The Jam Album: “Direction Reaction Creation”

The Jam were one of the greatest rock and roll groups in history. Their entire catalogue, from "In the City" all the way through to "Beat Surrender" is fresh, vibrant, urgent, and real. They were a band whose B-sides (such as "Smithers-Jones") could be the top A-sides of lesser groups. Nothing in their catalogue is worthless...not even their cover of the "Batman" theme! And they didn't just stay in one place after finding success. "In the City", their debut single, is rough-hewn, Who-derived punk rock. A million sounds and fusions of pop, punk, and soul later (the crunching "All Around the World", the bright but alienated "Strange Town", the driving, hard-hitting "Eton Rifles", the gorgeous anthem "Going Underground", the wistful Motown rave "Town Called Malice") we get "Beat Surrender", their bow, an uptempo, horn-and-piano-driven sophisticated soul scorcher. Along with The Buzzcocks, The Jam are at the top of the stack when it comes to singles bands of their era. And ANY era, really.

That said...there is one tiny fault. This is a fault only a completist fanatic would quibble about, but anyone willing to spend $100 on just one band is probably, like me, a completist fanatic.

The problem is this: one of the most acclaimed entries in The Jam's catalogue, and my personal favorite, "That's Entertainment", does not appear in its ideal form. The version from "Snap!" (known in CD release as "Compact Snap!") is nowhere to be heard. They include the psychedelic-tinged version that graces "Sound Affects", and they include some bizarre up-tempo demo on the "rarities" disc. But for some strange reason, they don't include their greatest rendition of "That's Entertainment". The version is minimal but has a fiery intensity that the somewhat muffled album version just doesn't have. There's a note written muttering about "another version available on the 'Snap!' compilation", but would it really have been that hard to include it?

Like I said...it's just one song on a collection of a hundred, and it might seem petty. But for someone hoping to capture The Jam's entire catalogue on CD with this purchase (ESPECIALLY my personal favorites), the disappointment was palpable.

But that's the only problem. Everything else is aces. If you're new to The Jam, I suggest you buy "Compact Snap!" anyway just to get acquainted with them. But if you've heard some of Weller, Foxton, and Buckler already and think this is the way to go, then it almost definitely is. I certainly don't regret my purchase. But it's just not quite perfect!

I've been a fan of this band forever, but kind of stopped listening to my old albums for a while. This box set brought them back to heavy rotation on my CD player.... this is brilliant stuff, and this set is the complete collection. All the best, as well as a lot of marginal stuff (and I love how the book is really honest about it - it will call a bad song a bad song).

If you were ever interested in the Jam, even as a passing fan a long time ago, this set will help you rediscover one of the greatest rock bands ever.

Being such a kid of the early 80's, I'm a bit embarrassed by the fact that I really hadn't heard of The Jam while they were actually a living band.

I ran across them only because "Town Called Malice" was on an 80's compilation I had. I slowly but surely started buying the odd and end collection until I graduated to this -- the Holy Grail of the New Wave era.

This is definitely worth the money -- I can not even begin to tell you what you are missing if you do not own this set. Songs like "Wasteland," "Smithers-Jones," "Ghosts" "Town Called Malice" and "The Bitterest Pill" are merely among the greatest pop songs ever recorded.

The amazing thing about The Jam is how varied they sound. If I were a radio listener in England during their heyday, I'm not sure I would have always been able to pick them out. This is really all you will ever need to buy from them, since it's everything they did except live sets.

God Save The King (Paul Weller)!

The Jam emerged in the UK in 1977 at the height of punk and the same time as the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and Elvis Costello were making an impact on the British music scene. While the Jam was a commercial success in the UK and Europe, they never made much of a dent with American listeners (Paul Weller's post-Jam band, the Style Council, was somewhat more successful in the USA but the music was far inferior). That being said, the five discs in this set should probably be considered a must for die-hard Jam fans, and although I do not consider myself in that category, I purchased this because, as most Jam fans know, a considerable amount of their music was not released on any of the six LPs issued during the band's existence (1977-82). Someone at the Jam's record label was asleep at the switch when the group's LP's were issued on CD, as no bonus tracks were included on any of the discs. Furthermore, greatest-hits compilations only offered one or two singles not available on the LP releases (the available greatest hits collections also, in my opinion, lean too heavily on the Jam's later, post-"Sound Affects" releases at the expense of more deserving earlier material). The only alternative available for Jam fans who want a truly comprehensive retrospective is this box set, which offers just about all of the band's studio releases as well as flip sides of singles that were released abroad but not in the USA. The selection cannot be considered truly complete, however, as no live tracks (including some early flip-sides) are contained in this set. Many tracks from the 1991 "Extras" compilation are also excluded. For anyone wanting to own all the Jam's LP's on CD as well as songs from EP's and singles, this compilation would fit the bill. A comprehensive essay detailing the band's history is also included in this set.

An excellent 5 CD collection (if you take the CDs out of their tight cardboard sleeves and put them in normal cases on your shelves). You also get a book documenting the Jam with photos etc.

Here's the break-up:

CD1: Albums in full: In the City & This is the Modern World (plus loads of singles released around the same time).

CD2: Albums: All Mod Cons (I still bought the All Mod Cons deluxe edition for the demo versions), and loads of singles from the same time.

CD3: Albums: Setting Sons (in full), and "Sound Affects" (excludes the album version of Start! Does provide the single version though). Other singles from that time period also included.

CD4: Albums: The Gift (replaces the album version of Precious with the 12" version). Also singles from the same period, and The Beat Surrender (EP with 4 other songs).

CD5: Alternate versions of earlier songs, and some other singles and b-sides, and some songs I'd never heard in my addictive Jam collecting days of the 1980s-90s: "Rain" "Dead end street" "Stand by me" "Every little bit hurts" "Walking in Heavens Sunshine".

The exclusions of album versions of Start! and "Precious" are annoying, but don't let that put you off. You can always order "The Gift" and "Sound Affects" as well, or keep your old vinyl.