"If we get through for two minutes only, it will be aaaaaa... POLL!" - The Jam - Singles (1977-1982)

The structure of 'Strange Town' is so weird, the track begins with a piece of music that you don't hear again until the coda, and there's two different middle parts ("I've finished with clubs where the music's loud" and the descending guitar bit) ...

one of the best middle 8s, and structurally brilliant

I'm tempted to vote for it myself, although I dunno yet. As a non-album single it was probably their finest package: 'Strange Town' on the A-side with 'The Butterfly Collector' on the flip.

as much as I love many of the later singles, I'm pretty tempted to go with their first, In The City. A perfect 2:23.

The Modern World, even though nobody mentioned it yet.

Impossible to choose.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 28 April 2017 18:15 (yesterday) Permalink

15-way-tie for first.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 28 April 2017 18:16 (yesterday) Permalink

co-sign. loved all these at the time and since they've aged as well or better than any contemporaries. though w/gun to head will vote going underground...or start...town called malice...eton rifles....

Growing up in America, listening to Casey Kasem's Top 40 countdown every weekend, hearing "That's Entertainment" at age 17 blew my mind. "Wait, there's songs with substance, about things that matter to me?"

So, that one for starting it all.

I still adore the complete "Snap!" compilation more than any single album of theirs.

can't really listen to the Jam any more but I still really like That's Entertainment

Growing up in America, listening to Casey Kasem's Top 40 countdown every weekend, hearing "That's Entertainment" at age 17 blew my mind.

Wait, what? Really? What was the context? The only chart hit Weller had here was "My Ever Changing Moods" (#29).

(Although I do remember Casey occasionally doing non-chart stuff on that show -- the first time I heard Bob Marley was when Casey did some sort of tribute and played "Get Up, Stand Up.")

Precious is amazing, but i mean Town Called Malice is straight up genius.

It still amazes me that there are folks out there that still want The Jam to re-form. I mean, granted, they were an excellent band, but it's far too late for them to do anything like that, IMO. I mean, there's obviously tension between Buckler and Foxton/Weller, but even if they patched things up I don't see how it would be a good idea. The problem wouldn't really be with Foxton or Buckler either, more than Weller's voice and musical style have changed so much since 1982 that he wouldn't be able to do the songs justice anymore. I heard him doing an acoustic version of 'Just Who is the 5 o'Clock Hero?' on the radio recently and it was just fucking awful - he couldn't sing it! Also, he has a tendency to slow down Jam songs when he plays 'em live these days because he just can't keep up.

Went for "Strange Town", its their Paperback Writer.

interesting to see the results of this as i don't know all of these songs. usually there's an unexpected wild card lesser-known song that shows up high in the results. any Jam experts care to speculate what that might be?

My guess is that "News Of The World" will get zero votes. Not to shit on Bruce Foxton -- at least two of the Jam's greatest moments are his ("Smithers-Jones," and the bass sting at 1:57 in "When You're Young") -- but this is a minor b-side at best. No idea how/why it ended up as a single.

It was a single because, circa This is the Modern World up to the beginning of him writing properly for All Mod Cons, Weller had either temporarily lost interest in the band as he'd started a new relationship or had writers block. In the UK, more people might know 'News of the World' than they think as it's been the theme tune to Mock the Week for years. I personally like the song a lot.

('The Modern World' is probably the weakest thing here, IMO.)

I really hope someone throws 'When You're Young', 'The Dreams of Children', 'Funeral Pyre', 'Absolute Beginners' or 'Just Who is the 5 o'Clock Hero?' a vote, because they're all great. 'The Bitterest Pill' and 'Beat Surrender', too.

Funeral Pyre's got my vote.

('The Modern World' is probably the weakest thing here, IMO.)

Yeah, that was one I could never get on board with -- the single or the album (although the US album at least had "All Around The World").

Beat Surrender was a massive disappointment as a swansong, dull verses and a by-numbers chorus, and I don't rate 5 O Clock Hero much either. News of the World has a killer intro, even if the song doesn't quite do it. That was released after Weller ditched their would-be third album and Weller went off to rewrite, the new songs becoming All Mod Cons. I think the dark horse with a surprisingly high vote may be Bitterest Pill, their romantic pop moment.

