tracks on LP: In The City | All Mod Cons | To Be Someone | It’s Too Bad | Start! | Big Bird | Set The House Ablaze | Ghosts | Standards | In The Crowd | Going Underground | Dreams Of Children | That’s Entertainment | Private Hell
Record label: Carrere CAL 140
Released: 10/12/82
Purchased: 10/12/82
LONG MARCH OF THE MODS
Dig The New Breed (Supreme Beat) | TAKE NO HEROES! SOME MOMENTS are to be treasured forever. This morning I bought the new Jam single, a precious copy, the last in the rack . . .walk home, pump-breathing icy air, new packet of 10 Woodies in a new packet, jumpy feeling in the stomach, fingers tight around the paper bag — for the moment, the dearest possession in the world aw, you can tell how crucial a new record is by how long it takes to open the front door . . . And this the last single by the most VITAL of bands.
Looking back . . . it is the rise and rise of The Jam that is, more than anything else, a towering beacon of hope ‘gainst the present gloomy musical backdrop.
The Jam first emerged in livelier times. ‘Midst all the phlegm-ridden rebellion, The Jam stood quietly by in mohair suits and Paul Weller claimed the Queen was “the best diplomat we’ve got” (“she works harder than at you or I do or the rest of the country”) and signed off by mentioning, come the Election, they’d be voting Conservative, The Jam were less than zero.
What is INSPIRING is that The Jam have progressed so much and changed attitudes so visibly. Weller has shifted massively, away from the early casual youth anthems as that pinpointed the divisions young v. old, t’wards song that deal with far greater an ogres, far greater issues — an issue as great as ‘class’.
The Jam | Dig The New Breed | Polydor 1982
The point is this – a change in attitudes is HOPE. And if you sneer at hope, you sneer at progress. And that’s CONSERVATISM.
Meantimes, The Jam have split and left us with the hippest of anthems, ‘Dig The New Breed’ – an album that frames all those nights of fire and accelerated passions, 14 tracks that chart The Jam’s heady progress and stress their solid loyalties. The difference between The Jam and all the hopeless pop ephemeralities is the difference between a (red) harrington and an anorak. The Jam have STYLE and SIGNIFICANCE . . .
‘Dig The New Breed’ is a sharp package. ‘Course, there’s a dozen other soul anthems that should be on here and sometimes Pete Wilson’s production damps the fire and smoothes The Jam’s abrasive live edge too much. But it marks a powerful legacy. And The Jam’s last legacy is some testament, some challenge — mebbe the last authentic mod record.
If you come searching for clues to Weller’s next musical station, better that you search elsewhere — ‘Beat Surrender” B-sides or Tyrone Davis’ finest moment, ‘Can I Change My Mind’ . . . or a hundred other soaring soul singles. ‘Dig The New Breed’ is a missive from The Jam, as they were, as they will be remembered, and a call for other bands to follow. I only hope that the Neurotics, Redskins, New Model Army and others can meet the challenge.
Everybody treasures crucial moments. I remember The Jam playing on the Right To Work March at the beginning of this year, the week that ‘A Town Called Malice’ went to No.1 — that magnificent, frightening split-second when Weller, guitar hand rushing, twisted into the mike to spit out the first verse of ‘Malice’. Crystal.
‘Dig The New Breed’ frames many such sublime moments, hard and fast. There will be greater moments, sure, but for the while, this one is great enough. Sublime sound, sublime vision — The Jam were the best. TAKE INSPIRATION! (NME, December 1982)
Leave a Reply