The Jam - Going Underground

[Lefty4001]

good, Rick-filled stuff

[opticnerve]

What a GREAT song...love this song...played the 45 to death when it came out...brings back a lot of good old memories.

I do feel bad for Bruce & Rick...after all the work and time they put into the band only to have the rug pulled out when they were on the verge of really big success...then fade quickly into obscurity...damn.

I wonder how hard the decision to end the band was for Weller...going underground indeed.

[fireglo67]

I wonder how hard the decision to end the band was for Weller...going underground indeed.

Split the money 2 ways(paul/John) instead of 4 (Paul/Bruce/Rick/John)?
Not a hard decision at all, and (regardless of what has been said or written) one of the main reasons for splitting The Jam.
I don't blame him though.
Bruce and Rick hardly contributed anything to the band.

[T.A.R.]

Ah, love that song!

[Low End Lover]

Bruce and Rick hardly contributed anything to the band.

I'll grant you that Weller was the engine that drove the band, but you've got to give Foxy his due for a lot of very tasty bass lines. For example, try and imagine "In The City" without that cool descending intro line. He is not your typical root note plodder and I think his playing brought a lot to the songs. Besides, he seemed to be able to jump a lot higher that Weller & Rick and that has should count for something!

LEL

[scotty]

[Besides, he seemed to be able to jump a lot higher that Weller & Rick and that has should count for something!

LEL

Jason you win Brucie could jump higher

[fireglo67]

The Jam could have had any bass player and drummer and they would have been just as successful, most likely even better musically.
Weller always had the bass lines for the songs worked out for Foxton to copy anyway. Check out most of the Demos that have been released, they all have Weller on bass not Foxton.
Buckler was, and still is a terrible drummer.

[godber]

The Jam could have had any bass player and drummer and they would have been just as successful, most likely even better musically.
Weller always had the bass lines for the songs worked out for Foxton to copy anyway. Check out most of the Demos that have been released, they all have Weller on bass not Foxton.
Buckler was, and still is a terrible drummer.

I love it when you get waspish

[wim]

The Jam could have had any bass player and drummer and they would have been just as successful, most likely even better musically.
Weller always had the bass lines for the songs worked out for Foxton to copy anyway. Check out most of the Demos that have been released, they all have Weller on bass not Foxton.
Buckler was, and still is a terrible drummer.

All of that explains the huge succes of the Style Council and later projects off course.
Not.
I'm a huge fan of Weller, even his style council adventures, but The Jam was more of a symbiosis kind of thing
Their fanbase, which made them big, included.
Nevertheless, I'm kind of dissapointed in what Weller came up with the last two decades.
It just isn't angry anymore and neither is it young man.

[antipodean]

Love this song.

Weller was still angry after ditching the Jam - "Money Go Round" is as angry as anything the Jam did, but he wanted to explore other avenues, and the Jam was pretty limited in this regard.

As to Rick's drumming - I played "Sound Affects" and Green Day's "Dookie" back-to-back on a long road trip years back, and it was the difference in drumming that stood out like a sore thumb. Rick was rock-solid but never brilliant.

[fireglo67]

All of that explains the huge succes of the Style Council and later projects off course.
Not.

The Jam only made money here in the UK. European and US sales were very poor.

The Style Council actually made more money and sold more records in their first 3 years than The Jam did in all 6 of theirs. This was mainly down to The Style Council's excellent European sales and moderate US sales.

Paul Weller solo has made more money and sold more records than both The Jam and The Style Council put together.

So in real terms, The Jam was the least successful period of Wellers career.

[fireglo67]

I love it when you get waspish

[360girl]

I wonder how hard the decision to end the band was for Weller...going underground indeed.

Split the money 2 ways(paul/John) instead of 4 (Paul/Bruce/Rick/John)?
Not a hard decision at all, and (regardless of what has been said or written) one of the main reasons for splitting The Jam.
I don't blame him though.
Bruce and Rick hardly contributed anything to the band.

I kind of disagree. Maybe Rick Buckler didn't contribute much beyond drumming, but at least for the first few albums, Bruce Foxton wrote at least some of the songs. One of the songs he wrote was even a bit of a hit (it reached #27 on the UK charts) - "News Of The World". Not only was it a bit of a hit, and not only did Bruce write it, he also sang lead on it. It's actually one of my favorite Jam songs.

I kind of wonder if Paul didn't just basically take over the band, in the last year or two of its existence, dictating the stylistic direction it was taking musically. If you listen to a lot of The Jam's late material, it's very similar sounding to what Style Council did IMO. I'm not a big fan of it - it sounds too much like soul music for my tastes.

[360girl]

I'm a huge fan of Weller, even his style council adventures, but The Jam was more of a symbiosis kind of thing
Their fanbase, which made them big, included.
Nevertheless, I'm kind of dissapointed in what Weller came up with the last two decades.
It just isn't angry anymore and neither is it young man.

I agree. Paul Weller did like Elvis Costello did - decided to go urbane, and let his inner Burt Bacharach, and Motown id out. It's definitely NOT my cup of tea. But, while Elvis re-formed The Attractions minus Bruce Thomas a few years back, and called them The Imposters, getting back some of his ****** off attitude in the process (I saw him perform with The Imposters on Austin City Limits, about 3 or 4 years ago and it was angry, abrasive sounding, and downright cool!), Weller 's reunion attempts with Foxton sound kind of hit and miss IMO. Watch some of the live reunion stuff on YouTube - it's like he's just going through the motions and phoning it in. Performances of the old songs don't have the fire they had 30 some odd years ago - not even in a different way. Nobody said Paul, had to do an AC/DC and sound the same for 30 plus years and counting. But, his style has gone (for lack of a better term) too yuppiesque for my tastes.

[fireglo67]

I kind of wonder if Paul didn't just basically take over the band, in the last year or two of its existence, dictating the stylistic direction it was taking musically. If you listen to a lot of The Jam's late material, it's very similar sounding to what Style Council did IMO. I'm not a big fan of it - it sounds too much like soul music for my tastes.

I find that a bit odd.
The whole foundation of groups like The Jam, The Who, The Beatles and the Stones is based on Soul and RnB.
The Jam's early set list from around 1976 contained as many soul/motown covers as it did original songs. As usual with these sorts of bands, the soul influence just manifests itself more within the bands sound as they become better writers and players.
Foxton was just as big a motown fan as Weller, even from the early days. I'm sure he was more than happy to go with the soul direction.
Buckler likes French Polishing and hitting things badly out of time.