Town Called Malice – The Jam

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Town Called Malice – The Jam

 

After 'The Sound of the Underground' in my last post it reminded me of The Jam's 'Going Underground.' I could have picked that as my favourite Jam song but it's trumped by this track, 'Town Called Malice.' I didn't follow them when they were most popular, I missed out on a lot of the 80's music. Weirdly I got more into them via a pub band we used to see on a semi regular basis at one of our locals, the lead singer was obviously a big fan and half their set was Jam covers. To be fair to him he would have been one of those on the TV show 'Stars In Their Eyes', "Tonight Mathew, I'm going to be Paul Weller," if had it existed at that time, he had him down pat.
 
This is a brilliant song with a hard meaning, a very clever way to sum up the state of play in his home town. People had it hard and music is a great way to highlight that to the world. I love the beat of this, the lyrics are a real tongue twister, the organ and bass on here drive the whole thing. It became a very dance able which I doubt was the original idea behind the song.
 
One of my best friends has a great dance move to this song, I always think of him when I hear it, I can see him bouncing round the dance floor, likewise with any Madness hit.

Paul Weller is another one of them artists that has more than one career band, like other great front men, he does a thing for a while, changes his style and needs a new band. Then quite often they end up going solo just so the can finally be themselves. His solo songs like 'Wild Wood' are amazing.
 
 
Favouite lyric : A whole street's belief in Sunday's roast beef / Gets dashed against the Co-op
 
(But I also like the sheep bit : Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba)
Location: Rayleigh, UK

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