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Paul Weller's 30 Greatest Songs - ranked by The Guardian

Started by Mobius, November 26, 2021, 03:42:45 AM

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Mobius

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/25/paul-wellers-30-greatest-songs-ranked

Personally I would probably put Down In A Tube Station At Midnight at number 1. But I guess it just shows how many brilliant songs he has done. No Strange Town, no Man In The Cornershop ... I mean there's loads missing really.

Your thoughts?

Mr Banlon

Dreams of Children, Wasteland, Party Chambers and Monday would've been on my list.

SweetPomPom

No Can You Heal Us? (Holy Man)?

Decent amount of Style Council in  there - Mick stopped him being such a stern, grumpy git.

phantom_power

I would have less later period solo and more early period, Wild Wood era particularly, but I suppose they wanted a more even spread

SpiderChrist

I wouldn't have put You Do Something To Me in there, as I think it's hackneyed rubbish. Either Broken Stones or The Paris Match would have been better choices imho. But then these things are designed to get a reaction, no? Perhaps the title of the article should have been "My 30 Favourite Paul Weller Songs, by Alex Petridis (aged 50 and a quarter)". No When You're Young or The Boy Who Cried Wolf either. Tsk tsk.








pigamus

Beat Surrender should be on there. Great to see The Bitterest Pill so high though.

phantom_power

It is funny. When I was younger The Style Council were the watchword in naff "selling out", with Weller gone all pop but now they are (rightly) seen as quite brave and experimental, as well as having some great songs

pigamus

Only thick people ever thought that though

Imagine hearing Long Hot Summer and thinking "I preferred him when he was good", I mean do me a favour

phantom_power

Quote from: pigamus on November 26, 2021, 10:54:43 AMOnly thick people ever thought that though

Imagine hearing Long Hot Summer and thinking "I preferred him when he was good", I mean do me a favour

Yeah I am not sure where I got that idea from because I have always liked them. I think there were some lug-headed mods who lived down my street who probably felt betrayed and thought he had turned into "a bender" as they probably would have put it

Some good choices, but I would have had Start in there somewhere.

Johnboy

ah, glad to see Tales from the Riverbank in there and My Ever Changing Moods so high

Life at at Top People's Health Club though - that's stirring the shit

SpiderChrist

I was 16 when The Jam split up and I really loved The Style Council. Took my little brother to see them on the first tour when they played Southampton Gaumont (now The Mayflower?). Support acts were The Questions and Billy Bragg, and The Style Council played two sets opening and closing the show. Needless to say there were plenty of boneheads there, calling out for Jam songs, starting fights, and chanting "We are the mods" etc. and Weller looked mightily pissed off with this behaviour. They encored with One Nation Under A Groove which was one of the reasons I then got into P Funk.

Had a fair few mates who thought that Weller had "gone poofy", especially when the video for Long Hot Summer came out, but brave and experimental TSC surely were. And funny too - the comment about Mick Talbot lessening Weller's more curmudgeonly traits certainly rings true for me. Maybe The Style Council's main problem was that they weren't The Jam.

pigamus

Is it true that he sent his record company a tape with gay porn on it instead of the proper video?

the science eel

Quote from: pigamus on November 26, 2021, 10:54:43 AMOnly thick people ever thought that though


like Paul Weller? Come on, for fuck's sake. The fella's put out some decent songs but he's thick as pigshit.

pigamus

It's more complicated than that. I've known blokes who were/are thick as pigshit but they could never have been Paul Weller.

The Culture Bunker

Not sure how the Style Council could be seen as "selling out", given the Jam were one of the most popular bands in the country in 1982. If anything, splitting them up and decided to dabble in (lightly) jazz/soul-tinged excursions with one of the Merton Parkas seems almost like an act of career sabotage. It's a credit to Weller's songwriting that it worked out (in commercial terms) pretty well for a few years.

phantom_power

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on November 26, 2021, 12:20:16 PMNot sure how the Style Council could be seen as "selling out", given the Jam were one of the most popular bands in the country in 1982. If anything, splitting them up and decided to dabble in (lightly) jazz/soul-tinged excursions with one of the Merton Parkas seems almost like an act of career sabotage. It's a credit to Weller's songwriting that it worked out (in commercial terms) pretty well for a few years.

