Sound Affects

Certain Songs #706: The Jam – “That’s Entertainment”

November 20, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sound Affects
Year: 1980

Unlike The Clash, I didn’t try to make everybody I came into contact with listen to The Jam.

Maybe it was because The Jam didn’t change my life the way The Clash did, or maybe it was because I so resolutely failed with The Clash, who were even getting radio airplay by mid-1979, that I didn’t even meet another Jam fan — outside of Tim, of course — until I joined KFSR in its pre-on-air days in early 1981.

Certain Songs #705: The Jam – “But I’m Different Now”

November 19, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sound Affects
Year: 1981

While I’m still not certain that it’s my favorite Jam album — The Gift has always killed me — as I’ve been planning and writing these posts, I’ve come around to thinking that Sound Affects is their best album.

I certainly think it’s the album that balances all of their strengths — riff-based rock, Beatlesque psychedelia, soul basslines, acoustic introspection — into one ever-changing and ever-surprising package.

Certain Songs #704: The Jam – “Start!”

November 18, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sound Affects
Year: 1980

Switching gears after the apocalyptic fever dream of “Going Underground,” “Start” — The Jam’s second straight U.K. #1 single — is a far more introspective and, ahem, Beatlesque tune.

Or at least the bassline is: Bruce Foxton famously steals Paul McCartney’s bass part from George Harrison’s “Taxman.” Even if he adds an extra note during every bar, it’s so utterly brazen that it could only be a interpreted as a homage.