Goodbye Jumbo and Goodbye Karl

The mind behind World Party

I just found out that Karl Wallinger died. Just 66 years old. Man. He survived an aneurysm in the early 00’s, even re-learning how to talk, play guitar, play piano. And now this.

Photo by Martin Goodacre

Karl Wallinger was World Party. World Party was a Beatles-adjacent late-80s/early-90s alt-rock/pop band that never hit the BIG big time, but certainly flirted with it.

Or did they?

-They played SNL. I watched it live. Karl changed a lyric from Tuesday Night to Saturday Night with a smirk. That seemed pretty cool to me.
-They scored some minor UK hits, got onto alt-rock radio in the US.
-A Grammy nomination.
-Some significant soundtrack appearances (Clueless, Reality Bites) that kept them in the pop culture zeitgeist.
-A song covered by pop giant Robbie Williams¹ (that Williams continually claimed was “the best song I ever wrote” and which went all the way to #1 platinum status in the UK)
-They were voted 1990’s album of the year by Q magazine².
-The great Sinead O’Connor guests on two WP albums.
-Paul McCartney went out of his way to tell Wallinger how much he loved “Show Me To The Top.” Called it a hit.
-Called a “dud” by legendary music critic Robert Christgau (you’ve made it when Christgau goes out of his way to dog your music).

I mean, for me? Everything up there? That’s all big time. I would endure a thousand Christgau duds for one McCartney hit.

And, beyond all that, they mattered to me. I would wager that Goodbye Jumbo was a Top 10 Most Listened Contemporary Album For Me from 1990-94³. I loved it so much.

I continue to love it. So much.

Even the artwork has a certain Beatletude to it.

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World Party, a little pop venture Wallinger put together when he was feeling unfulfilled creatively as a member of the great Waterboys, was a throwback band before throwback bands became cool⁴. His first album, recorded at his home, has songs that ape the Stones, Dylan, and most notably the Beatles. The second album, my favorite, witnesses Wallinger in full stride—nodding to his influences, but no longer bowing to them. In the years to come Britpop would take over the world, but this was before all that, before the Beatle worship of mega-huge bands like Blur⁵ and Oasis (both Gallagher brothers have since employed World Party drummer Chris Sharrock for their solo projects) who took it to stadiums. 1998’s ubiquitous hit “You Get What You Give” by the New Radicals feels like a Wallinger jam, right down to the vocal delivery. If we found out tomorrow that Wallinger ghost-wrote it, I would believe it 1000%⁶. In fact, I used to hate the song, but since I connected the World Party dots, I… kinda like it.

That’s beside the point.

Besides his obvious love of 60s and 70s music, Wallinger also had some real Prince⁷ influence in there, heard most clearly in the falsetto of “Ain’t Gonna Come Til I’m Ready” and the synth-funk of “Show Me To The Top.”

As a teenager, I loved Wallinger’s pro-environment stance too. He seemed to thread the needle without falling into the mud pits of self-righteous preachery. He, like his hero John Lennon, had something to say.

The mid-period got a little muddy. But even “flops” like Egyptology have gems in them. “The Whole of The Night” is such a rad groove; I wanna live in it with its stompy verses and oooh-ahh choruses. “Beautiful Dream” and “Call Me Up” would feel at home on Revolver. And of course the song Robbie Williams wishes he wrote, “She’s The One”, is a stunner.

Maybe take a listen to a little Karl Wallinger playlist I threw together to hear a guy who was probably a genius yet whose songs have fewer streams than, like, the Baha Men and Robbie Williams and who knows who else.

1. Wallinger hated that Williams—a brashly cocky and shallow pop star—covered his song and, maybe more, that the record label they shared (Chrysalis) had pushed Williams’ version, which wasn’t all that different from World Party’s (including stealing World Party’s drummer). He hated that Williams never gave him credit. It ate him up, even while he admitted. “(Williams) kept my kids in school and me in Seaview [Wallinger's recording studio] and for that I thank him.”

2. Other 1990 albums that were not voted album of the year:
Fear of a Black Planet / Public Enemy
Violator / Depeche Mode
Ragged Glory / Neil Young & Crazy Horse
I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got / Sinead O’Connor
AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted / Ice Cube
Heaven or Las Vegas / Cocteau Twins
X / INXS
Ritual De Lo Habitual / Jane’s Addiction
Bossanova / Pixies
Reading, Writing and Artithmetic / The Sundays
People’s Instinctive Travels.. /A Tribe Called Quest
Nomads Indians Saints / Indigo Girls
Repeater / Fugazi
Goo / Sonic Youth
Shake Your Money Maker / Black Crowes
Pod / The Breeders
Listen Without Prejudice / George Michael
Mama Said Knock You Out- LL Cool J
Rhythm of the Saints / Paul Simon
Flood / They Might Be Giants
Social Distortion / Social Distortion
She Hangs Brightly / Mazzy Star
Cherry Pie / Warrant
Blue Sky Mining / Midnight Oil
Passion And Warfare / Steve Vai (only me?)
Graffiti Bridge / Prince
No Depression / Uncle Tupelo
Time’s Up / Living Colour
Pornograffiti / Extreme
Razor’s Edge/ AC/DC
The La’s / The Las’s
Mariah Carey / Mariah Carey
Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Em / MC Hammer

Not unlike, a year later, when Spin magazine would give their album of the year award to Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque over albums like Nirvana’s Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s Ten, U2’s Achtung Baby, Metallica’s black album, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magick, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless…some of the most iconic albums of the era.

3. I think the actual list would be, in no order:

Pearl Jam / Vs
The Samples / The Samples
The Black Crowes / The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion
World Party / Goodbye Jumbo
U2 / Achtung Baby
Temple of the Dog / Temple of the Dog (Superunknown would be on the list, but it didn’t come out til 94)
Smashing Pumpkins / Gish
Spin Doctors / Pocket Full of Kryptonite
R.E.M./Automatic For the People
Beastie Boys / Check Your Head

but maybe also
Cracker / Kerosene Hat
Red Hot Chili Peppers / Blood Sugar Sex Magick
Jane’s Addiction / Ritual de lo Habitual
Phish / A Picture of Nectar

4. Think the 90s trend of bands like Lenny Kravitz, The Black Crowes, Sheryl Crow, even Jellyfish, Wallflowers who were clearly indebted to the sound of the 60s and 70s (and sometimes the fashion).

5. Blur always seemed more Kinks-influenced than Beatles-influenced to me.

6. Except that I think Wallinger would’ve called out Robbie Williams instead of Marilyn Manson in the “beef” section.

7. With whom he briefly shared a manager. He tells a story of drunkenly playing a piano one night in Paisley Park.

Both he and his former Waterboys bandmate Mike Scott loved Prince. Scott loved him so much, he wrote “The Whole of the Moon” (a top 3 Waterboys song and one that, no coincidence, featured Wallinger’s touch) to contrast how otherworldly Prince felt.