John Lennon, The Who and The Jam!

I am back. I apologize for missing the last two days, but stuff came up and I had to cut something. It is funny how time is limited and that there are only so many hours in the day (24, I have heard). Anyway, I am back now, so you can all rest easy. I should mention that this is post 301, which means I have passed the triple century club and am on my way to 400. Also, I caught the headline that Yoko Ono still will not forgive Mark David Chapman for killing her husband (and meal ticket, though that does continue), John Lennon.

That brought me back to the reality that it was 26 years ago today that John Lennon was shot and killed in New York City. I remember where I was at the time (in bed, listening to the radio) when I heard he had been shot and then that he had died. It sent a chill down my spine then and does to this day. I did not "know" John Lennon but had been affected by his work in a way that I never was with Keith Moon or John Bonham. Besides, I would lose my virginity (what a silly term because I know where my virginity went, I was there when it got "lost". It is more like I "lost" that status or state of virginity, or is that Virginia?, but really more likely that I shuffled off the coil of virginity and became a man, or as manly as one could be without chest hair) either the next day or within the week.

How mature? I am boasting of losing my virginity, yet, it was how I felt back in 1980. It is the same "feeling" that I had 26 years ago today. Which leads me to where my mind has been at of late.

Again, it revolves around music and a feeling I once possessed, or think that I did. I have found myself listening to a lot of music that is old (25 to 30 years old). I have found myself listening to The Jam a lot of late. For those who want to know, The Jam was a Paul Weller band that came out of the rise of UK punk back in the late 1970s. The band was contemporaries with The Clash but given that Paul Weller wrote most of the stuff, his influences were more melodic with an R 'n B sensibility. It laced the rage, or is that faux rage, of punk but added a subtle complexity of dudes who could play their instruments. In fact, there is a direct link in terms of sound from The Who to The Jam. It was the sound of the Mods (see The Who's "Quadrophenia", both movie and album, but not the soundtrack).

The band split in 1982 after releasing and touring for their album, "The Gift". That had "A Town Called Malice" on it and I remember that song getting some airplay back in high school. I also remember Roxy Music's "Avalon" and the Asia album from that time period. The band would split but by 1983, they would release a double album compilation called "Snap". That is the album that I bought, or my father bought for me, when we were shopping for a suit for me to wear to my brother's bar mitzvah.

There I was a freshman, with a new suit, and a great double album to get me into the work of The Jam. It worked. The first album was the older, rougher, more punky work and the the second album was more melodic, textured and no less interesting. I made a couple of cassettes of this stuff (I would always listen to the first two sides, early punky stuff, while driving to exams...it just pumped me up and left me with a "no prisoners" attitude that I needed before attacking my exams) and went on my way, so I could drive and listen to them.

Paul Weller would go on to form The Style Council and then do solo work. I have a couple of his CDs and they do get back to his RnB roots. It is good stuff. The best thing is that I have heard that he is doing three concerts in New York. The first devoted to his work with The Jam, the second Style Council and third his solo stuff. I would love to go to that first concert (and I did enjoy Style Council).

I have found myself listening to "Sound Affects" an excellent album of late. It takes me right back to 1983 and how I "felt" back then. That is a good thing in my eyes. I am not trying to relive the past, just to recapture an attitude and feeling that I had. I guess it is not much different from a heroin addict chasing his next high, trying to get the feel of the first one. I am not sure if that is pathetic and sad on my part or just some harmless need to assert my "youth". In any event, I am enjoying the tunage.

Well, I am off to the wife's aunt and uncle's for dinner. Shoot me now! Let the cackling begin! A cacaphony of voices, with nothing being said! That is my next few hours, not to mention the drive to Thornhill, please shoot me! I now have Adam Sandler's lamentation song from the Wedding Singer in my head. "Somebody kill me please!......" Have a great weekend and ciao!