Three decades ago, the UK witnessed the end of an era, as the last of the great bands to emerge out of the Punk/New Wave era, The Jam, hit the Number 1 slot with what would turn out to be their final hit together.
Angry young men they certainly were when they first crashed into the nation's conciousness in 1977 with In The City, but their carefully-crafted music and their evocation of the "Mod" style rather than the slightly skanky "Punk" aesthetic meant they stood out in the crowd - indeed by the time they finally called it a day in December 1982 they had already scored eighteen consecutive Top 40 singles. After they split up, their entire back catalogue was re-released, and when six of the singles charted they equalled the achievement of the Beatles for the most records by one artist or group in the Top 40 at the same time.
Mr Weller went on to become some kind of spiky "mod icon", having massive subsequent success with Style Council and as a solo artist, and is named as an influence on countless future generations of artists, Oasis and Blur among them. The others - still allegedly not talking to Mr Weller - have had varying degrees of success playing The Jam's back-catalogue live.
Here's that last hit, for your delectation - Beat Surrender:
Beat surrender
Come on boy, come on girl
Succumb to the beat surrender
All the things that I care about (are packed into one punch)
All the things that I'm not sure about (are sorted out at once)
And as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end
That bullshit is bullshit, it just goes by different names
All the things that I shout about (but never act upon)
All the courage and the dreams that I have
(but seem to wait so long)
My doubt is cast aside, watch phonies run to hide
The dignified don't even enter in the game
And if you feel there's no passion
No quality sensation
Seize the young determination
Show the fakers you ain't foolin'
You'll see me come runnin'
To the sound of your strummin'
Fill my heart with joy and gladness
I've lived too long in shadows of sadness
The Jam website
I love Beat Surrender, it's a great single and often over-looked for more obvious Jam singles like Eton Rifles, Going Underground, & Town Called Malice.
ReplyDeleteI thought Bruce Foxton had played on a couple of tracks on Paul's last album Sonik Kicks, but I could well be confused.
I know their fall-out was acrimonious to start with (and up until quite recently still was).
x
As they all get older, I am sure the wounds begin to heal and they'll perform together again (much as Spandau Ballet did, after acrimony that even went to court). Jx
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ReplyDeleteBruce does play on the latest album along with Woking Gay Community Choir :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.musicomh.com/albums/paul-weller-7_0312.htm
Who knew Woking even had a gay community? Jx
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