40 Years of Punk & New Wave 1977: In The City - The Jam (Debut Album)

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In The City - The Jam

Polydor

Produced by Vic Smith and Chris Parry

Released 20th May 1977

UK Chart #20

Personnel
The Jam
    Paul Weller - vocals, guitars
    Bruce Foxton - bass, vocals
    Rick Buckler - drums

Single on In The City

In The City / Takin' My Love
Polydor
Produced by Vic Smith and Chris Parry
Released April 1977
UK Chart #40

        

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Just as Paul Weller was releasing his 13th Studio Solo Album in 2017 - A Kind Revolution - it was a reminder afresh that he has been around a long time and has undergone some interesting image changes down through the years and yet basically remaining himself!

Seven days after its release was the 40th Anniversary of the Debut Album from his former band The Jam! 

Like Dr. Feelgood, who I posted about a couple of days ago, The Jam were not really a Punk band as such but were very much considered as part of the ever growing scene in 1977. Where Dr. Feelgood looked like they had been dragged through a hedge backwards with their suits, The Jam actually looked pretty smart and nothing like an angry rock and roll band! If you saw a picture of them not knowing anything about them you might have assumed it was a band from the 1960s rather than 1977.

(The Jam in 1975 prior to Foxton joining - Brookes , Buckler and Weller)

The band had actually formed five years before when Weller and Co. were still at secondary school but the line-up did not become a stable one until the mid 70's when it consisted of Paul Weller (Bass), Steve Brookes (guitar), Bruce Foxton (guitar he joined in late 1975) and Rick Buckler (drums). In the early days the band were playing American rock and roll covers by the likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard and it was only on discovering the My Generation album by The Who that a fascination with Mod culture began to take root within the band. Brookes left the band in 1976 and he was not replaced. Weller moved over to guitar and Foxton to bass and thus established the Classic three piece line-up of the band.

Coming from outside of London the band were treated with some suspicion among "the Punk Elite" but they worked hard to build an audience for themselves with a residency at the Red Cow in Hammersmith and The Nashville Rooms in West Kensington that drew more and more people each time they played. This no doubt drew the attention of Polydor Records who offered them a deal in February 1977. Paul Weller was 18 years old, still living with his folks on a Woking Council Estate.

The Jam were heavily influenced of course by bands like The Who, The Beatles, The Kinks and The Small Faces as well as Dr. Feelgood. Also add to that the Soul Music of Stax and Motown and clearly you could see they were very different to the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned.

Those influences would come out in their live performances and even as they begun recording their Debut Single and Album. Their Debut would be entitled In The City (which strangely enough was also the title of a song by The Who which had originally appeared as a B-Side to I'm A Boy released in 1966).

Included on the album was the Batman Theme which The Who had released on their Ready Steady Who EP in November 1966 (they would also later go back to this EP and take Disguises and record it for the B-Side of Funeral Pyre in 1981). The other cover on the album was Larry Williams' Slow Down (which The Beatles also used to perform).

Added to those two cover versions were ten songs from the pen of the young Paul Weller. 

The goal was to record the band and try and capture a little something of what they were doing in a live setting and these were the songs that they were playing night in and night out around the Capital and when they ventured further afield.
 
So, let's break the album down track by track.

Side 1

From the opening chords of Art School you just knew that you were listening to something that was rooted in the past but at the same time was totally a thing of the present day. Lyrically it was saying similar things to what the Sex Pistols were saying in their song I Wanna Be Me and showing the new sense of liberty that was to be found in the current scene and how in some ways it was similar to the art culture of the 1960s:

 "Anything that you wanna do, anyplace that you wanna go
Don't need permission for everything that you want
Any taste that you feel is right
Wear any clothes just as long as they're bright
Say what you want,
'cos this is a new art school
Do what you want, 'cos this is the new art school"

The R 'n' B feel of I've Changed My Address with the young Weller declaring "Couldn't see me settling down with a mortgage and a kid" must seem quite funny to him now that he's a father of seven kids! The guitar work on it though is outstanding even if the lyrics are a bit naff.