This is the Modern World is definitely my least favourite Jam album, but it could have been so much better if they hadn't rushed it or put themselves under pressure to deliver two albums in the same year. In the City was released in May 1977, and then This is the Modern World in November 1977, which is just nuts.

Even with that in mind though, I think there's a lot of keepers on the record: 'Standards', 'Life Through a Window', 'In the Street Today', 'Here Comes The Weekend', 'Tonight at Noon' ... I also quite enjoy their version of 'In the Midnight Hour'

x-post:

Really? 'Just Who is the 5 o'Clock Hero?' is one of my personal highlights of The Gift, although it's not my absolute favourite track on there... that award would go to 'Running on the Spot', with no hesitation or doubt.

I like 'Beat Surrender' a lot, but I would have preferred it if they'd recorded 'A Solid Bond In Your Heart' like they were originally going to. There's a demo on the box set of The Jam doing 'A Solid Bond In Your Heart' with the middle 8 that would eventually end up in 'Beat Surrender' ... it's the same version as the one on Extras, except that section was edited out for the Extras release. Of course, when The Style Council eventually recorded it, Weller had to write a new middle section.

I always liked "Beat Surrender," but I didn't hear it until four years after it was released, so there was no FINAL JAM SINGLE EVER baggage.

"Shopping," though, is really underrated, and it's where Rick and Bruce proved they could hang with Weller's new direction.

Yeah, I agree with you on both points there... I think 'Shopping' is very underrated and possibly gets overlooked because The Jam hadn't really attempted anything like that before, and with it being on the B-side of the final Jam single it kinda sticks out like a sore thumb in their discography. It does, though, prove that Foxton and Buckler could have indeed done a great job with the stuff Weller ended up going on to do with The Style Council. I couldn't imagine them being too into some of the stuff on Cafe Bleu and definitely not The Cost of Loving or Confessions of a Pop Group (although most of their audience weren't into those records either, as much as I think Confessions of a Pop Group is underrated) but it's not hard to imagine Foxton and Buckler getting stuck into 'Speak like a Child', 'Party Chambers', 'Headstart for Happiness', 'A Solid Bond in Your Heart', 'My Ever Changing Moods', 'You're the Best Thing', 'Shout to the Top!', 'Walls Come Tumbling Down', 'Come to Milton Keynes', 'A Man of Great Promise', 'Down in the Seine', 'Internationalists' etc. If they were capable of doing something like 'Precious' and 'Shopping', I can't see why they couldn't have done 'Long Hot Summer' ...

Well, I think Weller acknowledged that the Jam ended too early, but then again I can imagine doing those songs w/B&R would have been harder work.

With the albums, someone had a theory that every other album is great.

So, "In the city" yes, "Modern World" no, "All mod coins" yes, "Setting Sons" no, "Sound Affects" yes, "The Gift" no.

Kinda works for me - those between albums all had great tracks, but they also have some real clunkers like 'Don't tell them yr sane" or "little boy soldiers" or .. Various either over-ambitious or muddled, or often just trying too hard.

Wait, what? Really? What was the context? The only chart hit Weller had here was "My Ever Changing Moods" (#29).

Sorry, I wasn't clear: I heard "That's Entertainment" on a local college station! Casey may have steered my love of everything new wave but nothing left of the dial.

'Little Boy Soldiers' is great, although live versions of it are pretty hit and miss. Setting Sons may have been improved by having some of the non-album tracks of the period on it, but even with the strings version of 'Smithers-Jones' and 'Heat Wave' on it, it's still a 10/10 album for me. In fact, I prefer the way The Jam do 'Heat Wave' to the way The Who do it. Only track I would drop from The Gift would be 'The Planner's Dream Goes Wrong', which I've never really liked.

it's the same version as the one on Extras, except that section was edited out for the Extras release.

Jesus, Turrican... that's an obscure bit of trivia! I always assumed they were two different demos, what a strange choice for "Extras".

