Why did Paul Weller, An Artist With Such An Excellent Body of Work Never Make it In The USA?

I don’t really follow your reply. But I agree that Weller does need a kick up the behind. Ditch Steve Cradock for a while and get some innovative tunes and musicians working with him. Worked wonders in the Style Council. I would send him to Nashville too, might get his mojo back.

 

How come the 1st British Invasion wasn’t too British to succeed but the Jam were?

By the time the Jam and others came around British acts were very common place.

 

Positive reviews?
Overrated definitely imo.
Classic period is The Jam.
Solo?
Wild Wood
Stanley Road.

He’s very good live, electric gtr tunes I prefer.

 

I'm a big Jam fan, huge Style Council fan, but never really latched on to Weller's solo stuff. I think part of the reason he never caught on in the US was his change of direction. The Jam was gaining popularity and then he switched to a completely different genre that was somewhat distasteful to many Jam fans. Then he changed directions again, going from sugary pop of TSC to solo explorations. Through it all there was never much US chart success. I agree with an earlier poster who mentioned "She Through it all Away" - this and many others songs (Boy Who Cried Wolf, It Didn't Matter, Life at a Top People's Health Farm, and my favorite, Confessions of a Pop Group) were very catchy great pop songs, but they never went anywhere. Maybe it was the lack of early success on US Charts and lack of promotion?

 

Several of us have pointed that out. However, the obvious seems to be lost on a few here.

Thank God the Scorpions sang in English. Or else we would have a thread on how they were "too German."

 

I always thought the lack of Weller or The Jam was a prime reason for the rock n roll hall to be nothing but a subjective list of bands liked by trend following cliques......
I’m sure Weller doesn’t give ‘two f*cks’ about not being there....

 

Or just maybe he has no ambition to 'break' America. Endless touring and he may just be very happy doing what he doing. Also you'll always get someone who wants to turn him into the Doobue Brothers rather than letting him be himself.
I prefer him how he is thanks.

 

Why do you want him to do this? Either you like him and are happy with what he does or you don't, so why do you want to change him? I doubt if I would like Nashville session pro's generally, but I don't want them to come to Surrey to learn to play like Paul Weller. You seem very hung up on someone you don't like.

 

I would love Paul to get that funky, but alas…

 

Artists and their fans don’t need to be threatened, and Nashville isn’t always what the closed mind preconceives it to be. Good singing, good playing, and good songwriting are built on universal fundamentals amongst pros like Paul and those in Nashville.

 

But you still don't explain why you want him to change? He is happy and his fans are happy. By the way I don't have a closed mind or feel threatened, why would I?
I was using your reference to Nashville session musicians to make the point that if you don't like an artist because they are not to your taste, you can ignore them rather than change them. Trying to change an artist rather than accepting them for what they are, now that's a closed mind.

 

Not my position to defend, but in my opinion, Paul has become very comfortable working with the same musicians for a long period of time and probably isn't exploring (or being exposed to) new genres and styles. In that respect, his work might be very much in his comfort zone and thus, not necessarily that exciting. Sometimes an artist might need to shake up old habits to see if new ideas come out. He's had the core of the same band for a very, very long time, hasn't he? Bowie, and Robert Smith, changed their bands every few years to bring fresh blood and new ideas in - to varying degrees of commercial and artistic success of course.

 

These types of posts have a bit of an accusatory undertone. How dare Americans not love Paul Weller !! It’s really quite ridiculous thinking.

I like The Jam. However, are the lyrics really relatable to a wide swath of people, not just Americans ? Some of the lyrics, even song titles, are of a very British nature.

Separately, both The Style Council and solo work don’t move me. The Style Council always struck me as the rock equivalent of smooth jazz. They were outclassed by many, many artists (both American and British) in a strong decade for popular music.

 

It's musical globalisation!

