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Yesterday's Jam Paul Weller & co. fondly remembered by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
Weller's fascination with England's mod culture of the early '60s was already firmly entrenched when punk exploded. He drew his musical reference points from the Who, the Kinks and the soul of Stax and Motown.
Whereas the deliberate mediocrity of punk bands was calculated to steal rock 'n' roll back from the prog rock elitists who had sapped the music's energy throughout the early '70s, Weller saw room for another approach. True, the Jam's first album In The City was a smash-up derby of power chords at breakneck speed, the raw form of an exceptional songwriting talent was clearly beginning to take shape. By the band's third record, All Mod Cons, the punky snarl had largely dissipated, replaced by a mature and moody popcraft that drew on majestic soul and the inspired creativity of the Beatles. Whether they tackled the soulessness of the rat race ("Smithers-Jones"), warmongering ("Little Boy Soldiers") or the loneliness of alienation ("Strange Town"), the articulate indignation of Weller's poetry was always underscored by stunningly well-constructed melodies. The unabashed pop punch and working-class anglophilia of the Jam still resonates today, echoing through the discographies of Britpop acts like Oasis, Blur and Supergrass. On these shores, bands like Winnipeg's Duotang also aspire to Weller's angry eloquence. Although 20 years ago their music was deliberately anachronistic, the Jam's earnest pleas for awareness and action remain modern to this day. The Jam's 117-track box set, Direction Reaction Creation, on the Polydor label, is in stores now |
At the dawn of punk's blitzkrieg, three blokes from the London suburb of Woking chose to set themselves apart from punk. Although the Jam were taken by the air of dissatisfaction and raw, youthful energy of the movement's early days, band leader Paul Weller saw through the fashion-statement nihilism of the Sex Pistols and most of their contemporaries. And what he saw on the other side was a social and artistic dead end.
Mod, a contraction of modern, mirrors its opposite, trad or traditional. To the post-war youth explosion coming of age in the '60s, trad meant racism, warmongering and dehumanizing bureaucracy. Likewise, being mod meant being part of a generation that was ready to question the answers and, more importantly, by virtue of sheer numbers and the accompanying economic clout, could find answers of their own. They dressed smart, popped pills and fought it out with greasy rockers on the beaches of Brighton. They hung out at clubs, dancing to the latest in American R&B and Jamaican ska. They were wound-up, pissed-off kids.