The cover of Slow Down is more akin to The Beatles cover that they recorded for their BBC Sessions than the original Larry Williams version. It was setting out their stall despite the fact that some in the scene around them were dismissing The Beatles (The Boys were one of the only other bands I knew of at the time who spoke of their great fondness for The Fab Four).

I Got By In Time was Weller writing about his best friend when he was younger, former member of the band Steve Brookes. I'm sure many of us can testify to having a similar experience with former friends! Things don't always go the way we wish them to go and all you can do is get on with living..."I Got By In Time":

"Saw a guy that I used to know
Man he'd changed so much
I think it hurt him to say 'hello',
'Cause he hardly opened his mouth
Yeah well he was my best friend a few years ago
Truly inseperable
We were young and full of ideals
We were gonna rule this whole world
But something happened I didn't know why
But that's the way that it goes"

By the way, on this one I really love Rick Buckler's drumming.

Away From The Numbers is one of my all-time favourite songs by The Jam. The song is about Weller's disatisfaction with his surroundings and the crowd ("the numbers") he was hanging about with and how he needed to "break away and gain control" of his life "so this link's breaking away from the chain":

"I was sick and tired of my little niche
Well gonna break away and find where life is
And all those fools I thought were my friends
(coaching is easy)
They now stare at me and don't see a thing
(reality's so hard)
Till their life is over and they start to moan
How they never had the chance to make good"

The Batman Theme as I mentioned above was a clear influence from The Who, and The Jam version is clearly on a different level as it is way faster and manic sounding and in step with the times.

Side 2

Side 2 kicks off with the title track and single In The City. Although not as big a hit as they would have liked, getting on Top of the Pops was huge for them (one of the first Punk/New Wave bands to appear) and that was the day before the album was released! The NME when reviewing the single had declared:

"'In The City' is the most convincing British penned teenage anthem I've heard in a Very Long Time - perhaps since the halycon days of the '60s."

Sounds from the Street was like a declaration and a defence of who he and his band were:

"I know I come from Woking and you say I'm a fraud
But my heart's in the city, where it belongs" 

It was Weller being honest about himself and about the music of The Jam: "It's something new, it's something young for a change". And there were harmonies on it! You wouldn't get that on a Pistols or Clash record! 😏

 "Sounds from the street, they sound so sweet
They gotta take notice
Why should they stop us? We don't need them
We're never gonna change a thing
And the situation's rapidly decreasing
But what can I do?
I'm trying to be true
That's more than you, at least I'm doing something"

I liked that about Weller, "I'm trying to be true". I don't know why he felt the need to try and justify himself and his place in the scene. The music the band were playing clearly showed that they had something to say and that it was finding a place within the hearts and minds who were becoming fans. Sometimes with the likes of The Pistols and The Clash you got the feeling that they were trying to be what Malcom and Bernie, their managers, wanted them to be rather than being themselves (of course I'm sure they would deny that). 

Non-Stop Dancing - Weller's ode to Northern Soul All-Nighters:

 "Cause when you're dancing all night long
It gives you the feeling that you belong"

Belonging was something that many of us were looking for back then, and whilst I have to confess that Northern Soul was not something I listened to then (in the past couple of decades or so I have heard a lot that I do like though), and I have never been to such an All-Nighter. I did know a little something of how casting your lot in with a particular style of music gave you that sense of belonging though and that was what I took out of the song for me!

Time For Truth - politics was something Weller even in his younger days never shyed away from and here he tackles the incompetence of the Labour Party ("Uncle Jimmy" being James Callaghan the leader of the party and Prime Minister at the time) and also the drifting towards  "a police state /So you can rule our body and minds" and the Police brutality that led to the Murder of Liddle Towers (a theme that was current in a number of bands at the time and the following years - see this post from last month where I talk a little about the whole Liddle Towers situation). Weller made it abundantly clear what his whole perspective of the situation and the remedy was!:

"I bet you sleep at night with silk sheets and a clean mind
While killers roam the streets in numbers dressed in blue
And you're trying to hide it from us
But you know what I mean
Bring forward those six pigs
We wanna see them swing sod high"

Takin' My Love - was the B-Side to the Debut single and is actually an older song, written in 1973 (a co-write with Steve Brookes - though he is uncredited for one reason or another) though you'd never guess it was four years old! There is a little touch of Dr. Feelgood about it only more energetic!

