From February 16th 2007WELLER, WELLER, WELLER, OOOOOH (tell me more)
In one of my earliest entries on TVV, I wrote at length about my love for The Jam, and how they remain the only band I’ve ever camped for overnight so that I could get concert tickets.
I didn’t go in a huff with Paul Weller when he broke the band up, and indeed I was soon more than happy to be buying records by The Style Council and going along to watch his new band playing live.
But somehow, I’ve never got into the solo stuff by the so called Modfather. I’ve just found most of it rather dull and dreary. Everyone tells me that his LP Stanley Road is one of the best of the 90s. I’ve tried listening to it a few times and it just bores me. There’s just nothing original about it.
I’m also a bit bemused by the re-writing of history when it comes to Paul Weller. He did not have a period in the wilderness from demise of The Style Council at the end of the 80s to his solo comeback in the mid 90s when the Britpop movement, and in particular Noel Gallagher, paid homage to him. There were a few attempts at re-igniting his career in-between, including this single from 1991:-
mp3 : The Paul Weller Movement – Into Tomorrow
If you have a listen, you’ll hear that it’s not much different from the stuff he would go on to release to great critical acclaim a few years later. It just wasn’t fashionable back in 1991……
Oh there is one Paul Weller solo single that I adore. If he had gone down this sort of route rather than re-hashing his love of the 60s, I might have remained a fan:-
mp3 : Paul Weller - Wild Wood
You can buy most of his solo stuff quite easily, either on-line or in record shops. But if you want the 12" single of Into Tomorrow, you'll most lilely need to try e-bay. Or make me an offer I can't refuse.
PS
Of the 11 comments left behind after the original posting (including a piece of spam), this remains one of my favourite ever in more than 1,000 postings on TVV:-
Anonymous said...
wow you've got a really self important attitude in everything you write. who cares what you think - just give us the tracks you twat
3:01 PM, February 17, 2007
13 comments:
What a lovely comment!
I'm with you on 'Wild Wood' - played 'Country' the other day and had a 'how great is this' moment that his other later stuff has never occasioned in me, sadly.
I got Into Tomorrow and thought it was great, and the next 2 albums had good bits, especially Wildwood. But Stanley Road, apart from the lovely sleeve, didn't do anything for me. Since then he hits and he misses. The singles comps pretty good but even that's got a couple of clunkers. I blame Gallagher...
I do agree.
Into Tomorrow, Sunflower and Changing Man were a sharp return to form. Had they been released mid-Britpop, he'd have been beatified and given a Union Jack unicorn.
Too many uneccessary production knobs were twiddled for my liking (eg: on fine songs like 'Time Passes' on Stanley Rd).
The Woking Wonder has been pretty prolific over the decades and has a canon bigger than most. Clunkers and barnacles are bound to appear.
That wonderful comment JC! ..
It may have been the sort of thing I would have written mid-bender? It really does encapsulate the thoughts of many a Blog seagull - who swoops in to grab a song, has a crap, then fucks off without a thought for the narrative nor narrator.
I love the idea that he/she took the trouble to type it!
he played at gilles petersons Sunday afternoon jazz do just beforecthis came out and was absolutely brilliant - a man in love with his guitar again.
x
Is there a way to slap stupid people in the face on the Internet? It's your blog, keep on doing your stuff the way you want to.
What a charmer.
Agree with you about his solo stuff, saw The Jam around the time of All Mod Cons and later at Deeside leisure - both excellent, although the godawful Alarm were support. Saw him solo live at Gmex and was bored rigid, all I recall was endless guitar solos.
Not that he was Mr. Happy during the Jam or anything, but doesn't it seem like Mr. Weller gets more and more dour as the years go by? Is there any photo of him anywhere cracking a smile? Why is he so bummed out all the time? Or is it that I live in southern California and the sun is shining all the time?
Love this song. Weller remains one of my favourites but he has never bettered All Mod Cons and his solo stuff is very patchy. I rarely bother going to see him live now due to this.
Ha ha,it was probably Gallagher the Catlick luvvin' Man City squeal merchant.
Makes me wish we had something like that piece of kit in Surrogates, so that we can zap the twat who left the comment!
Ha ha, I think that guy is onto something! :-)
Unlike Mr Weller, who I haven't really enjoyed anything by since 1982. Obvious comment I know, but there you are. Ok Wild Wood did promise better times, but they didn't really materialise IMHO.
I think that much of our musical tastes has a lot to do with when we hear something and who we are when we hear it, perhaps more than we realize or are wont to admit sometimes. "Wildwood" was my first Weller--halcyon grad school days--and will always be my favorite.
Not sure about Weller live more recently, as the US just doesn't seem to figure into any of his tour equations any longer, but around the time of Paul Weller and Wildwood I believe I saw him twice in NYC and it was simply amazing... There was a fire in him and he was full of all sorts of influences, from The Jam and TSC to the Acid Jazz scene which he and Talbot all but bankrolled in the late 80's. I am glad he was out of sync with Brit pop as that is still a scene/movement that makes little sense to me...more on that some other time. If you want to hear the other side of him listen to the tracks he produced for his wife DC Lee on her Slam Slam album at the same time as his first solo effort.
As for Stanley Road, there is one really beautiful song "You Do Something To Me" which I really love.
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