
Following the single All You Need Is Love, The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu’s first album 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?) continued the style of heavy cut & paste sampling, beatbox rhythms and King Boy D’s Scottish raps.
Rather surprisingly 1987 is also the place in which the verses of The KLF’s later single Justified And Ancient made their first appearance as a part of Hey Hey We Are Not The Monkees.
According to The JAMs’ early plans a follow-up single to All You Need Is Love was meant to be lifted off the album.
A remix of “Don’t Take Five…” had allegedly been commissioned by Tony Thorpe but was (quite literally) binned.
Sample Controversity
However, all their plans did not go anywhere as copyright reality finally caught up with Bill and Jimmy. Despite helping themselves to large chunks of other people’s work, The JAMs always took an artistic and rather pragmatic position on the matter.
KBD: It’s like saying Andy Warhol just stole other people’s graphics, which he didn’t. He took other peolpe’s images and re-cycled them re-used them. That doesn’t mean he’s robbed them and left them with nothing. We’re just doing musically what he did with Campbell’s soup cans and pictures of Marylin Monroe.
RR: It’s a form of pure plagiarism… well it’s not even that because plagiarism is copying and we haven’t copied, we’ve used things to create something. I don’t feel precious about what we’ve done. Once we’ve recorded it, I don’t care what other people do with it. Like that Samantha Fox record, most of that was recorded on a Fairlight 3. All the sounds there were probably sampled – we’re just being more honest about it.Rockman Rock & King Boy D (Sounds, 16 May 1987)
Apart from The JAMs’ first single 1987 is probably most known for the infamous “The Queen And I” and the large chunks of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” it sampled.
It didn’t take long until the Swedish pop supergroup noticed, though. When their publisher Boco Music refused permission for the JAMs’ wholesale sampling of ‘Dancing Queen’ the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society instructed the duo to withdraw their album from sale and destroy all remaining copies and masters.
However, when the MCPS suggested that damages for infringement of copyright could be “minimized” if The JAMs would decide to co-operate fully in withdrawing the record Bill and Jimmy decided to take matters into their own hands instead…
Reviews






Tracks & Formats
JAMS LP1
LP / 15 Jun 1987 | ||
A1 | Hey Hey We Are Not The Monkees | 6:00 |
Mind The Gap [unlisted] | 1:02 | |
A2 | Don’t Take Five (Take What You Want) | 3:59 |
A3 | Rockman Rock Parts 2 And 3 | 6:29 |
Why Did You Throw Away Your Giro? [unlisted] | 0:20 | |
B1 | Me Ru Con | 2:23 |
B2 | The Queen And I | 4:43 |
Top Of The Pops [unlisted] | 2:51 | |
B3 | All You Need Is Love (106bpm) | 4:55 |
B4 | Next | 4:38 |
JAMS CLP1
Cassette Album / 15 Jun 1987 | ||
A1 | Hey Hey We Are Not The Monkees | 6:00 |
Mind The Gap [unlisted] | 1:02 | |
A2 | Don’t Take Five (Take What You Want) | 3:59 |
A3 | Rockman Rock Parts 2 And 3 | 6:29 |
Why Did You Throw Away Your Giro? [unlisted] | 0:20 | |
B1 | Me Ru Con | 2:23 |
B2 | The Queen And I | 4:43 |
Top Of The Pops [unlisted] | 2:51 | |
B3 | All You Need Is Love (106bpm) | 4:55 |
B4 | Next | 4:38 |
With all the fuzz around it there’s no surprise 1987 has been heavily bootlegged in the past. You can find more details about its many counterfeit versions in our FAQ as usual.
I saw a flyer for the London Marquee club, with a very familiar date on it.
It can be seen at https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/117-marquee-1987-listings-inc-guns-n-roses-first-uk-concert/?lot=11182&sd=1
This flyer is from June of 1987, but it seems likely that they would have used the same design throughout the year.
Could it have been appropriated by Bill and Jimmy, or is it just a coincidence?
It’s hard to tell with Bill and Jimmy but it really looks eerily familiar. Considering the early JAMs diamond logo shares a lot with that of the Beastie Boys from around the time it’s perfectly possible this is yet another
rip-offsource of inspiration.Anyone have an idea of how many copies were actually produced of 1987 (WTFIGO?).
Thanks.
Something interesting I just found out:
https://soundcloud.com/kopyrightliberationfront/sets/1987-what-the-fuck-is-going-on
Someone out there has uploaded the full 1987 album, albeit minus The Queen & I (for obvious reasons)