The album ends with Bricks and Mortar. Another speaking of the disaffection of the times when the Government was "pulling down houses and build(ing) car parks" and "While hundreds are homeless they're constructing a parking space" - seen in today's light you could say things haven't changed that much as they are still "pulling down houses" to build high speed railways or demolishing villages in order to put a new runway in at the airport. Bricks and Mortar over people who are struggling with real needs and having their benefits cut, or being homeless and a lack of Social Affordable Housing for them to go and live in, or a declining National Health Service that is badly in need of serious help but the Government can find money to fund the building of Nuclear Submarines or pay millions for the restoration of the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace, it's like they are saying, "hey what's a few thousand starving people who can rely on a food bank to help them as long as we can bring in the tourists and fill the coffers! Bricks and Mortar"...I tend to be in agreement with Weller on this one, the Government needs a right perspective. People matter more than buildings and people's health, education and personal security of a home are far more vital than spending millions tarting up a Palace! ..."Knock 'em down!"

40 Years of Punk & New Wave 1977: In The City - The Jam (Debut Single)

In The City / Takin My Love

Polydor 

Produced by Vic Smith and Chris Parry

Released April 1977

UK Chart #40*

A-Side: In The City

*When reissued in 2002 it charted at #36

B-Side: Takin' My Love

Both songs written by Paul Weller would appear on the Debut Album In The City that would be released in May 1977.

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"In The City"
(Paul Weller)
In the city there's a thousand things I want to say to you
But whenever I approach you, you make me look a fool
I wanna say, I wanna tell you
About the young ideas
But you turn them into fears
In the city there's a thousand faces all shining bright
And those golden faces are under 25
They wanna say, they gonna tell ya
About the young idea
You better listen now you've said your bit-a

And I know what you're thinking
You're sick of that kind of crap
But you'd better listen man
Because the kids know where it's at

In the city there's a thousand men in uniforms
And I've heard they now have the right to kill a man
We wanna say, we gonna tell ya
About the young idea
And if it don't work, at least we still tried

In the city, in the city
In the city there's a thousand things I want to say to you 

NME REVIEW 23rd April 1977

"First release from the New Wave's finest band, The Jam, and the title cut from their soon-to-be-released album. 'In The City' is the most convincing British penned teenage anthem I've heard in a Very Long Time - perhaps since the halycon days of the '60s. The songs shows The Jam to have been influenced by The Who, and the Townshendesque power chords wrenches from his Rickenbacker back up the impression. But that's like saying The Beatles were never influenced by Motown -everyone has to start somewhere - and The Who never played with the same urgency as this. A huge hit and a record those narrow minded reactionaries who control our radio will have to play." SC

The Jam were making a great name for themselves on the live circuit with their frenetic renditions of Atlantic and Motown Soul as well as songs of their own and whilst not technically a Punk band they did find themselves a part of scene whether they liked it or not! Of course compared to The Clash and The Pistols they were the "smart" boys of the New Wave with their matching suits and ties!

Paul Weller was a gifted young soul who seemed to perfectly pinpoint what exactly was going on in the hearts and minds of youngsters with his Youth Anthems.

With Rick Buckler on Drums and Bruce Foxton on Bass they would be a force to be reckoned with.

Whilst maybe not their best song of their rather large catalogue it was a great taster of what was to come from the Woking Wonders.

Despite only making it to #40 on the Charts The Jam did get to go on Top of The Pops.

In May 2002, Polydor Records decided to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Jam by re-releasing their debut single in its original packaging, in its original 7" vinyl record format and at its original price of 75 pence. The limited pressing sold out immediately, and the song made the Top 40 one more time, peaking at #36; higher than it did in its original release and two subsequent reissues. It became the first single to chart in the UK Top 40 based alone on limited edition 7" sales since the late 1970s.

