BCB 100 - The Jam

Bungo the Mungo · Postby **Bungo the Mungo** » 07 Jul 2006, 21:13

The Giraffe wrote:fuck, it's one of the greatest songs ever written, that song [Town Called Malice].

It's great, yes. I love it when you (or anyone else for that matter) post comments like that.

Quaco · Postby **Quaco** » 07 Jul 2006, 22:02

The Giraffe wrote:The ghost of a steam train - echoes down my track
It's at the moment bound for nowhere -
just going round and round

i used to have plans, dreams, whatever. i used to be optimistic. what happened?

You still are. That's why I love you.

Butch Manly · Postby **Butch Manly** » 07 Jul 2006, 22:35

Quaco wrote:
The Giraffe wrote:The ghost of a steam train - echoes down my track
It's at the moment bound for nowhere -
just going round and round

i used to have plans, dreams, whatever. i used to be optimistic. what happened?

You still are. That's why I love you.

Beno · Postby **Beno** » 07 Jul 2006, 23:11

I'm going to be a dissenting voice to this I love in. To be fair I only know them through greatest hits comps and All Mod Cons but for me, whilst they are good, they just aren't that special.

The Kinks do the '"stories about English life" thing much better and plenty of bands are better at injecting punk/new wave energy. Maybe the combination of the two is what is so highly rated but I'm not totally convinced.

Looking at similar acts I'd say that Elvis Costello was a far better songwriter, in fact far better all round.

meetthesonics · Postby **meetthesonics** » 07 Jul 2006, 23:17

Best album: Sound Affects
Best song: Monday

Butch Manly · Postby **Butch Manly** » 07 Jul 2006, 23:40

Beno wrote:I'm going to be a dissenting voice to this I love in. To be fair I only know them through greatest hits comps and All Mod Cons but for me, whilst they are good, they just aren't that special.

The Kinks do the '"stories about English life" thing much better and plenty of bands are better at injecting punk/new wave energy. Maybe the combination of the two is what is so highly rated but I'm not totally convinced.

Looking at similar acts I'd say that Elvis Costello was a far better songwriter, in fact far better all round.

you know, he never grabbed me by the balls like the jam did. he's a clever songwriter, like a latter-day cole porter or sammy cahn, but for me he rarely spoke to me.

there was something about weller that just connected. listen to "that's entertainment" or read the post i did about "town called malice" to see what i mean. both are probably observational writers (or were back in the day) but the young weller seemed like he was looking at it from the inside.

Beno · Postby **Beno** » 07 Jul 2006, 23:56

The Giraffe wrote:
Beno wrote:I'm going to be a dissenting voice to this I love in. To be fair I only know them through greatest hits comps and All Mod Cons but for me, whilst they are good, they just aren't that special.

The Kinks do the '"stories about English life" thing much better and plenty of bands are better at injecting punk/new wave energy. Maybe the combination of the two is what is so highly rated but I'm not totally convinced.

Looking at similar acts I'd say that Elvis Costello was a far better songwriter, in fact far better all round.

you know, he never grabbed me by the balls like the jam did. he's a clever songwriter, like a latter-day cole porter or sammy cahn, but for me he rarely spoke to me.

there was something about weller that just connected. listen to "that's entertainment" or read the post i did about "town called malice" to see what i mean. both are probably observational writers (or were back in the day) but the young weller seemed like he was looking at it from the inside.

I wasn't around at the time for either of them in a record buying sense so possibly see things from a different perspective. I actually love 'That's Entrtainment' the best thing they did by far, and whilst The Jam had more of an edge, Costello tops them on both a heartfelt level, 'Alison', and on a compositional level, with the mini-masterpiece 'Beyond Belief', which for me gives him the prize.

The Prof · Postby **The Prof** » 07 Jul 2006, 23:59

Certainly in the 'dull', 'worthy' and 'earnest' stakes, Costello is head and shoulders above Weller.

