So Sad About US

I've just been listening to the Jam's All Mod Cons. No specific reason - I just came upon it in my CD shelf and thought I'd put it on. I still like the album and in particular the opening track which sets the group's stall out pretty impressively in less than two minutes. In 1978, I had a lot of time for the Jam. They struck me as three guys who knew where they wanted to go and were going to do it under their own terms rather than following the prevailing punk trends. I sort of went off them once Paul Weller got bored with being a new wave star and started really pleasing himself, but for three years, they sailed a pretty honest line between authenticity and pop success. That's not what I wanted to write about the Jam. It struck me that here was a group who were very aware of their influences but were also on a real creative high. They put out three singles a year and in four years released five albums. You could argue about quality control but for a Jam fan, it was great. You always had something to look forward to. So why is it, in the days of digital, that most major artists can't be arsed releasing an album every five years, never mind five months. Too busy touring and doing publicity? The Beatles seemed to manage. I just don't get the present model. If you are a creative artist and have things to say, then I would have thought it would have been relatively easy to get a track out into the digital space without too much hassle. Maybe there's no money in it - but surely there's some other reason for the relative lack of new material. Going back to the Jam, it did strike me that if they happened to have a lean month, they could always fall back on their sixties idols and knock out a Who or Kinks cover. Guaranteed great music and you introduced your fans to new 'old' stuff. Weller usually went back ten/eleven years to the mid sixties for his material. This seemed a lifetime ago to the young impressionable me in the 1970s. Now where would today's pop princes go for their ten year vintage fix? That'd be 2002/3 back to Oasis and Coldplay. It's not really the same is it? So Sad About Us or The Hindu Times - you choose the cover version.

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