Bonus

The Jam Live in 1977

The 100 Club 11th September 1977.

In The City/Bricks and Mortar - Electic Circus, Manchester August 1977.

Slowdown - Electric Circus, Manchester August 1977 .

Takin' My Love - Electric Circus, Manchester August 1977 .

CBGB, New York 15th October 1977.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 322 - Snap!

Snap! - The Jam

Polydor

Released 14th October 1983

UK Chart #2

US Chart #201

Tracklist for Double Album and Free EP

 

A1 In The City    
A2 Away From The Numbers    
A3 All Around The World    
A4 The Modern World    
A5 News Of The World    
A6 Billy Hunt    
A7 English Rose    
A8 Mr. Clean

    
B1 David Watts    
B2 'A' Bomb In Wardour St    
B3 Down In The Tube Station At Midnight    
B4 Strange Town    
B5 The Butterfly Collector    
B6 When You're Young    
B7 Smithers-Jones    
B8 Thick As Thieves 

   
C1 The Eton Rifles    
C2 Going Underground    
C3 Dreams Of Children    
C4 That's Entertainment    
C5 Start!    
C6 Man In The Corner Shop    
C7 Funeral Pyre 

   
D1 Absolute Beginners    
D2 Tales From The Riverbank    
D3 Town Called Malice    
D4 Precious    
D5 The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)    
D6 Beat Surrender

 

     Live! E∙P
A1 Move On Up (Live)    
A2 Get Yourself Together (Live)

    
B1 The Great Depression (Live)    
B2 But I'm Different Now (Live)*

*The Link is not the version that appears on the EP but an earlier 1981 performance 

It was also released as a Limited Edition Double Pack Cassette

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Usually between October and Christmas time record labels looking to make some easy money decide to release compilations of Greatest Hits or a Best of from some of their top selling artists and I thought over the next few days (and maybe into next week) I would share a few of my favourites.

We'll start with The Jam. In 1977 around this time in November they released their second album This is The Modern World (#22) and then in 1979 around this same period they released Setting Sons (#4), which was their fourth album.

With the group having broken up at the end of 1982 Polydor Records saw an opportunity for a career spanning compilation featuring all their singles, a few b-sides and a few classic album tracks to boot. And so in October 1983 Snap! appeared in the shops and was a huge hit on the album chart peaking at #2. This collection showed what a brilliant Singles band they had been (the label sensing this would later release two boxsets in 2001 comprising of all their singles (The Jam - The Singles 1977-79 and The Jam - The Singles 1980-82).

On release there was a Limited Edition Free EP recorded at one of their last shows at Wembley in December 1982 that featured their excellent cover of Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up and also the Small Faces' Get Yourself Together.

Just to show you how a record label continually seeks to make money off of its artists what follows is a bit of the history of the release/reissue of Snap! in it's various disguises and formats.

In 1984 it was reissued on CD as Compact Snap! But obviously due to time constraints only 21 of the original 29 were included along with (the tracks Away From the Numbers, Billy Hunt, English Rose, Mr Clean, Butterfly Collector, Thick as Thieves, Man in the Corner Shop and Tales From the Riverbank were not included).

In 1991 the album was reissued again but with a different title and also three tracks less than Compact Snap! (Smithers-Jones and Dreams of Children and 'A' Bomb in Wardour Street having been removed). To make it 19 tracks Just Who is The Five O' Clock Hero was also included and it hadn't been on Compact Snap! or on the Original Snap! album.

That's Entertainment (#21) and Just Who is the Five O' Clock Hero (#8) were hit singles in the UK despite not having been released here as singles. They sold well enough on import to actually make it into the UK Singles Chart. Both were released in the Netherlands, Spain, Norway and Germany (and Just Who is the Five O' Clock Hero was also released in Ireland).

In 1997 the Snap! album was reissued (again!) but this time the two of the tracks that were missing from the 1991 Greatest Hits album were included ('A' Bomb in Wardour Street and Dreams of Children).

