Paul Weller and his refusal to play with The Jam

Sorry but you are way off the mark, of course he would have gotten a record deal. You don't have a massively successful career over many years and then not get a deal because of one flop single.
Paul has never ever been anything but brutally truthfull about a Jam reunion, saying they were a young band and that's how they should be remembered, and it will never happen.

 

Years ago, he did a show in LA that was supposed to be a "Jam show' composed mostly of Jam songs. I know someone who went. It had 4 or 5 Jam songs. I don't like his solo output except the first one, and man, have I tried. But I wouldn't want another Jam album. Some concerts would be good, particularly if the money went to a good cause, and I'd buy a live dvd. But he went his way and I went mine. It happens.........

 

Weller owes us nothing. Feeling nostalgic? Get this...

 

Speak for yourself - I'm still angry I never got to see the original Herman's Hermits!!!

 

Yehh, I am with you mate.....a reunion, even if brief, would be good. Even if they are in their 50s now..... lets face it, being in your 50s is not regarded as old nowadays. If being in your 50s or early 60s is regarded as a bit 'over the hill', and singing like you did when younger, then, the way I see it, a lot of the groups us guys on here like to go and see ought to throw in the towel and call it a day lol ! I never got to see The Jam as a group, it would be an honour to see them, as I did with seeing The Who in concert recently ( theres another can of worms regarding The Who on another thread ! ). Maybe we need a movie called 'Logans Run - The Rock Band Sequel ' lol....not that I would go see it !

 

IIRC Bruce Foxton appeared on the Wake Up The Nation album and they've played live together at least once.

Not that you're trying to berate them as players especially but I can't say I agree that Foxton and Buckler were 'just the guys that force played with'. Foxton especially had a very melodic propulsive bass style that were as much part of the sound and essence of the Jam as Weller, Buckler's drumming too gave a vitality to the Jam that wouldn't have been there with Weller's songs not accompanied in that way. I certainly agree that Weller is a bigger musical talent and wouldn't benefit from reviving a collaboration with either players though I don't agree the Jam were just a stage in his ever-evolving brilliant career.

 

True, but I can't imagine things would have worked out much differently of the Jam had stayed together. The last album/singles indicate that they would pretty much have turned into the Style Council-- probably not playing just as a trio again. (TSC had a great rhythm section too, but Weller took the music where he pleased for better or worse). If the Jam was still touring today, I'll be they'd be doing the same four oldies Weller plays now.

 

I saw The Jam live in 78 & 79

I saw The Clash live 4 times

I'm glad they never reformed

I saw Siouxsie & The Banshees live in 78, 79 and 81 , they were great, saw them when they reformed for the 7 year itch tour and they were atrocious, I wish they'd never reformed.

You can't return to the past and live on former glories, it deminishes your legacy.

 

Ironically I had disc 1 of this on when I opened the forum and saw this thread!

 

I agree I think Weller ended the Jam at the right time and for his career to flourish a clean break from the albeit brilliant dynamics of the Jam were called for. I think for some of TSC's jazzier excursions Buckler would've probably been out of his depth, though he holds his own on Absolute Beginners/Town Called Malice. I was just objecting to the idea that whilst the Jam were together they weren't crucial ingredients to what made the band great and gave Weller's songs the perfect force, power (and in Foxton's case) - another melodic element.

 

I line up with the "Don't Do It, Mr. Weller" team. We are discussing a serious, working artist. So many examples up-thread, but Miles, Coltrane, The Smiths, and even Led Zeppelin (with one big asterisk) rung down the curtain and never looked back. Respect to 'em all.

 

Just my $0.02...

I think one of the key issues here is a musical one. In that latter days of The Jam, Weller dug into classic soul and funk for inspiration. Foxton seemed up for the task - he wasn't a James Jamerson, but he could hold it down on that stuff in his own Entwistle-inspired way. But Rick Buckler was always just a serviceable drummer. He's pretty stiff. It seems to me that just when Weller started to loosen up and take the music in a more groove-oriented direction, he kind of ran into a wall when it came to Buckler's drumming. And you know, when you play in a band with someone, and you're bound by the limitations of their ability, it's frustrating.

