic,” the single from his new, Dave Schools-produced LP By The Time Your Rocket Gets To Mars which comes out tomorrow on Voodoo Doughnut Recordings/Cosmo Sex School Records. Watch Jerry Joseph’s session at JB HQ below:

[The Other End (Of The Telescope)]

[Interview]

[Cosmic]

Head here to see all of the entries in the Twenty Years Later series. Stay on top of all of JamBase’s video content by subscribing to the official YouTube channel here.