In 2006 the album was once again reissued on CD (by Universal) but this time the original tracklisting of the Double Album and the Free EP were included in the 3CD set.

We don't always take notice of some of the sneaky tactics of record labels but I think with regard to this album it's very clear what they were up to!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 308 - All Mod Cons

All Mod Cons - The Jam

Polydor

Produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven and Chris Parry

Released 3rd November 1978

UK Chart #6

US Chart #204

A1 All Mod Cons    
A2 To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time)    
A3 Mr. Clean    
A4 David Watts    
A5 English Rose*    

A6 In The Crowd

 
B1 Billy Hunt**    
B2 It's Too Bad    
B3 Fly    
B4 The Place I Love    
B5 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street    
B6 Down In The Tube Station At Midnight

 *Neither the title nor lyrics of "English Rose" were printed on the original artwork of All Mod Cons due to Weller's feeling that the song's lyrics didn't mean much without the music behind them. 

** In 1979 the album was reissued in the USA and Billy Hunt was replaced with The Butterfly Collector (Which had been the B-Side to Strange Town single that was released in March 1979). I have no idea why that decision was taken as when it was originally issued in the States the same track listing as the UK version was used.

The Jam

    Paul Weller - guitar, piano, harmonica, vocals
    Bruce Foxton - bass, vocals
    Rick Buckler - drums, percussion

Singles on All Mod Cons

 Double A-Side

David Watts / 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street
Polydor
Produced by Vic Smith and Chris Parry
Released 26th August 1978
UK Chart #25

I posted about this single as part of the 45RPM series back in August.

A-Side: Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
B-Side: So Sad About Us / The Night
Polydor Records
Produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven
Released 21st October 1978
UK Chart #15

I posted about this as part of the 45RPM series last month.

Mr Clean / Down In The Tube Station At Midnight

Polydor

US Release

May 1979

A rather interesting choice for Polydor to release this one as a single in the USA! Funny though that the Radio Promo they issued late 1978 had two songs that were not actually released as B-Sides on official singles (though as I mentioned below English Rose at one point was put forward as a possible B-Side of Billy Hunt but rejected by the label).

Mr Clean / To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time) / English Rose

Polydor

12" US Promo

1978

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In his review of All Mod Cons for NME, Charles Shaar Murray said that the album was "not only several light years ahead of anything they've done before but also the album that's going to catapult The Jam right into the front rank of international rock and roll; one of the handful of truly essential rock albums of the last few years."

NME ranked All Mod Cons as the second best album of 1978 in its end of year review.

Charlie Sharr Murray was totally correct in his assessment (he wasn't always wrong either!) but it's good to remember that the making of the album was not all plain sailing. An album of songs had been rejected as poor quality or as producer Chris Parry had called them "sub-standard" (many of the songs had been written by Bruce Foxton). Paul Weller was a bit disinterested at writing due to writers block, a bit of a carry over from the second album This Is The Modern World. The message from the label was that Weller had to get back writing. And he did just that, returning to Woking and coming up with The Classic Album!

Weller had been announcing as early as June 1978 that Billy Hunt was the new single during live shows (and at the start of their BBC In Concert show from 1st June 1978 it is introduced by the announcer as the single) but Polydor had rejected that (English Rose was considered for the B-Side along with The Night which did see the light of day on the B-Side of the second single from the album) and chose to go with the cover of David Watts and the amazing 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street that was eventually released as a Double A-Side in August. Whilst The Kinks cover might have been a cause for concern (taking into consideration Weller's writers block and all), turning the record over you heard Paul Weller was back to his best with what was one of his finest songs to date.

One of the songs that became a big hit and saw them back in Top 20 was Down In The Tube Station At Midnight. It almost never made it to the album as Paul Weller had binned it! Vic Coppersmith-Heaven though had a better sense of perception. Where Weller saw only that the song and its arrangement was undeveloped the Producer was able to convince him that it was good enough to be on the album - oh to have been a fly on the wall when that conversation took place! The B-Side contained a tribute to Keith Moon who had recently died - a good reading of The Who's So Sad About Us and the Foxton song The Night that had originally been planned as the B-Side to the rejected single Billy Hunt.