They were one of the biggest bands in Britain, and Weller was one of the hottest songwriters and frontmen. I can't say I blame him for taking a risk and just splitting the band up. He had enough star power to do what he wanted, "loyalty to the guys in the band" notwithstanding.

 

There is one good reason why he should - a well deserved pay day for Bruce and Rick, they deserve it
Weller would have had no career without their input

I met Weller once, put me off him for life.

He'd do it if he ran out of money, which is won't as The Jam made him and his dad very very rich indeed.

 

Mose Allison was 80 when he did his most recent album, and it's a fantastic record. No one is saying that older musicians are unable to produce compelling work.

But the Jam were all about the power of youth... it's just not appropriate for older dudes to be singing about that stuff. At some point it becomes parody. Does anyone really want to hear a 71-year-old Roger Daltrey keep declaring "I hope I die before I get old?"

 

Seriously?

Foxton and Buckler would have been working in an office or a factory or something for the past 40 years had they never met Paul Weller.

 

With these reunions it depends what the band meant to you and when you discovered them.

some bands are an intense fireball that has a brief moment in time. It's best to remember them that way, refer to John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" for more on the subject..

 

What's a Grecian Urn?

 

a poem by Keats about the images he saw on an antique Urn (another word for Vase). here it was 2000 years later, but etched on the urn was a young man courting a young woman with trees in bloom, both were still young and the tree still in bloom. Keats admires the image and the feelings it gives as it does not age. I'm sure an English lit major could explain it better, I read the poem in highschool and the lesson stuck with me.

"Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; "

 

About ten bucks an hour. (Joke adjusted due to inflation).

 

Buckler was pretty put out about how the Jam ended and even asked Paul's father to talk him down and reconsider. I don't think they've spoke since the end of the last tour and Weller and Foxton only reconnected about the time Foxton's wife died. I don't see a reunion ever happening, but there is a mercurial element to Weller's personality that could allow it to happen.

 

Bruce is still earning royalties for all those dodgy songs Weller let him record for the Jam, and I'm sure they earned a fair bit back in the Jam days. If they have blown it all its not really Paul's responsibility.

 

You're correct in that I was not belittling the playing of Foxton and Butler (they were/are brilliant), but the fact remains that, as history played out regarding Weller's career, the Jam WERE, in fact, "just a stage in his ever-evolving brilliant career."

Paul Weller wrote songs for THOSE particular players in the style HE wanted to write. That style evolved and changed from "In The City" to "The Gift" (which sound nothing like one another). For a variety of reasons, Weller felt musically restricted and, it would appear, also respected the legacy of the Jam enough to hang the band name up and go out on a high. It's hard to imagine what would have happened if Weller kept the Jam name all the way through "Modernism." Either way, Weller found new, equally, but differently, brilliant players to work with and went on to explore the sound he began exploring with the final Jam singles. Would Foxton and Buckler been the right guys (or would they have wanted to even play/record) "Café Bleu?"

And, after the Jam broke up, it's not as if Foxton and Buckler went on to successful "solo Beatle" careers with their "as much part of the sound and essence of the Jam as Weller" talents. Again, they are fantastic players and I love the Jam, but Weller's contribution to the success of the band was OVERWHELMINGLY out of proportion to the others. Weller even provided the context and inspiration for Foxton's "very melodic propulsive bass style." I mean, imagine walking into rehearsal and someone hands you "Town Called Malice" to "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" to play around with. They were the right band at the right time for Weller until they were no longer that. Their legacy is secured. There's simply no reason to open up that box again apart from "nostalgia" and "money" - and that really feels, to me, at least, to go completely against everything the Jam stood for. The only way I can see a Jam reunion working is if it was a one-off charity event and they gave ALL the money away to help other people.

 

a lot of us dont mind, and its nice to get the chance to see the older acts that maybe we never got the chance to see before now. Nearly all older groups and artists have references to all aspects of youth in their repetoire which cant be avoided or indeed censored out because of maturing years.

 

As much as I would love to see a reunion of The Jam, I fully support Weller's stance.

You can't force this kind of an association and simply expected it to work on some particular level. And no one other than the artist knows what their beliefs, goals and intents are. Whatever the motivation, it has to be an honest one. My impression is that Weller has fully detached himself from the working unit know as "The Jam" a long time ago, and he is happy and content to continue his career as a musician as he desires. He owes no one an explanation or apology.