I don't think its true

Sorry, I wasn't clear: I heard "That's Entertainment" on a local college station! Casey may have steered my love of everything new wave but nothing left of the dial.

Ah, OK, that makes more sense!

The only time I ever heard the Jam on the radio was a late night airing or two of "A Town Called Malice" on WXRT in Chicago. The same station also played a recording of their 1980 show at the Park West, which I think I still have a cassette of somewhere. I remember it well, and I can only assume that Weller's "Chicago gig, brilliant!" in the liner notes of Dig The New Breed refers to this show.

Yep, Chicago gig was brilliant:
http://youtu.be/5WBWrpMv4GM

xxxpost:

They edited out a couple of other bits too, like the ooh ooh's in the intro, and the mixes are slightly different - otherwise, yeah, it's the same version.

I played the Jam do much in those days, even through the eighties, I don't think I have a need to play any of them now.

I wouldn't put any of it down, though.

So much, not do much.

I can't even really remember the a-side anymore but "When You're Young"/"Smithers-Jones" is a great single, not as good as "Strange Town"/"Butterfly Collector" though.

The thing that strikes me most, looking back at all the old Jam footage, is how cool Weller looks in the Jam era. He's went from that to looking like a bit of an embarrassment - ill-advised haircuts and everything, wearing stuff that he just can't pull off anymore. It's not quite Steve Marriott going from Small Faces cool to wearing dungarees, but...

x-post:

Ah, 'When You're Young' has possibly my favourite set of lyrics the guy has ever written!

Smithers-Jones >>>>>>>>> When You're Young

Boston got it right, relating the political with the personal.

That 'put on the kettle' bit, that was Weller's writing, wasn't it?

He's singing it, isn't he?

He had that disillusioned romanticism down to a tee, and also the alienated council house boy from the sticks getting grief in the city, where they humiliate you for even daring to approach them, also the subject of Strange Town. I love the way the Jam took discipline from punk and the mod thing, turning male working class rebellion into so many beautifully crafted pop singles, with their soft hearts all over the b-sides. Weller may have worn a psychedelic shirt and stolen some Revolver riffs, but there was no way he was going to screw up his mind with LSD and cult religions, or his music with dodgy synth washes. Instead he went back into soul and jazz. Discipline! The early SC singles were hit and miss, but Long Hot Summer is just gorgeous.

Yeah, I remember hearing that Weller helped Foxton out with the end part of 'Smithers-Jones' writing-wise, although he doesn't get credited for it. He definitely sings that bit. The main inspiration for the song clearly was 'Can't Reach You' by The Who, though... with a snatch of The Kinks' 'Victoria' at the end.

Weller didn't really embrace any kind of "rock star" excesses until his solo career, did he? I think that period between Polydor dropping The Style Council through to clawing his way back via his first couple of solo albums shook him up a bit to the point where he thought "yeah, fuck it, I'm going to embrace these rock star trappings while I can" ... When he was in The Jam, Weller was clearly anti that kind of stuff.

"The Modern World" intro will always in my mind be the intro to "The Modern Rock Report" on Live 105, the local modern/alt-rock station I listened to in the 80s (albeit with lots of static because I lived in the sticks)