Where This Is The Modern World had been regarded by some as a major disappointment (probably having to churn out two albums a year at the start of their career was not the best way for them to develop creatively), the third Studio Album All Mod Cons has been regarded by many as possibly the greatest album by The Jam.

Standout tracks for me are: To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time), Mr Clean, In The Crowd, 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street and of course Down In The Tube Station At Midnight.

Looking at the album as a whole I think it is a masterpiece. I actually sat and listened to the album afresh last night and followed it by listening to Setting Sons (1979), Sound Affects (1980) and The Gift (1982) and whilst those albums are good I think All Mod Cons towers above them all!

 Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

45RPM: #114 Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - The Jam (1978)

A-Side: Down In The Tube Station At Midnight

B-Side: So Sad About Us / The Night

Polydor Records

Produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven

Released 21st October 1978

UK Chart #15

A-Side: 

Down In The Tube Station At Midnight

B-Side:

So Sad About Us

The Night.

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The Jam released so many classic singles in their time and if Paul Weller had gotten his way Down In The Tube Station At Midnight would not have been one of them. He discarded it in the studio saying that the arrangement hadn't really developed and basically it was going in the bin! Can you believe that? Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, producer of the up-and-coming third album All Mod Cons, convinced him that it was good enough to be a part of the album and eventually a single.

Now, if Tube Station hadn't been the single Billy Hunt was in the running and Weller had even announced at a few shows that it was to be the next single. Polydor Records had other ideas and rejected it and English Rose as singles throwing their lot in with Tube Station.

It was another Top 20 single peaking at #15. I read somewhere that it was banned by the BBC, though I must admit I don't remember that at all. It's not exactly a happy go lucky type of song either as it drums up some crazy pictures as you are listening!

The song was pretty amazing as lyrically it unfolded the story of a bloke on the way home to his wife and you can almost picture the scene of domesticity the unnamed man enjoys but suddenly you are shaken out of that by a confrontation and a violent assualt at the hands of a gang and then the picture changes to the man laid out on the floor blood pouring down his face, helpless and we have no idea what happens next as he realises that the attackers have the keys to his house, and he's worried that his wife may be in danger ("I glanced back on my life and thought about my wife, 'cause they took the keys and she'll think it's me").

It's like a movie played out in the space of four minutes that would actually resonate with folks because it was quite common to hear of such attacks on the London Underground. As a youngster I can remember many times coming face to face with either Teddy Boys or Skinheads down in the tunnels of the Underground and having to do a runner lest I end up with a good kicking and who knows what other injuries!

On the B-Side was So Sad About Us - a cover of a song by The Who and pictured on the back cover of the single was Keith Moon who had died shortly before the release of this single (7th September 1978). The Night was a Bruce Foxton number (I had actually forgotten that was on the record such was the impression it made on me!).

I would stick my neck out and say that Down In The Tube Station At Midnight is probably their finest single ever (though I'm sure there would be some interesting debate about that).

45RPM: #100 David Watts/"A" Bomb In Wardour Street - The Jam (1978)

David Watts / "A" Bomb In Wardour Street

Polydor

Produced by Vic Smith and Chris Parry

Released 26th August 1978

UK Chart #25

A-Side: David Watts

Written by Ray Davies

A-Side: "A" Bomb In Wardour Street

Written by Paul Weller

I can remember there being a lot of concern regarding the state of The Jam just prior to release of their fifth single. The band had been recording a third album but many of the songs were penned by Bruce Foxton and Paul Weller had writers block! The word was that the producers and Polydor had rejected the songs by Foxton as being poor quality and told them, though especially Paul Weller to get writing more songs. Weller by his own admission seemed to have to a lack of interest during the writing and recording process at the time.

