The Very Best Of The Jam

The Very Best Of The Jam - The Jam

Year Released: 1997

Label: Polydor

Year Bought: 1999

Kicking off with 'In The City' – which still sounds just as urgent as it did in 1977 – this collection brings together all of the The Jam's A-sides before Paul Weller broke up the band in 1982.

I remember buying this CD in 1999 with money I had earned from my paper round, and I played it constantly. I knew every lyric, every bass fill from Bruce Foxton, every machine gun snare roll from Rick Buckler.

I was pretty into 70s punk as a teenager, but The Jam appealed more than most as they seemed to look beyond the nihilism.

"What's the point in saying destroy, I want a new life for everywhere," sings Weller on 'All Around The World'.

The Jam's early singles are pretty good, but all feel a bit derivative of 'In The City'. It's not until you get to 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight' that you realise this is a band – and a songwriter – that can deliver something truly special.

The three singles released in 1979 – 'Strange Town', 'When You're Young' and 'Eton Rifles' – are all brilliant, and contain some of my favourite lyrics.

"Tears of rage roll down your face / But still you say 'it's fun'" and "It's so hard to understand, why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam" from 'When You're Young' meant so much to me when I was younger.

Many of these songs were single-only releases, and didn't appear on albums, including the group's first number 1 – 'Going Underground' – and their last two releases: 'The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)' and 'Beat Surrender'. As I've said before, in the days before streaming collections like this could be the only way to hear these songs.

Listening to Weller's songwriting journey is a treat. The Northern Soul inspired 'Town Called Malice', the no-frills of 'That's Entertainment', the pseudo-funk of 'Precious' – these are all Weller trying on different hats to see which one fits best. It would, of course, be a constant theme for the Changingman.

The Jam really were fantastic. This singles collection should be on the national curriculum. What a catalyst they turned out to be.

10/10

Comments

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored. And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...

The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974 – David Bowie

Year Released: 1997 Label: EMI Year Bought: 1999 My love of Bowie started as a wind up. There was a rumour round our school that one of the French teachers used to go out with Bowie, so as part of my ambition to be a cocky little shit I decided to try to sneak some Bowie song titles into our lessons. "I don't understand how this verb ch-ch-ch-changes, Miss" – that sort of thing. It turned out that not only had she dated him, she was still friends with him, and even had side-of-the-stage tickets when he played Glastonbury in 2000. She might still be the coolest person I've ever known. In my bid to learn some more Bowie tunes I dug out my mum's old vinyls and fell in love with 'Hunky Dory'. For Christmas 1999, my mum got me 2 CDs, this one, which covers 1969/74, and the next one which goes up to 1979. That Christmas, I had them both on repeat as I played FIFA 2000 on the PC (which had a picture of pre-Judas Sol Campbell on the cover). This compilation reall...

Eye To The Telescope – KT Tunstall

Year Released: 2004 Label: Relentless Year Bought: No Idea I'm not sure why I have this record. I have no record of buying it. I've never listened to it. But then I do own two Dido albums so it's not exactly out of character of me to have it. I've always thought KT Tunstall was a pretty cool person. She's clearly talented. But this album, I just can't really connect with it. There's some good tunes on here. 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' is great, as is 'Suddenly I See'. 'Another Place To Fall' hints at some darker tones, and 'Under The Weather' builds nicely. But overall it's just all a bit safe. I vaguely remember reading an interview with Tunstall a few years after this came out in which she said the original mix was a lot more rough and bluesy, but the label wanted it more polished. You can definitely hear how this album could have been scuffed up. 'Stopping The Love' is a good example of that. It's a mi...

All The Records I've Ever Owned

Search This Blog