Friday, September 19, 2014

The Jam - "Zoo 5-track EP" (Promo CD, Polygram Greece - 1999)


















It took me a little to actually like Paul Weller, you know I'm a huge Clash fan ("They got Burton suits, Ha! you think it's funny... Turning rebellion into money"), but it was a prescribed route actually... The Small Faces and The Who influences, the American Soul/R&B worships, the Mod ethos and The Kinks totally British pop sensibilities... You know, I fell in the end (sorry Joe).
Once in a conversation we had with Brian Young (where are you man?) for the upcoming then 'Good Vibrations' movie, he wrote me this:

"The punk bands lied a lot more and made a lot of promises they never kept - or intended to..in fact for me the only punk I ever saw put his money where his mouth was - was Paul Weller who bankrolled several indie bands/labels/publications...but then Weller wasn't a spoilt rich brat like most of the so called punk spokesmen....oh and live the Jam could wipe the floor with all the other UK punk bands..believe me. Their singles are pretty flawless...."


I remember taking Joe Strummer's side and setting up a 'controversy' just to drag Brian more into this and tell me more of his brilliant memoirs (this guy must write a book, he's a great storyteller!!!) than anything else, he-he. Anyway, that's an official digipack Promo-CD from 1999, given away with the now defunct (and MOJO equivalent) ZOO magazine. It doesn't have something rare within its digital grooves, but I guess the existence of such a thing it's quite rare by itself, right?! And it has five of the best Jam songs ever as well.


3 comments:

  1. The Jam never quite got there for me either, also being much more a Joe/Clash guy... but youknowwhat, they had some good tunes.

    -Xtm

    ReplyDelete
  2. So, yeah, thank you for this.

    -Xtm

    ReplyDelete