Growing Up With Paul Weller's Solo Career

Well, well, well... looks like ol' Paul Weller is returning to play in California. And it looks like he'll be skipping the Bay Area... yet again. (What, he doesn't like sourdough bread?) Normally, we wouldn't really consider driving down to catch one of his shows in Los Angeles. He just doesn't have the same pull with us that he used to. But this year, things are a little different. For one thing, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are opening up! But, more importantly, we get to hang out with my best pal who scored some amazing tickets so that we'll get to re-live the memories together of when we once hero-worshipped the guy!

Yes, there was a time when I tried to collect anything with a Paul Weller picture on it.  I've already discussed how I got into The Jam and why I think The Style Council should be re-evaluated. But it was actually Paul Weller's solo career that I grew up with. By the time the Jam broke up, I was still having battles in the backyard between my Star Wars and G.I. Joe action figures. And by the time The Style Council broke up, I was just starting to trade in my Transformers toys for Smiths records.

But by the time Paul Weller got back to celebrating his Mod roots again, I was strutting around my high school campus in a pair of loafers and a parka! His solo career started at just the right time for me to appreciate real-time. Ahh... it feels just like yesterday when I walked into that Barnes & Noble bookshop in my local Puente Hills Mall and grabbed a copy of The Face magazine. In there was a timeline of some sort... I can't really remember the theme of the timeline, but on one of the timeline nodes was mention of something called The Paul Weller Movement. No real description on what that was, but it was proof that Paul Weller was still floating around out there in the music world.

A few months later, I picked up that first Paul Weller Movement 12", 'Into Tomorrow' with the Mod-approved multi-colored target on the cover! The A-side of this record was okay, but it was the B-side that made me take notice. 'Here's a New Thing' contained a total '60s soul beat (to my ears) and reminded me of J.J. Jackson's 'It's Alright'. And 'That Spiritual Feeling' was just a beautiful, rollicking funk workout that helped set my music tastes from that point forward (despite my non-Mod friends calling it porn music).

Shortly after this record, I was lucky enough to catch him live, in person at the Variety Arts Theatre in Los Angeles in 1991! I went there with my buddies Juan G. and Dan (Electro) and felt excited to see other Mods walking around... there was even some yahoo in a Union Jack jacket, and yes, for a 17-year-old, that was a cool thing to see! While we were standing outside, taking it all in, some woman approached us with a couple of free front row tickets she wasn't going to be needing. I made the sacrifice and let my pals use those tickets. I'd be okay sitting toward the back. But when we walked in, the attendent looked at my friends' front-row tickets, walked us up to the front, and then pulled a seat out for me assuming I was front row too! Yes, friends, we were front row to Paul Weller's FIRST show in Los Angeles in who-knows-how-many years! He performed Jam songs, Style Council songs, new songs we didn't know... and it was perfect all night long! Paul Weller was back!

Later that year, a friend invited me over to watch his new purchase: a videotape of the Paul Weller Movement's Brixton Academy show.  Not only was he doing old Jam and Style Council songs, but he was also covering The Small Faces (a cover of 'Tin Soldier' that raised the hairs on the back of my neck)! He looked so into it on stage and was rockin' a slick casual look! Oh yeah, I was taking style notes, digging on his narrow jeans hemmed just above a pair of sharp loafers, a white mock-turtle neck sweater, and short hairstyle. Eventually, I would get my own copy of this tape and would watch it as often as I once watched Quadrophenia.

Paul Weller's debut LP coincided with my move up to the Bay Area. Surprisingly, most of the Mod folks I met when I first moved up north weren't huge into The Jam or The Style Council. They were all a bit older than I was and were already exploring deeper sounds from older acts like The Outsiders, Junior Wells, and Paul Butterfield. But Paul Weller still did retain a few fans in our little scene, including my soon-to-be lifelong pal, S.C., and the Sacramento Mods.

S.C. was my age and an even bigger Paul Weller fan than I was. She walked around in a parka, dyed purple, with Paul Weller's actual signature along the back. If any of you have seen the Highlights and Hangups video, she's the one jumping up on stage to give him a kiss during one of the live segments. While most of our crew were more excited talking about Little Walter, we were content to sit around watching old Jam and Style Council videos and playing that debut solo album over and over again. I think a big part of this had to do with the fact that we were closest in age amongst our friends and younger than everyone else around us. We were getting into the Mod thing on our own terms, yet still highly influenced by our older friends.