Phenomenal Cat · Postby **Phenomenal Cat** » 08 Jul 2006, 00:03

The Penk wrote:I've never really liked the Jam, which is weird, because I just realised I actually like all the songs I've heard, eg the singles. My favourite one of which is That's Entertainment.
I should probably give them a proper listen at some point.

They're okay, but they're no Husker Du.

Jeff K · Postby **Jeff K** » 08 Jul 2006, 00:08

Album - This is the Modern World

Song - Down At the Tube Station At Midnight

The Modernist · Postby **The Modernist** » 08 Jul 2006, 00:16

Classic Prof wrote:Certainly in the 'dull', 'worthy' and 'earnest' stakes, Costello is head and shoulders above Weller.

Well yes exactly.

Tom Violence · Postby **Tom Violence** » 08 Jul 2006, 00:18

Jeff K wrote:Album - This is the Modern World

Song - Down At the Tube Station At Midnight

I'm heartened that someone has this as their fav album (not trying to be condescending as I am a fuckwit and an ignorant one at that), I'm going to give it some more listens til I damn well like it a bit more. 8-)

Quaco · Postby **Quaco** » 08 Jul 2006, 00:44

I always liked This Is the Modern World the best too, for some reason. Probably because it seemed to display the most Who-like tendencies: "I Need You" (same title as a Who song [and a Beatles song]) is very harmonic and Anglophilic), there are some filler songs that still sweat ("London Traffic", "Don't Tell Them You're Sane"), there's a rocked-up R&B cover ("In the Midnight Hour"), the Foxton jump on the back is fantastic and great to look at while you're listening to the album, and in general there is more of a Townshend-anthem approach ("Standards" and "This Is the Modern World" trying to be like "My Generation"), rather than the observational style Weller later adopted (which probably came more from Ray Davies). In general, I think I gravitate toward transition albums, like this one and A Quick One. Plus, "I Need You" and "Tonight at Noon" are two of my very favorite Jam tracks.

Album: This Is the Modern World.
Song: "Away from the Numbers" ... oh yes, still powerful.

Butch Manly · Postby **Butch Manly** » 08 Jul 2006, 01:03

Phenomenal Cat wrote: they're no Husker Du.

true enough.

king feeb · Postby **king feeb** » 08 Jul 2006, 01:05

Favorite album: Sound Affects

Favorite song: "I've Changed My Address" (from the first four notes, it makes me want to bounce around the room, slamming into shit. I'm healing nicely, thank you.)

Shagger Dave · Postby **Shagger Dave** » 08 Jul 2006, 03:51

Album- Sound Affects

Song- Art School. Not Wellers most polished or erudite moment but like Feeb said above, it make me wanna jump around the room.

The Modernist · Postby **The Modernist** » 08 Jul 2006, 10:45

The Giraffe wrote:
toomanyhatz wrote:Song - Dreams of Children. It and Going Underground- another great song- is their best single by a large margin.

that's just silly.

Dreams Of Children would be my choice as well.
Album: All Mod Cons.

Tom Violence · Postby **Tom Violence** » 08 Jul 2006, 10:49

I'm not sure why 'Dreams of Children' seems to be quite a hated Jam song, I love it me...when i first got 'Very Best Of' which has just the singles and some of the b-sides I was surprised when I checked out which songs were singles and which b-sides...i think it's as good as most of the singles. So is 'A-Bomb in Wardour Street'.

Jock · Postby **Jock** » 08 Jul 2006, 10:52

Album: All Mod Cons

Song: Too many to choose from 8-)

One of the best live bands ive seen

Scally Mcgrew · Postby **Scally Mcgrew** » 08 Jul 2006, 11:04

For me, The Jam were the greatest British singles group after The Beatles.

Album: Snap! (or 'Sound Affects', if you like).

Song: So many to choose from, but I'm going for what is one of my favourite songs ever:

Liza Radley.