On May 29, 1981 The Jam released the UK#4 hit "Funeral Pyre" b/w a cover of The Who's "Disguises". It's one final burst of punk anger from Weller who would soon start fancying the 70's soul of Curtis Mayfield, forever changing the course of the band and leading to the formation of The Style Council.
Wire : Our Swimmer
A new one-chord single from Wire ( actually recorded in 1979) is released to further provoke interest in Document and Eyewitness, a live album coming soon.
Toni Basil : Mickey
37-year old Toni Basil re-recorded Racey's "Kitty" as "Mickey" and eventually scored a worldwide smash, topping the charts in Australia, Canada and the United States. Basil has sued Razor & Tie Direct, Forever 21, Disney, Viacom, VH1, and South Park for using the song without permission. Hope I fall under her radar.
Dead Kennedys : Too Drunk To Fuck
"Too Drunk To Fuck" snuck into the UK Top 40 without any help from radio or advertisement. They sold 20,000 copies in one week reports Cherry Red Records. In the US, the IRS promo man Michael Plen tried to convince rock stations to play the song, telling them "Remember, it's not against the FCC law to play a song with the word 'fuck ' in it , It's just against the law to say it. " That may not be true. And in any case no station gambled their license on the single from Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables.
Ultravox : All Stood Still
Another single from Vienna, this is the Ultravox tune I played most on my college radio show. "All Stood Still" breezed into the UK Top 10 on a wave of synthesizers and a catchy chorus. Nobody could stand still listening to this one!
E.S.G. : You're No Good
The Bronx sisters who made up Emerald Sapphire & Gold released their debut single, "You're No Good", in May of 1981. Restricted by their budget to just drums, congas and a bass they make up for it by inventing a new sound that sounds as fresh as it did 40 years ago.
In the first week of February 1981, three remarkable singles entered the UK singles chart that, at the time, was topped by John Lennon's "Woman". Coming in at #35 is "Rock This Town" by the American rockabilly band Stray Cats. The single would peak at UK#9 within three weeks. The Cats would open three dates for the Rolling Stones on their 1981 North American tour.
Eventually "Rock This Town" would hit the Billboard Hot 100 where it peaked at US #9 in September of 1982.
Released as a single in Germany, so many British fans bought The Jam's "That's Entertainment" b/w a live version of "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" as an import that it entered the chart at UK#47. It would peak at UK#21 by the end of the month and remains one of the bands most famous songs.
In an interview with Absolute Radio Paul Weller said: "I wrote it in 10 mins flat, whilst under the influence, I'd had a few but some songs just write themselves. It was easy to write, I drew on everything around me."
Entering the chart at UK#63, "Once In A Lifetime" would eventually peak at #14. Only the UK#6 "Road to Nowhere" is a bigger hit for Talking Heads on that side of the pond. The song emerged from studio jams by the band influenced by funk and Fela Kuti.
David Byrne's lyrics make more and more sense as we listeners age:
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, "Well... how did I get here?"
Byrne gave his take on this song to NPR:
“We’re largely unconscious. You know, we operate half awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else. We haven’t really stopped to ask ourselves, ‘How did I get here?’”
1980 was a great year for The Jam who scored two #1 smash hits in the UK and a #2 album. Despite the groundswell there, the band remained virtually unknown in America and poorer for it.
