The Jam

Howard the Duck · 12-02-2011, 04:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

@Il Duce, in reference to your tube station experience on the other thread, this is probably one of the the Jams best and most iconic songs.

The Jam , Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - YouTube

i wasn't attacked, merely verbally abused

and yeah, i know that song pretty well

paradoxguy · 01-22-2012, 03:57 AM

A college classmate introduced me to the Jam and I have been an enthusiast ever since. I love the passion of their songs and much of their politics and attitude resonates with me. Musically I especially like their hard-edged power-pop of their post-All Mod Cons recordings, including their exploration of soul and softer pop genres in their last songs. Bruce Foxton was a very imaginative and aggressive bassist and filled out the Jam's sound; he effectively covered their lack of a 2nd guitarist. On a similar topic, Paul Weller was and is a decent rhythm guitarist, but he lacked the chops of a good lead guitarist and the Jam's sound was hamstrung as a trio ("Private Hell" is a good example of this), despite Foxton's consistently strong bass play. This demonstrates also why I like the Jam's latter-period songs that incorporate additional musicians and instruments (much of The Gift, especially "Town Called Malice" and "Ghosts", "Beat Surrender", "Great Depression", "The Bitterest Pill").

One more comment--the contributions of Bruce Foxton and probably drummer Rick Buckler to Paul Weller's songs have been underestimated and I believe they should have been given songwriting credits for much of Weller's music.

01-22-2012, 03:57 AM	#12 (permalink)
paradoxguy Groupie Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 12	A college classmate introduced me to the Jam and I have been an enthusiast ever since. I love the passion of their songs and much of their politics and attitude resonates with me. Musically I especially like their hard-edged power-pop of their post-All Mod Cons recordings, including their exploration of soul and softer pop genres in their last songs. Bruce Foxton was a very imaginative and aggressive bassist and filled out the Jam's sound; he effectively covered their lack of a 2nd guitarist. On a similar topic, Paul Weller was and is a decent rhythm guitarist, but he lacked the chops of a good lead guitarist and the Jam's sound was hamstrung as a trio ("Private Hell" is a good example of this), despite Foxton's consistently strong bass play. This demonstrates also why I like the Jam's latter-period songs that incorporate additional musicians and instruments (much of The Gift, especially "Town Called Malice" and "Ghosts", "Beat Surrender", "Great Depression", "The Bitterest Pill"). One more comment--the contributions of Bruce Foxton and probably drummer Rick Buckler to Paul Weller's songs have been underestimated and I believe they should have been given songwriting credits for much of Weller's music.