On the 9th Day of Mavericks ...

... my reader gave to me.

Stephen Jones

as nominated by ‘Challenge 69’ reader, and proofreader, Julie C

Julie has provided one of our most succinct nominations so far:

“Grumpy yes, but brilliant always. I love Stephen💖.”

To expand on this, I decided to try to explore just what it is that makes Stephen Jones, better known as the lead singer, songwriter, and bandleader of Babybird, so notoriously grumpy?

For the root cause of his disenchantment, I think we need to go back to the upper reaches of the UK ‘hit parade’ from 6th October 1996:

1. ‘Setting Sun’ by The Chemical Brothers (featuring Noel Gallagher),

2. ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ by Deep Blue Something,

3. ‘You’re Gorgeous’ by Babybird,

4. ‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’ by Celine Dion …

To have registered his highest ever chart position while, in the process, outselling Ms. Dion at the absolute height of her popularity would, you’d assume, have been cause for celebration?

But that assumption doesn’t factor in Stephen’s unique capacity for disgruntlement. More than your average ‘glass half empty’ merchant, Jones owns a ‘mood cup’ with a permanent leak, through which happiness seems to drain away at an alarming rate.

Yes, you could argue, it would have been disappointing to have been held off top spot by some ‘alternative’ US band (that would never be heard of again), and because the Chemical Brothers only managed to make it to Number One via the reflected popularity of a certain Gallagher brother …

… yet, being the complicated contrarian he is, this is not the line of argument that seems to have tormented Stephen Jones to this day!

Instead, it’s the sheer fact that ‘You’re Gorgeous’ (which was never his favourite song) proved so popular in the first place, and now remains the only thing 99% of people remember him for today (if they remember him at all!), that appears to have carried on eating away at Stephen for over a quarter of a century (and counting).

Don’t get me wrong, I also ❤ Stephen/Babybird; he’s a hugely talented songwriter and lyricist, has a great voice, and, most of the time, his irascibility actually translates into an engaging stage presence. But there are undoubtedly occasions when I think, “just get over it!”

(Note: I’ve had to draw heavily on a ‘grumpy’ synonyms page for this post!)

Admittedly, Babybird have written and released a whole swathe of songs that I could agree with Stephen are better than ‘You’re Gorgeous’; ‘Back Together’, ‘Candy Girl’, and ‘If You’ll Be Mine’ to name just three (with another held back, in case, for the playlist).

But ‘YG’ itself remains a good song, with a strong chorus, and contains some of the most satirical and subversive lyrics ever to make it into the ‘top ten’. It really doesn’t deserve its author’s longstanding ire and bitter disappointment.

Anyway, enough of that; it’s time to see if Stuart (who’s not averse to the odd bout of crotchetiness himself) is prepared to grant Stephen Jones ‘maverick’ admittance?:

“Despite giving this latest nomination a lot of consideration, I found myself still ‘fence sitting’ on a final decision.

On the one hand, I agree Mr. Jones is a very talented artist, with an impressive (and perhaps overlooked) body of work; and if I started banning members for bad-temperedness then the ‘maverick club’ would soon be fairly empty.

Yet, on the reverse side of the coin, I do agree there’s often a bit too much, “boohoo, nobody remembers me!” about he man. If you’re a talented songwriter then, frankly, stop whingeing and write some good songs!

However, while I was weighing up these contradictory positions, Julie provided some last minute photographic evidence which helped tip the balance.

If a nominator cares enough about her nominee to get up on stage and put him right about his sound not working properly, and make him look contrite in the process, then that’s good enough for me.

While the real ‘maverick’ here might be Julie, as far as I’m concerned that means she can ‘sign in’ anybody she wants. So, “welcome in Stephen, any chance you could play ‘You’re Gorgeous’ for us at our Christmas party?”

Another maverick verdict with a twist in the tail then. I’ll be kinder to Stephen though, and include on our playlist the song he introduced, the last time I saw Babybird live, as, “our real pop song”!

Getting towards the end now, so please remember to look out for our tenth ‘new maverick’ nomination at the same time tomorrow.