I’ve recently been re-discovering my love for The Jam. For those that don’t know, The Jam were essentially the biggest punk band in the UK (back when punk “happened”). Yes, bigger than The Clash, The Sex Pistols, everybody. The trio centered around vocalist/guitarist Paul Weller, and traded in an amped-up version of the mod sounds of mid-60s London, Weller’s two main songwriting influences at the time being Ray Davies of The Kinks and Pete Townshend of The Who. However, by the time they broke up in 1982, Weller had successfully integrated the best elements of disco, pop, R&B and soul into the band’s sound. A single b-side from around the time of the band’s swansong, The Gift, ‘Shopping’ is a fantastic testament to just how far he’d come, both as a songwriter, melodicist, and synthesizer of styles.
The song is essentially a musical re-working of Charles Mingus’ classic ‘Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat’. Lyrically, the song deals with the frustration of trying to become (and subsequently stay) fashionable. Taken at face value, the boredom and exasperation of walking from shop window to shop window in search of the perfect ensemble and accoutrements is clever, but not particularly interesting. However, in the context of when the song was written, as Weller was struggling with the decision to continue making gobs of money fronting what was by then one of the most successful pop acts in the UK (only Queen and The Police were bigger) or to divest himself of the responsibility of remaining fashionable in the eyes of his fans and critics and stretch out even further musically, there’s a lot of conflict and soul-searching here. And the best part of the song is the playing; Weller and bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler don’t sound like amateurish punks aping jazz stylings–they sound like jazz pros aping pop structure.
While ‘Shopping’ isn’t really indicative of The Jam’s overall style, it’s an intriguing curio and the perfect b-side: it exemplifies creative exploration paired with pop precision, and is a great supplement to the latter-day albums in the band’s catalog.
