5 GREAT ALBUM TRACKS FOR FRIDAYS (Part 1)

First of what is likely to be a short series which will highlight some of my favourite album tracks by some of my all-time favourite bands.

Now there's no question that The Jam were an outstanding singles band and that many of the b-sides to the 45s were among their best songs. But equally, there were some belters on the six studio albums they released between 1977 and 1982.

This wasn't an easy task. But it was one which gave me enormous pleasure as I listened to all the albums again in their entirety over the past few weeks. I thought initially about taking the easy way out and choosing one track from each album, other than The Modern World, to give me the 5 songs for today. And then I changed my mind.

I ended up with a long-list of more than 20 tunes and slowly whittled it down. I'm sure that every single other fan of the band would select a different list.....and quite possibly not have any of the five that I've gone for, which are, in alphabetical order:-

mp3 : The Jam - In The Crowd
mp3 : The Jam - Pretty Green
mp3 : The Jam - Private Hell
mp3 : The Jam - The Gift
mp3 : The Jam - To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time)

The thing is that In The Crowd wasn't a song I was all that fond of when I first bought All Mod Cons, preferring the more immediate impact of the high-octane Billy Hunt, and such-like, but as time has gone on (32 years!!!!) I've come to realise just how lovely a tune and lyric it is during the first half of the song, while the final two and a bit minutes are almost psychedelic with some fine bits of note-bending by Mr Weller.

Pretty Green was at one time mooted as a potential single. And I reckon it would have hit the #1 slot if it had been. Catchy as fuck with a great bass line all the way through.....it would have sounded great blaring out of transistor radios on wonderful Radio 1 247MW.

Its astonishing to think that Private Hell, the story of an angst-ridden, drug-popping, miserable, middle-aged, middle-class woman was written by a 21-year old bloke. I reckon that it is one of Weller's best ever lyrics....could easily have been the basis for a West End stage play. Probably has come to think of it...

The inclusion of The Gift might be the one that surprises most. But I find it irresistibly catchy and very dancey. I just regret that I never took it along to the Blog Rocking Beats nights. We gotta keep movin, we gotta keep movin.....

As for To Be Someone, that simply is the one song that takes me back to being 15 years of age again. Played loudly in my bedroom with the simple aim of antagonising my folks thanks to the sweary words.....and despite the warning in the lyrics, I just wanted to be Paul Weller at that stage in my life. It's also a great tune.

As I said, this wasn't an easy choice. I'll need to come up with a band or singer next week who has maybe only released one LP........



Happy Listening