‘When You’re Young’.
Discuss. Also feel free to extend to other artists – what song do you feel sums them up above all others?
As I started this I’ll get the Fabs one out of the way – it’s ‘Help!’.
The most Jammy song by The Jam is…
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1979 was their year. Add in the monumental B side of Butterfly Collector, and the two other singles that year – Strange Town and Eton Rifles.
Plus the Setting Sons album – oh yes, this was The Jam’s peak.
A peak maintained through to 1982
Keep thinking when I log back into the AW after a long break I’ll find that up arrows have been restored. Instead I have to compose this pointless message to confirm that I wholly concur with your above comment 🙂
Nice to see you back.
🙂
We’ve never had Up arrows
Up and Down was a short lived experiment by Fraser on the Word blog, which then became Up only.
Point accepted, but I was one of those who wanted the up arrow feature on the Word blog to continue. I accept that an up arrow can also be used negatively (by a critical comment on a post being massively ‘upped’) but to me it avoids pointless comments which fill the arrowless void (‘I agree’, ‘good point well made’ etc.)
Hear, hear!
excellent point. I fully concur.
There is an opportunity to up arrow, well, thumb up, an OP. It doesn’t seem to be used very often.
🙁
79 was indeed a great year for The Jam but I’d make a case for their glorious run actually starting the year before in 1978. All Mod Cons from that year is a superb album, a huge leap onward from This Is The Modern World the previous year. Interesting what Rigid says about 79 being The Jam’s peak. I suspect in terms of sales and all round profile that may well be the case. All Mod Cons and Setting Sons are brilliant but my own favourites are Sound Affects and The Gift, which a lot of people tend to disagree with!
The Clashiest Clash song is Complete Control
(with apologies to White Man In Hammersmith Palais)
The most Floydy Floyd song is of course Shine On You Crazy Diamond. It’s trippy, it’s long, it’s about Syd, it’s experimental (wine glasses), it’s a bit bonkers but very tasteful, it’s written by all members (except Mason, natch), it’s got Dick Parry on it, it’s got odd time signatures (6/8 and 12/8, whatever that means), it has a Douglas Adams connection (used in the Hitchhiker’s Guide radio programme), it’s got See Emily Play in it, and it’s stupendously brilliant. None more Floyd.
The Rushiest Rush song is of course Spirit of Radio. Rocky poppy proggy synthy guitary time
Signature changes an ace solo and bonkers lyrics…..some alliteration is essential to all posts on this thread I feel
The most special Specials track is Doesn’t Make It All Right.
It’s their manifesto in 3 and a half minutes
The most Sylviany Silvian song is of course Ghosts. It’s completely bonkers, it’s got all sorts of beeps and pings where proper music should be, it’s got a cello, it’s got forgettable lyrics sung in gorgeous baritone, it’s where Blemish and Manafon began.
To Be Someone
Swimming in the guitar shaped pools sounds great
Streams of Whiskey
Whiskey, beer, Behan, London, wind, bars, more whiskey
Pogues in a nutshell
The Stonesiest Stones song is Brown Sugar…great riff, politically incorrect lyric concerning a woman, a lascivious Mick vocal in a Southern States accent, and has featured in every Stones concert since release.
Marsha Hunt is the suggested subject/inspiration for Mick’s lasciviousness
I vote for Jumpin’ Jack Flash. The first step in their imperial phase, defining their sound for decades.
Not every one
Mouthful of Shit is the Readers Digest condensed edition of Chumbawamba: shouty bit, quiet bit, shouty bit, trumpet, deep political analysis and suitable for any government of the last 30 odd years.
What’s the most J.S. Bachy J.S. Bach piece? It’s a tricky one…
I might give the nod to the Double Violin Concerto in D minor (BWV 1043).
The most mad Madness track might well be Embarrassment. Fairground type organ, bouncy tune, midly controversial lyric. Great song as well.
The Pärtiest song by that magnificent Estonian minimalist, Arvo Pärt, has got to be Tabula Rasa.
It fades in slowly and then, using the barest of resources, slowly and surely, the strings create a magnificently suggestive atmosphere, like waves rolling towards the shore.
Listen up Y’all! It is as Pärti as a Texan beauty queen.
The most de-evolved song by Devo is surely Mongoloid. Not their biggest hit, but like @rigid-digit on The Specials, its everything Devo-ish about Devo boiled down to 3:44.
You could be right about The Jam, for The Beatles there can’t be one signature song. Maybe one for each of about 3 or 4 different eras?
Absolutely but if I was forced at gunpoint to pick a single track it would be Help! as musically it is the Toppermost of the Poppermost while lyrically it is a naked plea for, well, help.
I’ve said this before. Ticket To Ride is my favourite Beatles single. It marks a change of approach musically, lyrically and in terms of actually making records. John came up with the melody in December 1964 but the song was completed with Paul during an afternoon long writing session at John’s house on February 14th 1965. It was recorded as the first song for the upcoming Help! movie the following day in three hours.
After seven chirpy perfect pop singles, Ticket To Ride is gloomy, angry and disbelieving. It begins with the line “I think I’m gonna be sad,” and concludes with “My baby don’t care.” This is a song mourning the end of a relationship, one ended by the woman because she wants to be free. Unbelievably, for Beatles fans, she finds that John brings her down.
