OFF: The Weller/Kilmister controversy

[Keith Henderson]

Hey Stephe/all...

    >Hi Keith, Since I've met you and know you're an intelligent man. I think The Jam were one of the best bands ever. I know they are unknown in the USA. Here are some video links so you can get a taste.

  <snipped>
   
  Thanks very much for that!  Interesting.  With these four songs, you very well see the transition from the punk revolution (so to speak) of 1976 and the subsequent gutter-dive to c. 1981 new wave drivel...in a nutshell.  The last song here, "Going Underground" is really quite dire IMHO, despite it being a bit more lively than the usual new wave groove/beat/whathaveyou.  I see a hint there of the "Melt with You" song (who was that?) that I've always considered representative of the essence of true new-wave evil.
   
  So The Jam were obviously, like their contemporaries The Police and Talking Heads (who I really only mentioned because of the temporal aspect), are a pretty good reference for the type of band that spanned this particular point in pop/rock evolution.  The first track here seems very "1977," punk influenced, the second and third ones the kind of retro 1965-Who/Beatles (Taxman almost!) alluded to in biogs, and then eventually it gets crappy new-waveish on that final song.  Presumably, The Style Council (the name seems right at least) was more of that sort of thing.
   
  Anyway, it's all been quite educational, thank you.  And to AndyG and the rest of you who wonder how some of us (?) are clueless about the Jam...all the comments about them at YouTube/elsewhere seem to be something like "Criminally unknown in the US/outside the UK."  So The Jam is just obviously one of those bands that just never made it to the US for whatever reason.  Just like Status Quo and Slade (although Slade had one hit album in c. 1983, way after their "prime").  Last year, I remember from a biography of John Peel's life that I had read (not his autobiography which was released shortly after his death), that his personal "theme song" was something called "Teenage Kicks" (I think) by some band I'd never heard of.  And also of course, this soccer song (that I am not sure I've even ever heard...despite having attended European soccer matches on occasion) "You'll Never Walk Alone" (by who?) and being struck that popularity between US and UK is not as homogenized as
 one might have thought.
  
Which now makes me wonder...who are the odd (No.) American superstar artists/bands that just have never caught on in the UK/Europe?  Surely, there are some folks in the UK that have a favorite US/Canadian band that none of their peers know anything about, yeah?  I would be interested to know who they might be...I can't think of any famous examples like the ones (in reverse) above.
   
  >I absolutely love Joy Division, but maybe its just a matter of taste. I don't like Prog, Procal harum etc... Doesn't mean its crap right?

  Well, I might argue that some music I like I would *agree* is crap.  (Though not Procol Harum's first, which anyway is a lot more blues than prog.)  It's possible to acknowledge its general crapness and still take to it anyway.  None of us are perfect.  :)  I would be surprised if anyone here thought that 10,000 Maniacs wasn't crap, and I've been known to attend their concerts over many years.  And as I've pointed out here on a number of occasions, I find it hard not to sincerely enjoy hearing Blondie's ode to disco "Heart of Glass" every time I have the chance.  Sometimes, enjoyment of music can be a sickness.  :)  So if I ever publicly slander a band and anyone's fandom thereof, I guess it really can't be that personal, can it?  Hopefully, I'll never grow that hypocritical.
   
  >Never cared much for Duran duran though. Oh well if you don't like the Jam, then thats fine too. 

  After those four songs, I would say I'm kind of 'ho-hum' about them.  Not Joy Division/Duran Duran bad, but nothing to write home about either. FWIW.
   
  Grakkl
   
  P.S.  I also don't know "Candle in the Wind" which I only know is a famous song because of Diana's funeral.  I'm not sure I've ever heard it.  In Fall 1997, I was in the Himalayas and missed the whole Diana thing.  Was that a popular song in the UK before Diana's death?  Every hit song of Elton John I thought was big here too, but for every time it was played on the radio here (in the 70s and 80s), "Philadelphia Freedom" must have been heard 1,000 times I'm guessing.

 	
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