NME Pop Poll Results
1980 Results
Best Group
1 The Jam
2 Joy Division
3 The Clash
4 Talking Heads
5 The Police
6 UB40
7 The Stranglers
8 Adam and the Ants
9 Genesis
10 The Fall
Album
1 Sound Affects - The Jam
2 Closer - Joy Division
3 Scary Monsters - David Bowie
4 Crocodiles - Echo and the Bunnymen
5 Signing Off - UB40
6 Remain In Light - Talking Heads
7 Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Adam and the Ants
8 Zenyatta Mondatta - The Police
9 I Just Can't Stop It - The Beat
10 Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
Single
1 Going Underground - The Jam
2 Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
3 Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie
4 Atmosphere - Joy Division
5 Start! - The Jam
6 Fashion - David Bowie
7 Bankrobber - The Clash
8 Enola Gay - OMD
9 Games Without Frontiers - Pater Gabriel
10 Dog Eat Dog - Adam and the Ants
Best New Act
1 UB40
2 Spandau Ballet
3 Echo and the Bunnymen
4 Stray Cats
5 Bow Wow Wow
NME TOP SINGLES OF 1980
1. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
2. Going Underground - The Jam
3. Mirror In The Bathroom - The Beat
4. Atmosphere - Joy Division
5. Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie
6. Your Cassette Pet - Bow Wow Wow
7. Private Life - Grace Jones
8. Fashion - David Bowie
9. C30 C60 C90 Go - Bow Wow Wow
10. Master Blaster - Steve Wonder
11. Treason - Teardrop Explodes
12. Geno - Dexys Midnight Runners
13. Start! - The Jam
14. Food For Thought/King - Ub40
15. New Amsterdam Ep - Elvis Costello
16. Shack Up - A Certain Ratio
17. Rescue - Echo And The Bunnymen
18. My Way Of Thinking - Ub40
19. The Breaks - Kurtis Blow
20. Stand Down Margaret/Best Friend - The Beat
21. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down - Elvis Costello
22. Drug Train - The Cramps
23. Fiery Jack - The Fall
24. Dance Stance - Dexies Midnight Runners
25. Johnny & Mary - Robert Palmer
26. Hands Off .. She's Mine - The Beat
27. My Flamingo - The Subterraneans
28. A Song From Under The Floorboards - Magazine
29. Independence Day - Comsat Angels
30. My Perfect Cousin - The Undertones
31. Runaway Boys - The Stray Cats
32. At Last I Am Free - Robert Wyatt
33. Looking For Clues - Robert Palmer
34. There, There My Dear - Dexys Midnight Runners
35. My Girl - Madness
36. Another Nail In My Heart - Squeeze
37. Flight - A Certain Ratio
38. Diet/It’s Obvious - The Au Pairs
39. Funkin’ For Jamaica - Tom Browne
40. Seconds To Late - Cabaret Voltaire
41. I’m Coming Out - Diana Ross
42. Hi-Fidelity - Elvis Costello
43. Warrior Charge - Aswad
44. Love Comes In Spurts - Richard Hell
45. Edward Fox - Smack
46. Don’t Stand So Close To Me - The Police
47. Hello I’m Your Heart - Bette Bright
48. Rise And Shine - Linx
49. Happy House - Siouxsie And The Banshees
50. Dog Eat Dog - Adam And The Ants
Also Mentioned '
• Cartrouble - Adam And The Ants
• Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Adam And The Ants
• Baltimore - Tamlins
• Lovely One - The Jacksons
• Rapp Payback - James Brown
• Three Mantras - Cabaret Voltaire
• Bankrobber/The Callup - The Clash
• Keep It Up Part 2 - Dexys Midnight Runners
• Elastic Man - The Fall
• Holiday ‘80 Ep - The Human League
• There Goes Concorde Again - The Native Hipsters
•
On November 28, 1980 The Jam released the UK#2 album Sound Affects. Paul Weller has said it's his favorite ("We kept to our fundamental sound but stretched it a bit") It was certainly the most diverse Jam album at the point, featuring pretty ballads, punchy horn sections, traditional Jam-style rockers and quite a few Beatlesque touches.
The deluxe 30th anniversary edition of the album includes bonus tracks, including covers of The Beatles ("And Your Bird Can Sing", "Rain"), The Kinks ("Waterloo Sunset","Dead End Street" ) and Small Things ("Get Yourself Together").
Sound Affects could very well be The Jam's Revolver. Of course there's the "Taxman" bass riff on "Start!". But there's also some backwards guitar on "Dream Time" and "That's Entertainment", and some McCartneyesque observations on "Boy About Town"(which, like Revolver, begins with a cough) and "Monday". Weller's songwriting and guitar playing, Bruce Foxton's bass playing and Rick Buckler's drumming are all at peak form.
In the NME Paul Du Noyer wrote that "...it's a brave departure and an earnest effort to break new ground. Sound Affects is the Jam today , and thats what we need most of all. The new songs represent a band that's as vital and as capable of anger as ever, but more than ever before The Jam's attacking spirit is being allied to melodic invention., and to lyrics that are increasingly thoughtful. Ignore any suggestions that they're going soft of '67"
In Sound Dave McCullough wrote that Sound Affects is "their best album yet...a truly stirring record. It has a depth that appears impenetrable. My head is still going round with the possibilities.
