In the late 1970s and early 80s, Jam proved that you could be really pissed off AND carry a tune, at the same time.
Paul Weller’s trio had legitimate reasons for their anger: massive unemployment, a recession, a conflict in Northern Ireland, a government long out of touch with the working class — and with the working class’ broke, bored, disillusioned children.
Sound familiar? It may take a while longer for the legions of today’s musicians directly inspired by the Jam to make the sort of heartfelt statements Weller penned more than 30 years ago, but it’s coming.
“Funeral Pyre” may be the Jam’s most frenetic, furious song, and that’s certainly saying something. In this live clip, you can feel the venom seething out of Weller at the mic — with Rick Buckler’s machine-gun snare and Bruce Foxton’s four-string, lurking demon creating a raging, yet melodic maelstrom that punks of the day could only marvel at, and only the Clash could equal.