After two albums of mainly acoustic guitar, Ticket To Ride buzzes with electricity. It begins brightly enough with George’s jangling Rickenbacker introduction but the music soon gets heavy. The riff is picked out by two guitars. George strums A flat chords to add depth. Paul is credited with coming up with the drum pattern, which mimics the riff in its stuttering ‘Arabic’ rhythm. Even so, Ringo’s delivery is dramatic, replete with rolls and thundering floor toms. Paul adds harmony vocals and some neat lead guitar towards the end of the lines in the verses, building a tension that is eventually broken by a 4/4 section (‘she oughta do right by me’), sharpened by Ringo’s switch to the symbols. The final coda is effectively a new melody (“my baby don’t care”), driven by John’s falsetto vocal and Paul’s colourful guitar licks. It took the song beyond the standard three minute mark for a single and defies the DJ to edit out this surprise ending.
The recording method was different, representing greater experimentation in exploiting studio techniques. The Beatles rehearsed the tune with the tape rolling, then re-spooled for a take. The first take fluffed at the start but take two was good. It was a rhythm track, drums, bass and two guitars. They had used overdubs before but not as many. There are double-tracked vocals, extra rhythm and lead guitars and handclaps and tambourine.
Ticket To Ride represents a move from pop music to rock, it tackles unusual lyrical themes and it effectively starts to use the studio as an instrument. It is the sound of a pop group growing up.
It, also, is a true group effort. All four Beatles make crucial contributions to the final result. Remove any one of them and you wouldn’t have anything like the same record. It still sounds great today. Every moment is packed with detail and little nuances so that the listener (I’m sure I’m not the only one) remains interested even after hearing it many thousands of times.
Go on, have another listen.
👍
“Ringo’s switch to the symbols” was a truly iconic performance.
I’m here all week, etc.
It’s funny what sticks in your mind. I remember there was a column in the TV Times written by Stirling Moss at the time, and he was doing a review of 1965. He said that this was the first Beatles record where they forgot to write a tune, which sort of backs up what Tigs said I think! I was so incensed that I’ve never forgotten (obviously) or forgiven him. I think he turned out to be a curmudgeon regarding the modern world in general anyway.
Dan-iest of Steely Dan? A tricky one but maybe today it’s this one.
(Night By Night)
None more Roxy or Musical than Mother Of Pearl. It’s stylish, changes time signature, contains lots of strange, futuristic noises and concerns Ferry’s favourite topic, a chimera, out of reach, glowing.
https://youtu.be/1cjR5QHFpEo
Was about to say In Every Dream Home a Heartache but, while fantastic, that is probably a tad too out there to encapsulate essence of Roxy. Mother of Pearl is a great choice.
It looks like the Faciest of Faces track is Stay With Me – it’s like a party on a record
That or Cindy Incidentally. Others like Ooh La La are wonderful but probably not as representative…
Most Heady Talking? Which track includes quirkiness, African beats and pure Pop? Why, I Zimbra, of course.
Is it possible to reduce a bands recorded output to one song?
Yes – we’ve managed it
No I think it has to be Long Distance Runaround
A really good Dr Feel(y)good track is Going Back Home
Oh, fantastic choice! Great opening riff, followed up by a terrific drum roll. Youtube won’t load for me at the moment but there is a great clip on there taken from a Wilko public appearance in a bookshop or library where he explains how he came up with the riff.
The Bushiest track? A thorny issue, a thorny Bushy issue. But let’s start with Running Up That Hill. Pure pop, exotic, vague, baroque possibly even controversial lyrics. Percussion at the heart of everything ( a much overlooked weapon in the KB canon), a melody to die for that is instant earworm, an ineffable sense of longing (c) and much loved by rappers from coast to coast.
The Kinkiest Kinks’ song is not among the more obvious songs, but is in fact Autumn Almanac.
Lola?
Equally as Kinky – stroytelling with a twist
Black Sabbath in name and in song!
Pure heavy metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KnyL4IFcwo
And the OP Jam reference in spot on.
The Blackest Sabbath. There that fits.
How much more Black can they be?
The most pure power pop song ever is the Yachts Box 202.
Or “Love You Love You” by the same band!
I’d plump for Suffice To Say, but it’s all fantastically good
I beg to differ (please, please let me differ). I’ve always thought The Drummer Man by Tonight was the prime example of power pop.
More Power Pop at it’s best (with punky overtones)
The Boys – First Time
Although this one fits the bill too.
The Headboys – The Shape Of Things To Come
Thoughts on the Primal Primal Scream song?
Brown Sugar perhaps? 😀
Hard to look past Loaded, full 12″ on vinyl.
The Delsiest Del Amitri song – It Might As Well Be You.
After thinking about this for several seconds, I think Lilian is the Depechest song:
The synth sounds are triffic
It’s about guilt and rumpo
Lyrics are not great – but they do say “pain and misery always hits the spot”
Fairportiest Fairport? Has to be Matty Groves.
Byrdsiest Byrds? I’d go for Mr Spaceman, as it encapsulates harmonies, 12 string jangle and the country undercurrent always lurking even way before Sweetheart.
I have one problem with Mr Spaceman: I don’t like it at all. I never have and I never will and I love The Byrds generally.
It’s Eight Miles High surely?
Re: Fairportiest Fairport
I can certainly see why you might nominate Matty Groves, because it is indeed very fine, but maybe the Fairportiest Fairport song should be a track that they wrote themselves, rather than an border ballad that’s 350 years old?
Byrds/8 Miles High: I confess that was my first idea, but the lack of a discernible country influence ruled it out.
Fairport made greater headway with trad.arr. than their own stuff, hence the choice. What would you choose? Crazy Man Michael might do it, Ledge is just too obvious. I’m thinking of songs that Simon Nicol can and does sing, even if Sandy denny did originally.