And there's this from Smash Hits:
At 22, Weller may have been listening to a lot of mod bands from the 60's he was also on a literary kick, when he could find the "tranquility of solitude". He told MOJO "A poem by a bloke called Paul Drew inspired That's Entertainment."
Heres an excerpt:
A dead body on the hour,” one, six nine or ten – that’s entertainment
A rape before the Horlicks, a simulated Orgasm before the Bovril,
NOTHING IS FUNNY ANYMORE.
That’s entertainment.
"I was reading Geoffrey Ashe's Camelot and The Vision of Albion and a lot of Shelley at the time too," adds Weller.
Borrowing a bit from the best, The Jam made their masterpiece.
In the Summer of 1980 each member of The Jam provided the newly formed Flexipop! Magazine with a list of their favourite current records. All three like "Happy House" by Siouxsie and The Banshees. While Paul Weller said he thought David Bowie was "a bit of a prat" he selected two songs including "Ashes To Ashes", the song they would dislodge from the top of the UK charts.If yoyu click on the page below it gets bigger ( That's what she said).
On the week of August 17, 1980 The Jam's new single "Start!" b/w "Liza Radley" debuted on the UK charts at #3, the same week David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" hit #1. The following week it would knock Bowie from the top spot, repeating the success of "Going Underground".
"Start!" began as a demo called "Two Minutes" that came from sessions in which The Jam recorded cover versions of "Rain" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" (The Beatles), "Dead End Street" and "Waterloo Sunset" (The Kinks), and "Get Yourself Together" (The Small Faces). So Weller's decision to incorporate the bass riff from "Taxman" was very much a deliberate move and one that he was quick to admit. George Harrison must have considered it a tribute, or felt like he had spent too much time in court, because he never made an issue of it.
Some record company executives were pushing for "Pretty Green" to be the new single but Weller had final say.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy ("Hungry Like The Wolf"), the video was shot quickly and cheaply. It gives the impression that The Jam are performing in the same place The Beatles shot the back cover of Revolver.
Not long after the release of "Start!", Melody Maker photographer Paolo Hewitt managed to introduce Paul Weller to Pete Townshend. They didn't agree on much and both were disappointed. The headline bother Weller.
The B-side "Liza Radley" is that rare acoustic song by The Jam and features an understated accordian played by Bruce Foxton. It would not make an appearance on Sound Affects. Weller was trying to push back the album to 1981 citing lack of songs.
From Smash Hits, perhaps the only review that didn't print the "Taxman" reference
On July 11, 1980 The Jam performed "Start!" and "Private Hell" on the ABC Saturday Night Live clone Friday's. Their energy is remarkably high considering the fact that they were on their way back from a tour of Japan. Even so, The Jam has yet to break the Top 100 on the US Billboard albums chart.
"Start!" was a new song they'd already recorded for their upcoming album Sound Affects. "Start!" had a "Taxman" bass riff, a "She Said, She Said" solo, and "Norwegian Wood" lyrics about a one night stand ( presumably--Weller has said it's about the Spanish Civil War). It would be a UK#1 hit in August.
Among the cast members of Friday's are Michael Richards, seated, and Larry David , standing far right. They would reunite for Seinfeld, a TV show you may have heard of.
On April 23, 1980 New Musik returned to the UK charts at #59 with "This World of Water", one of five singles from the album From A to B. The catchy single would peak at UK#31. The English synth pop band had a way with catchy, quirky numbers and the vocal modulations on "This World of Water" caught many a pop fan's attention that year.
At the same time The Jam were re-releasing singles on picture discs so in addition to "Going Underground"/Dreams of Children" at UK 20, "In The City" (UK#43), "All Around the World"(UK#49), "News of the World" (UK#53), "Modern World"(UK#54) ,"Strange Town" (UK#57) and "David Watts"/"A Bomb in Wardour Street" (UK#63) had all returned to the charts.
On March 14, 1980 The Jam released "Going Underground" b/w "Dreams of Children", the first of three singles to make its UK chart debut at #1. The band, who had been playing together since they were 15, got the news in the midst of their American tour.
"It was a shock when we got to #1, otherwise we wouldn't have been in the States," says drummer Rick Buckler."We knew 'Going Underground' would do well. We had a good drink that night. However, everyone wanted to be back in Britain. We made out we had all come down with a virus. We canceled the rest of the tour of the States. We flew back to Britain on Concorde, to record 'Going Underground' on Top of The Pops for the following week."
