The Bluemoon Song Cup 2023

[threespires]

Never really got the whole Stevie Nicks thing beyond the odd song or two tbh so pretty easy one for me this.

Ade Edmondson's folk band covered Down in the Tube Station a few years back and Edmondson changed the 'wine will be flat' to the 'wine will be warm'. Clearly the reference to dodgy late 70s fizzy wine was too much for his middle class sensibilities :-)

 

[threespires]

I love my rock music and Stevie Nicks but against the grain I’ve voted for The Jam.
Not for Weller but Bruce Foxtons bass on this track.

As bass players go Bruce Foxton was often as hooky as er... well ...Hooky.

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

And Foxton wrote their best song IMO.

Though I periodically slag off the Jam for reasons I’m prepared to defend stoutly, they did a number of tunes I like and this is one of them.

The Butterfly Collector?

 

[stonerblue]

No contest.
A true classic from Weller and the boys

 

[stonerblue]

And Foxton wrote their best song IMO.

Though I periodically slag off the Jam for reasons I’m prepared to defend stoutly, they did a number of tunes I like and this is one of them.

Go on.......

 

[mancity1]

The Butterfly Collector?

Don't tell Them You're Sane is my favourite Jam track and without checking I think it was written by Bruce Foxton.

His base playing often carried Paul Weller IMO but he could write a decent song or two I have to say.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

As bass players go Bruce Foxton was often as hooky as er... well ...Hooky.

I'm not sure I'd go THAT far :) . . . but he was hookier than Paul Weller, which is one of my problems with some of The Jam's music. But their best stuff is still quite listenable. Also admittedly Yanks have a harder time "getting" them -- like some early Kinks, the Englishness of their topics/turns of phrase don't translate so well here IMO.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

The Butterfly Collector?

Smithers-Jones. I always loved the lyrics. Sympathy for the regular old workaday sod who gets screwed over. And I always thought of it musically and lyrically as an Elanor Rigby counterpart (the string version on Setting Sons I mean -- someone here told me about the original version which sounds great too).

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Go on.......

As above. I don't think Weller always has the knack for the hook, his melodies can be lacking, his riffs can be derivative, and his subjects a little too narrow. But -- again -- his band also did a number of songs with good hooks and melodies with novelty, a punch and interesting social commentary. I still love "In The City". So I just always viewed them more as a mixed bag rather than consistently great. I also think it was unfair for some music observer/critics to compare Weller to Townsend. I also never saw them live, and I bet they were great (and sounded better than on record).

The Yank not-quite-modern-day equivalent IMO would be Green Day (who's obviously less important and much more derivative).

 

[bennyboy]

Loved The Jam.All Mod Cons the first lp I loved from them.
A couple of singles before that.
It was great having somebody you liked only a couple of months older than you.