Turrican’s mention of the unusual structure of Strange Town led me to write a few lines in praise of this song, and a band led by a talented, angry, but shy and curiously inarticulate youth (despite some fine lyrics). This person, armed with Strummer’s bullshit detector and informed by a fierce punk/mod discipline, has little in common with the man he later became. The Jam always were about the primacy of youth and the power of the single.
Weller’s guitar playing in the Jam usually provides simple, rhythmic lines that allow the rhythm section to lead. The intro over Strange Town’s 5-note guitar figure is dominated by drum patterns, snare rolls, and the verses by a muscular bassline that is a joy. The perspective is the working class lad feeling alienated in the city, the same one as in their debut single 2 years earlier, but with some of the idealism knocked out of him. I love the delivery of the “dreadful snow” line, nailing English small-talk, just as “we don’t know, we don’t care, we gotta go mate”, captures our stand-offish manner with strangers.
Next there is a chorus that has more of the feel of a bridge, chords IV and V and Townsend-like suspendeds. We get a brief, blues-attack guitar solo for half a verse (when he knew that less is more), then that gorgeous middle 8 “I’ve finished with clubs.. etc”. Chord II7 is like the sun coming out at this point, then the surprise E major, dang dang, again showing the skills of his 60s masters. If your face still doesn’t crack a smile, we get a Mr Sheen reference a few moments later which surely will, though only Brits would have known he meant furniture polish.
Instead of a return to the verse, the pace is wound down for a descending guitar pattern that gradually thickens with overdubs, feedback, pickslides and bass riffs towards a point of momentary chaos, such that it’s hard to accurately predict the moment of return for the first verse, even if you know the song well. Yet the instruments lock in so tightly in the verse that the pace is immediately restored. (The Buzzcocks also did this sort of thing, sometimes to even greater effect). The coda resurrects the intro’s five-note figure, but moved up to C major, plus the machine-gun rhythms, a new ascending guitar riff and a line the boys can all shout along to: “Break it up!” What more could you ask for in 3 mins 50?

Wow. Booming post, Dr. X.

I had to go back and read the lyrics because I always found Weller's accent to be a bit thick to my midwestern ears (it was years before I deciphered the line "'Jesus saves' painted by an atheist nutter"). But you nailed it, Dr. X, and it struck me that that level of pop craftsmanship (for lack of a better term) hasn't been heard in his work in several decades.

Other brilliant parts of "Strange Town": the layered feedback in the intro, and Rick's 16th-notes near the end when Paul's singing "straaange town" in falsetto.

Yes! It's just so dense and lovely. Just dug into the extras on the CD boxset again, and found the origin of the Strange Town Middle 8 in a demo, World's Apart, with some different lyrics and context. There was talk of another recycled M8 upthread, I think. Much better on the same CD is a bouncy-pop lost gem, Walking in Heaven's Sunshine

What happened to him? I was listening to Saturday's Kids this morning, and was struck by how accurately he caught working class life in the late 70s, beyond the kitchen sink clichés, by reporting what people actually said:
Saturday's kids play on one armed bandits
they never win but that's not the point, is it?
Dip in silver paper when their pints go flat
How about that? Far out man.

I don't know. I think he was still capable of a great lyric up to Wild Wood or possibly Stanley Road... I think he either got lazy or ran out of new things to write about after that. I think 'All The Pictures On The Wall' is a great lyric, for example.

Also, if anyone were ever curious as to what The Jam would have sounded like if they hadn't split, look no further than 'There's No Drinking After You're Dead' from Weller's Heliocentric, which is probably the closest he ever got to sounding like The Jam after they split.

Toss up between Start! and Funeral Pyre for me. Not a single, but Sound Affects was the second record I ever bought (aged 7) and my favourite song was Scrape Away, but I wouldn't have had a clue what it was about.

Toss up between Start! and Funeral Pyre for me. Not a single, but Sound Affects was the second record I ever bought (aged 7) and my favourite song was Scrape Away, but I wouldn't have had a clue what it was about.

Scrape Away has one of my favourite lines (albeit spoken), "You say power is all, it's power you need"

'Scrape Away' is great, IMO... one of those tracks that proved that Weller wasn't all '60s influences. 'Scrape Away' was very contemporary. 'Funeral Pyre' too.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Fucking hell!

Ha, "Town Called Malice" is one of my least-favorite Jam singles. I don't hate it as a song, but it always struck me as too much of a pastiche, and pastiche wasn't what made the Jam great.

Went with "The Bitterest Pill."

'Going Underground' still retains its power for me, probably because when I listen to The Jam, I usually tend to go for the studio albums rather than any compilations, so I'm far more burnt out on 'Town Called Malice' and 'That's Entertainment' ... I didn't vote for any of those.

I can't remember what I voted for, think it was 'Strange Town' ... I'm not arsed about 'Precious' not getting a vote, and I expected a poor showing for 'News of the World' as much as I like it. Can't believe 'When You're Young' didn't get a vote, though.