Weller had returned to the music of The Kinks, The Who and The Beatles for inspiration and though Weller usually abstained from politics, the video for "Going Underground" references war and patriotism, Thatcher and other Tory politicians and exploding atom bombs.
"Maybe I'm only an armchair radical", Paul Weller told Smash Hits the same month. "But every night I watch the news and I get so frustrated. I write it all down then in the morning throw it away because it's rubbish, just paranoid rantings and ravings."
The song would top the UK charts for three weeks and finish the year with the NME readers pick for Best Single while its own critics ranked the song at #2 behind Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
Maybe even better is "Dreams of Children" with its backwards guitar lines and Beatlesque harmonies.
On November 16, 1979 The Jam released Setting Sons, their fourth album. One of Paul Weller's favorite bands, The Who, recorded a very famous fourth album, Tommy --a concept album about a deaf dumb and blind boy who becomes a kind of Christ figure. It has been suggested that Weller's Setting Sons began as a concept album about a trio of friends who go to war only to return as strangers to each other.
The notion of Setting Sons being some kind of concept album is quite loose and that certainly wasn't on our minds while we were recording it. It most definitely wasn't an attempt to be The Jam's Tommy or The Wall. All Jam songs--and Paul's lyrics--are open to any interpretation from whoever is listening...It just so happened that when Setting Sons was released in 1979 it was exactly 40 years after the outbreak of the Second World War.
OK, but there is plenty of literature to suggest at least five songs came from a scrapped concept album ("Private Hell", "Little Boy Soliders", "Eton Rifles", "Burning Sky", and "Thick As Thieves"). But the concept falls apart on "Smithers-Jones", the string version of the song bassist Bruce Foxton wrote about his dad, and on the band's live in the studio recording of "Heat Wave".
Red Starr of Smash Hits gave the album 9 out of 10, writing:
In a word; brilliant. Paul Weller has always tried to be good and different, but this time he's excelled himself. Excellent lyrics ( as always), strong melodies this time ( eg "Eton Rifles", included here) superbly executed--power, precision and imagination all around. It's all dynamite stuff that gets mightier with every play. Simply amazing. Best tracks: "Private Hell", "Girl on the Phone".
From Robert Christgau a B+:
Likable lads, as always, and improving themselves, too. The music has gained density and power, and they do OK with the social commentary--nice to see some empathy for doomed middle-class plodders like "Smithers-Jones" instead of the usual contempt, and "The Eton Rifles" and "Little Boy Soldiers" place them firmly on the left. On the other hand, some of this is pretty dumb ("Wasteland," ugh), and overarrangement (not so much extra instruments as dramatic vocal shifts) is no way to disguise thin melody.
Setting Sons was ranked number four among the top "Albums of the Year" for 1979 by NME, with "The Eton Rifles" ranked at number one among the year's top tracks.
On October 28, 1979, The Jam entered the U.K. pop charts at #29 with "The Eton Rifles" b/w "Seesaw". The Setting Sons track, pitting toffs against toughs, would peak at #3, thus becoming The Jam's first Top 10 hit. Its success would not, however, prevent Eton from pumping its elite graduates into the House of Commons decades later.
Weller grew up not far from Eton. He tells Mojo Magazine he wrote the A side while on vacation in a seaside town:
"We had a week off and I never even thought about going abroad for a holiday at that time. So I went down to my mum and dad's caravan in Selsey and it pissed with rain for the whole week, so I just ended up writing. And I wrote 'Eton Rifles.' I thought it was a powerful statement."
NME selected "The Eton Rifles" as the #1 single of 1979.
On August 19,1979, The Jam entered the U.K. charts at #25 with their second stand alone single , "When You're Young" b/w the rock version of "Smithers-Jones". The A-side is a straight up Jam rocker. For the video, Weller breaks the news to a some freshly-scrubbed children that the world has "got you in its grip before your born/ It's done with the use of a dice and a board /They let you think you're king, but you're really a pawn", but still manages to get them to sing along at one point.
Steve Bush of Smash Hits was a fan of the new single, writing:
Now, this is better. The Jam aren't trying to be clever or trying to confuse us. Their familiar sound and distinctive vocals, great guitar, and the lyrics a little less contrived than usual. A biggie.