I think there was a school of thought, from twats as mentioned above, that TSC were pop and The Jam were punk so Weller had sold out because he had fucked off the loud guitars. The SC experimentation was generally kept from the albums rather than the single releases. I think a lot of luddite Jam fans felt the same about later Jam songs

pigamus

Fucking off your massively successful band at the height of their success to do something else, deliberately trying to alienate the cuntiest of your fans - I mean it's not something you could ever see Noel Gallagher doing is it?

phantom_power

Quote from: pigamus on November 26, 2021, 12:48:51 PMFucking off your massively successful band at the height of their success to do something else, deliberately trying to alienate the cuntiest of your fans - I mean it's not something you could ever see Noel Gallagher doing is it?

He threatened it a lot, working with FSOL and stuff, but it always ended up getting shelved and him coming out with more dull plodding shite

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: phantom_power on November 26, 2021, 12:45:33 PMI think there was a school of thought, from twats as mentioned above, that TSC were pop and The Jam were punk so Weller had sold out because he had fucked off the loud guitars. The SC experimentation was generally kept from the albums rather than the single releases. I think a lot of luddite Jam fans felt the same about later Jam songs
I guess the signs were there re the Jam - Weller probably a bit frustrated that 'Precious' didn't groove the way I imagine he wanted it too, and 'The Bitterest Pill' was a bit of a curveball. 'Beat Surrender' too, given it barely - if at all - has any guitar on it. I have wondered if his decision to split the Jam was in part motivated by a wish to crack America and knowing they were "too English" to make any real headway over the pond. TSC did have some brief success with 'My Ever Changing Moods' going US top 40.

Foxton and Buckler do get a bit of a raw deal as being too inflexible a rhythm section, which is unfair: 'A Town Called Malice' shows they could do something you could dance to, but 'Precious' proved funk was way beyond them.

DrGreggles

Late Jam transitions perfectly into early Style Council, to the extent that for years I thought The Bitterest Pill was an SC song.

phantom_power

I like that lumpy funk of some of the later Jam songs but can see why Weller would want to get some better, or different, musicians to take it to the next level

SweetPomPom

There's a grisly, lumpy reggae-lite track on Fat Pop that should have stayed in the studio.

Weller's such a weird contradiction of a man.
He still does (well, his road crew do)  loads of the stuff that his dad was famous for back in the Jam-era - looking after the queue/crowd before the gig, making sure the early arrivers get in first etc.

And then all those same people will get a proper bollocking if they try and take a  photo when the gig starts cos Paul doesn't like it.

Always thought he was well-meaning just so, so brittle. Not thick as an pigshit tho.

Brundle-Fly

Cold Moments, Down On The Seine, Start, Monday, Dreams Of Children, All Gone Away, Pretty Green, Green, lots more, I could choose. He's one of those artists who seem to be always judged by his fanbase rather than his output.

Chicory

No Speak Like A Child?  Go jump off a 9 quid quinoa latte.

wosl

Quote from: phantom_power on November 26, 2021, 01:16:15 PMI like that lumpy funk of some of the later Jam songs but can see why Weller would want to get some better, or different, musicians to take it to the next level
Transitional phases can sometimes produce more compelling work than the stuff produced once artists have become more confident with a new way of playing and/or have drafted in fresh personnel.  'New beginnings' enthusiasm and the fact that you're listening to the results of people trying to develop chops they don't quite have must be a large part of it, and bastard, 'bolted-together' things are nearly always interesting.  I think the folk-inflected rock of Unhalfbricking grabs me more than the more full-on, finger-in-the-ear sound of Liege & Lief for those reasons.

Pauline Walnuts

Caring about what The Guardian has to say about anything music is one step up about caring who's in the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame.

idunnosomename

the guardian's got into this RANKED thing about a decade late. Sad!

(2018, it happens. this was their first one https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/19/every-pixar-film-ever-made-ranked-animation
really cant be arsed by the end. although I suppose it was probably made for print copy, to be fair)

Brundle-Fly

Moving on..

This 1985 track was deemed clumsy at the time but now completely relevant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXx8zHzeTFI


Lisa Jesusandmarychain

" The Butterfly Collector" is the only Jam song I like. Good cover version by Garbage, too.
There should not be any song by The Style Council on that list, due to the Style Council being a load of old shit.