wasn’t Weller weird when he was on ToTP? Remember the backwards Heinz tomato soup apron, how about the banjo and accordion in the Style Council days?
This performance is well-weird. It’s Beat Surrender, the final single. The band is lined up backwards – drums to the front, Weller has decided to forego the guitar and frug with the young Tracie who seems to be wearing one of his nice jumpers. He’s a very poor dancer, she pretends not to notice. Foxton mimes the alternate lines – even though it’s Paul’s voice. He mimes more convincingly than Weller, yet Weller can’t hide his smirk after Bruce’s first line.
Perhaps weirdest of all is the delivery of the line ‘that bullshit’s just bullshit – it just goes by different names’ from the first verse. If I remember correctly the radio edit went ‘that rubbish is rubbish’ – in this version Weller has re-recorded the line as ‘that bullfrog’s a bullfrogs they just go by different names’.
I don’t know what my point is. I suspect this will be a very short thread.
Succumb to the Beat Surrender
by 21 Comments
told you.
No, don’t go. I LOVE Weller but he was weird on TOTP. I was never sure whether he was on a wind up or just genuinely nervous of the whole miming thing. Was he really serious about this dancing?
Not sure if they ever played Beat Surrender live but with the alternate vocal lines being sung differently it needs separate singers for miming and also perhaps live, but does look weird, I do get what you mean. In earlier days you’d expect Bruce to sing the alternate part on record but this was the final single and times had changed.
Never heard the radio version, is there really one of Beat Surrender? Can someone post it? I know there’s a radio version of Stranglers Peaches which sounds ridiculous, even more so that you only ever hear the original being played nowadays. Next you’ll be telling me there’s a radio version of Costello’s Oliver’s Army without the offending word.
Listening to a lot of Jam songs a while ago, I noticed that quite a lot of the backing vocals are actually sung by Weller not Foxton.
That may well be true, but they had quite similar voices, although obviously Bruce’s was more limited. It took me years to realize that David Watts was sung by Bruce.
Is that eternal Weller sideman Steve Craddock as one of the Eton Rifles singers? If not I bet he wished he was at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOnOyBJzbj8
Wouldn’t have though Cradock was old enough.
He would have been 10.
That’s The Libertines isn’t it? ?
The recent Sky Arts documentary ‘About The Young Idea’ is being released along with the Rockpalast 1980 show.
‘Fire & Skill’ live CD box features 100 Club, 1977, Reading University 1979. Newcastle 1980, Hammersmith Palais 1981 & Wembley 1982 (different night to previous releases) – too damn pricey for me
Newcastle gig is getting a limited vinyl release
Oh and Music Machine 1978 in that live box
link for the vinyl
http://paulwellernews.com/2015/08/21/universal-music-to-release-double-live-vinyl-lp-from-the-jam/
Wellerism was my main obsession in the early 80s, and I have retained a residual affection ever since.
But….he could be a knob, couldn’t he? The Style Council’s ’87 film Jerusalem being perhaps the high/low point.
‘Aggressive self-consciousness’ is how I’d describe his TOTP appearances…
Mmmm, Tracie. That’s all.
Now a DJ on our local FM radio station…. I live next door to her mum.
To think! I’ve replied to a comment by someone who lives next door to a local radio DJ’s mum! Am I sparkling, just a little bit?!
ah, this is kind of thread I keep coming back for.
I thought it was “bulltalk is bulltalk” but it could be bullfrog, I’d prefer bullfrog. (!)
Isn’t it great that the Jam TOTP appearances are mostly re records, makes them even more special.
I think they played this live, isn’t it on one of the Wembley gigs and The tube.
Are there any plans for that exhibition to tour around the UK or Ireland?
What is a Beat Surrender anyway?
And since succumb basically means surrender to, how can you surrender to a surrender?
This Weller blaggard is all to crafty for me….
Early 70s TotPs often had the drummer at the front. I get the impression that towards the end of The Jam Weller was just pissed off with it as an idea and just wanted to undermine it.
All these years, and no one’s pointed out that ‘succumber’ isn’t a real word
It’s a vegetable, isn’t it? A bit like a cucumber, except…
See also: speak, like, EH?, child.
The day Weller forgot to switch his hearing aids on when his mute offspring came to visit.