The Jam: When You're Young

Something important happened at the end of the Seventies: singles began to matter again. For most of the decade it had been albums that mattered, while the singles chart was left first to Chinn and Chapman and then to novelty records.

The result of this renaissance of the single was that a really good song like When You're Young, which made the top 20 in early 1979, was not to be found on any Jam album until the superior greatest hits compilation Snap!

Weller has a lot to say, almost too much to fit the tune. But the lyrics contain one of best lines:

The world is your oyster but your future's a clam.

And the video? A tweet by Life in Kilburn reveals:

An interesting video filmed in Kilburn and Queen's Park. Shows the escalators in Kilburn Square that provided access to 1st floor retail units. Now a no man's land....

Blue Wall latest: Lib Dems turn their fire on Eton

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Sup up your beer and collect your fags,
There's a poll going on down near Slough.

i News is getting excited about one ward in particular:

The Eton and Castle ward in Windsor - which covers the college - is a key target for the Liberal Democrats who believe that if things go their way they could wipe out all three conservative councillors there. Such a move would certainly lead to some schadenfreude, but it would also point to a wider problem for the Conservative party: the threat to the blue wall.

BBC News has been in Berkshire too:

All 43 seats on West Berkshire Council are up for election. The Conservatives currently have 24, Lib Dems 16 and Greens hold three. The Lib Dems think they've got a strong chance of seizing control.

The article is full of vox pops gathered at a Newbury race meeting, an event at which you're more likely to find Conservative voters. So let's hear it for Eddie Campbell:

Round the corner from the stands, we meet Eddie Campbell who is more firmly enthusiastic about the Liberal Democrats.

"They are more aligned with what my sort of beliefs are politically."

He's also impressed by their "ground game". "I've seen more of them, you know, just walking down the high street. I know we have Conservative at the moment, but I haven't seen any Conservative activity," he says.

For Eddie, the cost of living, cuts to public services and the environment are major voting issues.

The Jam: The Butterfly Collector

With its changes in pace, this Jam B-side (it's on the flip side of Strange Town) pays homage to Ray Davies in the shape of the Kinks' song Shangri-La.

What's it about? Theories implicate Julie Burchill, a notorious groupie of the New Wave era and John Fowles's 1963 novel The Collector.*

And All Music is sure it knows:

If "Strange Town" took a cynical look at England's capital city, that single's flipside, "Butterfly Collector", was a bitter expose of the London club scene or, more accurately, one particularly egregious (if unnamed) club owner. Using and abusing bands to further her own aims and fame, composer Paul Weller pins her to the wall and leaves her to squirm beneath his sharp-as-tacks lyrics. For weeks afterwards, incidentally, clubland echoed with rumours as to the song’s subject’s identity. Weller, however, never let on.

As vicious as his attack may be, however, the song is infused less with anger than with melancholy, fed by Weller's evocative acoustic guitar work and his almost lamenting vocal delivery. His anger still bleeds through, but the very restraint of the band's backing, and Weller's own suppressed delivery makes this song all the more devastating. One of The Jam's most haunting numbers, the song's atmosphere was enhanced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven's excellent production.

* This is one of those sentences where an Oxford comma is not helpful.