News of the World, the fourth single had been written by Foxton (the only A-Side he ever had released) and whilst it did break into the charts at #27 it was seen by some as a real demise in quality for the band. For myself I thought the single was actually pretty good.

David Watts / "A" Bomb in Wardour Street - a double A-Side - was released on 26th August as forerunner to the new album that was expected in November 1978. The big question was "what on earth is it going to be like?" was on the lips of many. There had been a number of misgivings regarding their second album, This Is The Modern World (though again it's an album I love very much as do many fans despite the fact that Paul Weller hated it!).

The fact that the band had chosen a cover version as a single (The Kinks had released the original as a B-Side in 1967) seemed a little puzzling at first (but Weller had said that he had been listening to a lot of The Kinks whilst he had been trying to write new material) and the fact that the majority of the vocal on it was by Foxton was also seen as a concern (it seems though it was more suited to Bruce's vocal range due to the key it was played in).

As good as their reading of the Ray Davies song is though it was flipping the disc over and discovering the other A-Side that you began to see that The Jam were back on track with possibly one of Paul Weller's finest songs to date!

 "A" Bomb In Wardour Street

Paul Weller

Where the streets are pave with blood,
with cataclysmic overtones
Fear and hate linger in the air
A strictly no-go deadly zone
I don't know what I'm doing here
'cause it's not my scene at all

There's an "A" bomb in Wardour Street
They've called in the Army, they've called in the police

I'm stranded on the Vortex floor
My head's been kicked in and blood's started to pour
Through the haze I can see my girl
Fifteen geezers got her pinned to the door

There's an "A" bomb in Wardour Street, it's blown up the City
Now it's spreading through the country

Law and order takes a turn for the worst,
In the shape of a size 10 boot
Rape and murder throughout the land,
and they tell me that you're still a free man
Well if this is freedom I don't understand
'cause it seems like madness to me.

"A" bomb in Wardour Street.
Hate Bomb, Hate Bomb, Hate Bomb, Hate Bomb!

A Philistine nation, of degradation,
And hate and war. There must be more.
It's Doctor Martin's A P O C A L Y P S E Apocalypse!

It makes an interesting read doesn't it? But you know something, this is the kind of violence you were subjected to almost any night if you were up town and if you were a Punk. Weller declared that "it's not my scene at all" and he was right about that, The Jam didn't really fit into the whole Punk Scene but they did ride on the crest of its wave and were often caught up in the violent thuggery of the times that was unleashed against the Punks.

"A" Bomb in Wardour Street was at least a sign that Weller was finding his mojo again and held out some hope that the new album entitled All Mod Cons would be better than its predecessor.

When the album appeared it was like a revelation! In his review for NME, Charles Shaar Murray said that the album was "not only several light years ahead of anything they've done before but also the album that's going to catapult The Jam right into the front rank of international rock and roll; one of the handful of truly essential rock albums of the last few years."


But more about the album another time.

45RPM: #99 When You're Young - The Jam

When You're Young / Smithers-Jones

Polydor

Produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven and The Jam

Released 25th August 1979

UK Chart #17

A-Side: When You're Young

Written by Paul Weller

B-Side: Smithers-Jones

Written by Bruce Foxton

You'd be hard pressed to find a duff single among the 19 that The Jam released between 1977-1982. Only two of them failed to reach the Top 30 (In The City stalled at #40 and The Modern World at #36). Nine of the singles were Top Ten including four #1 records: Going Underground/Dreams of Children (1980), Start! (1980), Town Called Malice/Precious (1982) and Beat Surrender (1982).

The band's first two releases of 1979 were both non-album tracks, Strange Town March 1979 #15) and When You're Young (August 1979 #17). 

As with pretty much all The Jam's Singles the B-Side was an absolute cracker, Smithers-Jones, written by Bruce Foxton, and one that many reckon was the best song he ever wrote for the band. An orchestral version of it appears on the Setting Sons album that once again showed that The Jam were a very clever band when it came to making albums. There's not a guitar, bass or drums in sight!

The single set in motion a period in the history of the band where they would come to enjoy far greater success than they could have imagined.