Category: The Jam

After a few ranty posts this week, I feel the need for some ranty music.

Last week I managed to get a free download voucher and I was thinking of what gaps there were in my sprawling, extremely catholic, music collection. I checked my wishlist and saw that I had nothing by ‘The Jam’ and thought it was about time that my youngest son learned a bit more about music.

I managed to pick up 4 tracks and realised just how good they were; as a teenager I would only have heard them on medium wave on a transistor radio. Listening to them properly, it struck me how ‘formed’ they were at an early age (they broke up when the lead singer was 23) and the power of the interplay between guitar, bass and drums. Also the lyrics are a long way from ersatz manufactured pop.

I never saw them live; although I did see the Style Council. But that is another story…

This is my favourite track- my son prefers a ‘Town called Malice’. This takes me back to the council estates where many of my friends lived when I was in the early years of Comprehensive school….

The official video is a beauty of 70s/80s naffness:-

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I read this quote in ‘Third Way’ a couple of days back (f bomb warning) and wanted to scream ‘yes’. Then I wanted some music with some raw passion and I remembered my youth. I defy you not to listen to this and feel something.

‘I was watching a couple of female artists recently and their whole albums were about splitting up with their boyfriends. For fuck’s sake, get over it. See what’s going on in the world. Write about God, write about love, write about death, write about war, write about people.’

(Paul Weller: taken from ‘Third Way’ p4 May 2012)