Well, not that big. The single peaked at U.K.#17.
The gem of the 45 is the B side, Bruce Foxton's "Smither-Jones" might be his best contribution to The Jam. This is the version that should have appeared on Setting Sons instead of the orchestral version below.
On March 11, 1979 The Jam's "Strange Town" b/w "The Butterfly Collector", entered the U.K. charts at #30. It would peak at U.K.#15. In a 2015 interview Paul Weller said "Strange Town" was one of the three best songs he'd written in his entire career ( the other two being "Wings of Speed" from Stanley Road and "Going My Way" from his 2015 album Saturn's Patterns. )
Coming from the London suburb of Woking, Weller and his bandmates were considered yokels by the record labels. Even with six Top 40 hits under his belt, Weller must have felt out of place in the wealthy parts of central London, like Oxford Street."You can't be weird in a strange town /You'll be betrayed by your accent and manners".
The B side is reportedly a song about Soo Catwoman, one of the best known hangers-on of the Bromley Contingent. It's a strong rebuke."There's tarts and whores/
But you're much more...Cause you've got no pride/ It's just a face on your pillowcase /That thrills you".
My list of favorite albums from 1978 may contain only a few surprises for those expecting the usual suspects. All Mod Cons was the first Jam album I ever owned and will always be up there among my favorites. I also have sentimental favorites in the Creme + Godley album, L, Gerry Rafferty's City to City, The Saints's Eternally Yours and NRBQ's At Yankee Stadium. There were quite a few album I really didn't know before spending the past year living, musically at least, in the year 1978. The ones that made the biggest impact were Wire's Chairs Missing, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band's Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), Magazine's Real Life, Kate Bush's The Kick Inside Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance and Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. Discovering what I missed locked in an upstate Connecticut boarding school is the whole point of this mission . Here's hoping 1979 brings us more hidden gems!
1. The Jam All Mod Cons 2. Elvis Costello: This Year's Model 3. Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings and Food 4. Bruce Springsteen: Darkness at the Edge of Town 5. Nick Lowe: Pure Pop for Now People (Jesus of Cool)
6. Wire: Chairs Missing 7. The Cars: The Cars 8. Ramones: Road to Ruin 9. The Rolling Stones: Some Girls 10. Blondie: Parallel Lines
11. The Saints : Eternally Yours 12. Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine 13. Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) 14. Television: Adventure 15. Magazine :Real Life
16. Godley + Creme : L 17. Pere Ubu: The Modern Dance 18. Big Star: Third 19. Devo: Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! 20. Kate Bush :The Kick Inside
21. NRBQ: At Yankee Stadium 22. Warren Zevon: Excitable Boy 23. Cheap Trick: Heaven Tonight 24. Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians 25. The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope
26. Chic : C'est Chic 27. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: Hearts of Stone 28. Dire Straits : Dire Straits 29. Marvin Gaye : Here My Dear 30. The Only Ones
31. Gerry Rafferty: City to City 32. Tom Petty + The Heartbreakers : You're Gonna Get It 33. Bob Marley + the Wailers: Kaya 34. Lou Reed: Street Hassle 35. Buzzcocks : Another music in a different kitchen
36. The Rutles 37. Flamin' Groovies : Now 38. Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove 39. Willie Nelson: Stardust 40. Bryan Ferry : The Bride Stripped Bare
In the post-match analysis, Charles Shaar Murray said: “Compared to the blizzard of short-sightedness that afflicts readers’ polls in other publications of a vaguely rock-orientated nature, the NME readers’ poll vindicates not only our belief in new rock and roll but -let’s get sickening for a second- our belief in you.”
• Album - Jam-All Mod Cons
• Bass - Bruce Foxton
• Best Dressed Lp - Rolling Stones-Some Girls
• Discjockey - John Peel
• Drums - Keith Moon
• Female Singer - Debbie Harry
• Film - Close Encounters Of The 3rd Kind
• Guitar - Mick Jones
•
Klutz/Creep Of The Year - John Travolta
• Male Singer - David Bowie
• Most Wonderful Humanbeing - Sid Vicious
• New Group/Most Promising - Public Image Limited
• Piano/Keyboards - Dave Greenfield
• Pin Up - Debbie Harry
• Radio Show - John Peel Show
• Single -Clash-(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
• Songwriters - Elvis Costello