 

Oh, baby, I'm dreaming of Monday
Oh, baby, when I see you again
Oh, baby, I'm dreaming of Monday
Dreaming of Monday

Or:

Anything that you want to do, anyplace that you want to go
Don't need permission for everything that you want
Any taste that you feel is right
Wear any clothes just as long as they're bright
Say what you want, 'cos this is a new art school

Or:

When I'm in the crowd, I don't see anything
My mind goes a blank, in the humid sunshine
When I'm in the crowd I don't see anything
I fall into a trance, at the supermarket
The noise flows me along, as I catch falling cans
Of baked beans on toast, technology is the most

Nebulous stuff, all that. One wonders how a bunch of dumb Yanks like us can ever fathom it.

 

I've been a fan of Weller's solo stuff since the beginning but because he is so prolific he doesn't give fans enough time to absorb a release before he is on to the next. I gave up trying to keep track and figure I will get them all eventually. Maybe in the UK, where he is a bigger star fans are clamoring for his stuff, I don't know.

 

I don't think it's that American's don't love Weller, it's just that they never got exposed to him for whatever reason.

I like the Jam and a lot of Paul's solo work, but never could get into the Style Council. Of course being in the US I didn't really come across his music until the 90s when I would see Noel Gallagher reference him and decided to check him out. Hearing the Style Council out of it's actual time made them sound dated where The Jam always sounded timeless.

 

Who can even understand Weller's lyrics when they were in full-out rock mode?

Then again, I'm in it more for the music, so it never really bothered me even when I had no idea what Paul was on about.

 

That's exactly how I discovered him as well, just from Noel's endless hyping (and his name in the credits of Morning Glory). I was 14 or 15 or so, picked up a used copy of Stanley Road and not long after The Jam Collection and I was in.

It's funny in hindsight, in the pre-internet days I just assumed something called The Jam Collection was a hits comp, until I got home and read the liner notes and realized it was exactly the opposite. Of course, the Jam were so great that even a compilation of non-hits sounded like it could've been a hits comp: "It's Too Bad," "I Got By In Time," "Saturday's Kids," "Man In The Corner Shop," "Boy About Town"...all sounded like hits to me. But it was probably a strange introduction to that band, in hindsight. It worked though.

 

Commendable discernment shown by the old colony?

 

This is quite interesting, and quite a break from his usual style :

 

But several people seem to be oversimplifying what others are meaning when they say that Paul Weller/The Jam are/were too British to break in the USA; it's not merely a comment on their geographical origin or the language spoken/sang, but rather about much of the culture-specific content of the lyrics, and probably some measure of the way it's presented.
I'm not suggesting that The Beatles, The Clash, and many other British acts that enjoyed success in the US, didn't write stuff that referenced their homeland, and I'd guess that some unjust and nuanced combination of luck and timing made Americans want to embrace whatever Britishness those bands presented in their music.

Using a different example to illustrate the "too British" comments; I've always had a hard time convincing people here (in the US) that the original BBC version of The Office is an immeasurably better show than the American version of The Office. Most here can't get more than an episode or two into the UK version before complaining that they don't understand many of the references to British culture, the slang, etc., and thusly they lose interest. Personally, it made me want to research those references, and in learning about them, I embraced the show even more. But many people can't be bothered with that sort of work when they simply want to be entertained.

I'd have to also agree with those who've suggested that PW/The Jam's lack of touring efforts in the US was part of why they didn't break here.

 

A very reasonable POV, but I don't buy it.

Most people, then and now, simply never heard of the Jam. People like you and I as well as the denizens here on SHF enjoy exploring and seeking out bands from anywhere and everywhere. Most people don't.

And the average person could care less about the lyrics. If the song sounds good, they like it.

If-- a big if-- our conventional radio stations had played the Jam, I have no doubt they would have made some waves. If you like the Who, you should like the Jam. But our radio stations, then and now, are very segmented and quite unadventurous. The Jam were played on the more free form stations. But that audience was a minority, then and now.

Stating people did not like them because they were "too British" assumes people actually listened to them. Impossible, as you cannot reject something you have not heard in the first place.

 

I think it's his voice.

 

The Jam were actually pretty close to breaking it big in the US when they split. Town Called Malice was in heavy rotation on MTV in 1982 but after My Ever Changing Mood I don’t remember his stuff getting any airplay; I do remember the first Style Council album got a bad review in rolling stone and after that he rarely toured the US and when he did come it was often just a couple of cities.