This weekend I watched a documentary on the British band, The Jam, a band that came to fame in the UK in 1977. They released a bunch of singles and albums between that year and their breakup in 1982, supposedly became the voice of a generation, and then vanished.
I think the first song that I ever heard by The Jam was the 1982 single, “The Bitterest Pill,” which was their (second-to-last) single, though in my ears a far better send-off than “The Beat Surrender,” their real last single.
Many years later I listened to some older songs. Of those, only “A Town Called Malice” and “That’s Entertainment” stick with me, although I have vague recollections of “Going Underground” and “Eton Rifles.” All of these songs came out prior to 1982, the year that I really started to listen to British Top 40—and beyond—songs. At the time, I was a teenager living in Zambia, and picked up British songs by chance and recording from friends. In 1983 I moved to Norway, where I picked up BBC Radio One on my radio. This exposed me to Top 40 songs as well as alternatives. By then, The Jam were history, and Paul Weller’s new band, The Style Council, came to the fore.
At that time, I liked The Style Council more than The Jam, at least when it came to many of the songs. Still, Weller kept changing, and apparently the fifth Style Council album was dropped by the label, due to differences between what the label expected and Weller own tastes. After that, Weller went solo, and released his own stuff; I own several of those solo works, although not all of them.
In terms of The Jam, this was a band created by teenagers. They rose to fame, then the lead person decided to end the band and move on. Weller’s always come across as someone with a massive ego, and this documentary does nothing to dispel than view. Although The Style Council was a huge departure from The Jam, his solo stuff doesn’t seem to have the same drive and energy. In a sense, this mirrors many other bands — the lead writer decides to go his own way, and breaks up the band that made him famous. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.
The Jam weren’t a huge force in my musical life, but they do have some great songs. The Style Council —well, I tend to favor their tunes. As for Weller the solo artist, not so much. Did he destroy his own legacy? Maybe. The Jam could have morphed into other things, but in terms of the documentary, Weller did his bandmates dirty. He cut off his own bandmates, neither of them spoke to him for decades.
What I gained from the documentary was a little bit of history, but also it diminished Weller in my eyes. I think in the future I’ll be less inclined to look for Weller’s music, which is a sad testimony to his supposed talent.
So it goes.
With many bands.
Destroyed by ego.
