Anyways....the Olympics were great. Top marks to the BBC for some amazing coverage which meant, thanks to the wonders of 'the red button' meant I could watch just about anything that was on offer. I got hooked on the cycling which wasn't a surprise, but I also found myself glued to the swimming (thanks in particular to the presentation team of Clare Balding and Ian Thorpe) as well as the athletics where I was hugely impressed by the punditry of Michael Johnson. These were the dominant sports in the nightly coverage and so kept my backside on the settee and away from the desk with the PC but in all honesty, the boxing also grabbed my attention and even I, who cannot stand the sport of tennis, got caught up in Murray-mania.
It's all gone now but at least the football season is here to keep me entertained for the next nine or so months. That and hopefully a rekindled enthusiasm for music.
Been listening to a lot by The Jam in recent weeks. It's been a while since I gave them any sort of attention, but a few months back I put all the tracks I have into one file and loaded it on to the ipod.
It is genuinely stunning to think just how young Paul Weller was when he wrote all those classics. Songs which captured the spirit, vitality, energy and frustration that comes with youth and thinking you know it all and that the world should dance to your tune. Songs which told the stories of the men and women many of us would turn into....bored, depressed, stuck in a rut and looking back on our younger selves with a degree of jealousy. Tales of deprivation, violence, fear of war, loneliness, love and romance, of whole streets belief in Sunday's Roast Beef.....It was all proof that Weller was, for a brief period in time, the greatest songwriter on the planet. I'm just so happy that period in time coincided with mine.
mp3 : The Jam - The Modern World
mp3 : The Jam - English Rose
mp3 : The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight (live)
mp3 : The Jam - Private Hell
mp3 : The Jam - Saturday's Kids
mp3 : The Jam - Just Who Is The 5 O'Clock Hero?
Confession time. Hated English Rose at the time of its release. It was the full-on all guitars blazing angry Weller that I wanted. Took me decades to listen to it properly. It's a fabulous wee love song and how brave it was to put it on the LP.
And isn't Tube Station a fantastic song to end a live set with? Leave 'em screaming for an encore.....
Happy listening.
4 comments:
The Olympics had the opposite effect on my own blogging. Just as I'd pretty much given up, I was inspired by all the athletes and competitors and ended up producing more posts than I have in ages. All sport-related to... and until these Games, I wasn't interested in sport at all!
Still, sad as I am to see the back of the Games, it's good to have you back at full power!
My only question here is... how did you limit yourself to just six songs from the mighty Jam canon?
You could've added all of 'All Mod Cons', and then all of 'Sound Effects'. And you'd still have to add more.
Mercy me! Blog aint no mess - just a tad scattergun.
The fact that English Rose was a last minute/shy/self conscious addition - hence didn't appear on the original album cover - seemed so wonderfully subversive and canny to me at the time. A secret bonus - relatively rare in those days.
My 17 yo daughter heard it for the 1st time this week and couldn't believe it was The Jam. Like so many, she thought they were just the noisy blokey stuff. She knows different now. I put her right, like.
Indeed, am taking her to see From The Jam soon.
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