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"...I Was Young...I Was Full Of Ideas...I Was Serious!"
"One
Two Three Four!" comes the shout at the opening of "Art School"
- a theme-setter for The Jam's staggeringly angry debut album.
It's
1977 England and the TV's full of - newspapers telling you what to think - and
the sound of the streets is unemployment shuffles to grimy pubs where earnest
men rail over pints about the state of everything - Paul Weller feeding back
his guitar in Polydor Studios towards the end of the song no doubt using every
fibre in his body to not smash the damn thing against the wall.
I
had genuinely forgotten how raw and raucous this slice of British New Wave was
- probably the Punkest of all Jam albums. And this remaster from 1997 is just
as snotty as their graffiti-scrawl-on-tiles name and Mod clothes. Baby, I
changed my address, and I know it's for the best. Well, let’s get to one of
Blighty's best...
UK
released July 1997 - "In The City" by THE JAM on Polydor 537 417-2
(Barcode 731453741720) is a straightforward CD Reissue and Remaster of their
May 1977 debut album on Polydor Records (part of 'The Jam Remasters' Series,
see list below) and plays out as follows (32:04 minutes):
1.
Art School [Side 1]
2.
I've Changed My Address
3.
Slow Down
4.
I Got By In Time
5.
Away From The Numbers
6.
Batman Theme
7.
In The City [Side 2]
8.
Sounds From The Street
9.
Non-Stop Dancing
10.
Time For Truth
11.
Takin' My Love
12.
Bricks And Mortar
Tracks
1 to 12 are their debut album "In The City" - released May 1977 in
the UK on Polydor 2383 447 and in the USA on Polydor PD-1-6110. Produced by VIC
SMITH and CHRIS PARRY - it peaked at No. 20 in the UK (didn't chart USA).
An
eight-leaf foldout inlay gives PAT GILBERT just about enough room to lay down
the Jam-formation basics in his entertaining and informative liner notes of
April 1997. The album shifted 60,000 copies, but little of this gives you the
impact The Jam had on British kids. Like The Smiths in the Eighties, their
driving Dr. Feelgood meets The Clash tunes and sound took fans by storm and
engendered cult loyalty that has not dissipated one jot in near 45+ years.
The
Remastered audio is care of ROGER WAKE who had done Supertramp, Joan
Armatrading and The Strawbs for A&M Records. It kicks – take the forgotten
wildness of "Takin' My Love" over on Side 2 – all Wilko Johnson
madman guitar as Weller sings about being out on a Saturday Night looking for
more than Rock and Roll from any young lass unfortunate enough to be in the
firing line of his black suit and pin-tie. You also so get the shadow of The
Who from early Jam – all that power riffing – but it works – feels exciting. It
ends on homelessness and kids wanting a shot at a future – the fantastic "Bricks
And Mortar" chiming and screaming at one and the same time.
My only bugbear is the superfluous cover of "The Batman Theme" (a throwaway cut if ever there was one), but The Jam's take on the 1958 Larry Williams classic "Slow Down" is fantastic, capturing all that tune's get-up-and-dance Rock 'n' Roll joy - something that had turned on Weller's heroes The Beatles decades earlier (the Fabs covered it on their UK Parlophone "Long Tally Sally" EP in 1964 and it was also the B-side of the US 45 for the Carl Perkin's tune "Matchbox on Capitol Records in the States - also that country's "Something New" LP).
The
Jam's 20 May 1977 debut LP was and is such an angry record - a lash-out stab at
the state of England in the late 70s. But then were The Jam ever anything else
but confrontational on all fronts. Well, in-yer-face or not - "In The
City" is raging at the machine with talent, brains and tunes. And when you
then think about the near 50-year career to come for Paul Weller that all of us
who were there for this explosive beginning have followed ever since - isn't
that in-itself, just so staggering. Is it any wonder (whether he hates it or
not) that they call Weller The Modfather. I
would don the cap if I ever met him on the street.
Get
this headless horse in your bed and then move on to the next respect...
UK CD
Titles and Catalogue Nos. in The Jam Remasters Series of July 1997
Six Studio
Albums in Release Date Order
Remasters by ROGER WAKE
1.
In The City (May 1977 Debut LP) - Polydor 537 417-2 (Barcode 731453741720)
2.
This Is The Modern World (November 1977) - Polydor 537 418-2 (Barcode
731453741829)
3.
All Mod Cons (November 1978) - Polydor 537 419-2 (Barcode 731453741928)
4.
Setting Sons (November 1979) - Polydor 537 420-2 (Barcode 731453742024)
5.
Sound Affects (November 1980) - Polydor 537 421-2 (Barcode 731453742123)
6.
The Gift (March 1982) - Polydor 537 422-2 (Barcode 731453742222)