Surprised at Funeral Pyre, I do think it's amazing, though I'm wondering if I've ever heard the proper version? Snap says it's special edit.

In a way I thought when you're young is too on the nose, but it still seems more legit than town called malice, which is goopy, if fun imo. I should've noted ilx ruined down in a tube station for me perfectly and forever.

Snap'sversion is a less murky mix.

'When yr young', lost out but would have done OK on 2nd preference?

I should have stuck to my first thought of voting for "Precious"

I should've noted ilx ruined down in a tube station for me perfectly and forever.

ha, ilx did the same with Eton Rifles for me -- though I dunno about ruined, to be honest, just that it was one of the first "phrases you inexplicably start singing to the melody of something else" posts, and now so many phrases that have the same cadence as "The Eton Rifles," I sing to the tune of "Eton Rifles" and there are so damn many!

"Eating Trifles" et al

I should've noted ilx ruined down in a tube station for me perfectly and forever.

Collateral Damage: "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" by The Jam - What Does It Mean?

Ha, "Town Called Malice" is one of my least-favorite Jam singles. I don't hate it as a song, but it always struck me as too much of a pastiche, and pastiche wasn't what made the Jam great.

Never liked it much either. Neither did Mark E. Smith...

In his notes accompanying the 2005 expanded version of Room To Live Daryl Easlea writes: "The intro to 'Solicitor [In Studio]'...showed again Smith's dalliance with topicality, as the title was a swipe at the UK's then-no.1 single, 'A Town Called Malice' by The Jam." [Note: this wasn't actually the case, as the number one single at the time was The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Tight Fit; The Jam's had been the previous chart topper]. Indeed, the riff which goes with the song on its second recorded performance (details opposite) veers from an imitation of The Jam's track to something resembling 'I'm Into CB'. The lyrics include the line: "I look for suits." On its first gig rendition, there was no accompanying riff, and somewhat different lyrics: "Got to get out of that city called Crappy/Now I don't like Maggie/All the money I made out of mods has made me feel guilty/A town called Crappy"

From the review on this website of the following gig: 1 April 1982 Nightmoves, Glasgow: "Second and last (?) version of "Town called Crappy" although on this version I think Mark says "Cranky" or "Crikey".... Mark laughs and says to the crowd "you don't even recognise our impersonations."

Hahaha.

It was the closest they ever got to a US hit, though -- #31 on Billboard's "Mainstream Rock" chart, whatever the hell that is/was.

Ah right, now I understand why it won this poll.

Also Billy Elliot, which wasn't a massive box-office success in the US, but it's safe to say it was the first/only time most of the film's American audience ever heard the Jam.

Also it's their best song.

I forgot to vote.

haha, no problem at all with Town Called Malice as #1.
I always found those Style Council albums a snoozefest, should I revisit?

Our Favourite Shop is a good album from start to finish, and Confessions of a Pop Group is a personal favourite of mine as the first half of the record was Weller (at that point) outside of his comfort zone and producing some really beautiful music.

On the whole, though, The Style Council were more about individual moments rather than the LP's, which is why the box set is so essential if you're a Weller fan, and the best way to approach The Style Council rather than any of their LP's.

Also it's their best song.

― dorsalstop, Friday, May 5, 2017 1:50 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If it's the only one you've heard, sure.

The Mark E Smith jibe I remember was: "I understand you, I live in a town called m.. m.. marquis cha cha!"
Solitary vote for Absolute Beginners. I always thought it was a big dip in quality - especially after the post-punk attack of Funeral Pyre - then I played it again this week and remembered the guitar, funk that growls! plus the bass and the horns carrying the tune. That sound got tired quickly on the last album, but its perfectly balanced on that single.

lol last week while revisiting Absolute Beginners with a bass-playing friend, I wrote: "Holy shit Bruce Foxton's bass in that song is- not what I remembered. And that guitar is a fucking blast. As pop craftsmanship issue, that could be...their best song? I've probly not listened to it since 1986, so I still know it _by heart_, but as parts and arrangements, almost not at all."

That town was called m..m..m..Manchester.