The Gift of Music: The Jam’s “The Bitterest Pill”

Posted by Myrna the Minx on February 4, 2007 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Someone reminded me of The Style Council the other day–one of my favorite bands along with Paul Weller’s punk-era band, The Jam. Weller, known as the “Modfather,” was instrumental in the revival of mod style and music in the late 70s and early 80s and is responsible for a lot of fantastic soul influenced pop music. He’s still going strong solo today in fact, and is one of the U.K. most popular artists. Maybe you don’t know you know his music, but you do. The Jam’s “A Town Called Malice” and The Style Council’s “My Ever Changing Moods” have been showing up in a lot of film soundtracks and advertising campaigns lately.

“The Bitterest Pill”(video above) is one of my favorite songs from that era. A bit of Clash related trivia–After initially helping The Jam by inviting them along as a support band during their 1977 White Riot tour, The Clash soon came to eschew The Jam for what they saw at their conservative political stance. Weller and The Jam are famously ridiculed by Joe Strummer in “White Man in Hammersmith Palais:”The new groups are not concerned/With what there is to be learned/They got burton suits, ha you think its funny/Turning rebellion into money.