We were so into Paul Weller that one day we all decided to take a last-minute trip down to Los Angeles to catch him play on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. AND we got in! (My pal, Steven Levano, reminded me that we almost didn't make it in due to the show giving away more tickets than seats in order to ensure a full house! According to him, we were almost ushered in to the Vicki Lawrence Show, instead!) Now, I don't think Jay was a big of a fan of Paul Weller as we were... he called him Peter Weller.

As much as we liked that solo album, I don't think it opened up our eyes as much as Wild Wood did. Not only did we fall in love with the whole LP, but it really turned us on to sounds we probably would have ignored otherwise.

It was filled with songs that were more folky and mature. It even brought some of our older Mod pals around! Around this time, I had let go some of my prejudices against music made past 1967. I was already digging on Vanilla Fudge and The Zombies, but now Paul Weller was turning my ears toward Traffic and Tim Hardin. And it was great. It helped me move on from my parka/Jam shoe Mod period.

Stanley Road continued to excite us and watching that video of 'The Changing Man' for the first time solidified our allegiance to the guy. He was blasting that Mod imagery while stepping up his style! But he was also releasing interesting music that continued to mature. Around this time, Paul Weller started gaining more local fans, mainly thanks to the explosion of Oasis and Blur fans in our area. Although we were a little turned off by the Paul Weller/Oasis connection, it did bring in some new people who eventually became good friends.

Then, the first disappointment hit. When I heard about the upcoming Heavy Soul LP, I couldn't contain myself. This was it... Paul Weller was going to release a full-on super soul album! I was sure it was going to be something like the first album, but more 'sixties' sounding. Unfortunately, Heavy Soul was anything but. Now, it was a great album with a beautiful country-psych graphic design look and fantastic songs like 'Driving Nowhere' and 'Friday Street', but it just didn't deliver on the soul front. And, many other songs did sound a little like filler to me. As much as I still liked Paul Weller, I was starting to get over my super fan phase.

By the time Heliocentric was released, a few years later, I had already gotten turned on to too much good music. Friends had hipped me to the greatness of things like The Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow, Nick Drake, The Flying Burritto Brothers, and Kaleidoscope. I was getting into music I used to ridicule my parents for listening to... dreaded 'hippie' music. I was walking around in longer hair, flared trousers, and paisley scarves. So, when Heliocentric was announced, what got me most excited was news about Paul Weller using Robert Kirby, the man behind Nick Drake's strings.

And Heliocentric was a really good album. It contained some fantastic songs, but at that time, I was too busy with other music. In fact, the CD that got most play around this time was my Fairfield Parlour CD, released that same year. I hate to say it, but I had moved on from Paul Weller. Many of his songs were starting to sound the same to me and his voice was losing its strength to my ears. Plus, by this point, I think I replaced a following for Paul Weller with a following for Beck. Beck's records were sounding much more interesting to me, especially when he delved into oddball soul styles! He was delivering new music that sounded innovative and fresh.

Illumination was released next and although I did pick up the first single, 'It's Written in the Stars', and felt it to be a return to the sounds from his first release, I didn't bother picking up the entire album. I just wasn't that interested anymore. In fact, if you wanna know the truth, I just heard it for the very first time over this past weekend. And y'know... it was pretty good!

Studio 150 was another album I passed up, probably after reading some mediocre reviews. In fact, other than 'The Bottle', I can't say I've really heard the rest of the album. Eh... I'll survive.

My future wife and I started dating around this time. And I knew SHE was a big Paul Weller fan! That is an understatement, actually. Heck, I'm surprised she didn't start re-decorating the apartment with life-size Paul Weller posters the day she moved in! But as big a fan as she is, she was equally as moved with Weller's next album, As Is Now, as I was. We played it once. Frankly, I couldn't tell you the name of the hit song off that one.

Personally, I think we were both over Paul Weller's output. That was okay though as he left us with a large back catalogue we could still enjoy. But then, 22 Dreams was released.

We had no real interest in picking it up, but my old pal, S.C., thought we might like it. So, we bought it and decided we'd play it once just to get it out of the way and then move on to something else. The first song reminded me of The Incredible String Band for some reason. The second song had a '60s guitar thing going on. But the third song is the one that really hooked us! By the middle of the CD, we were sold. And by the end of it, we were jumping to hit the PLAY button again. It became our driving CD for months afterward. We absolutely LOVED the hell out of 22 Dreams! Each song had something different to offer, but each one was just as good to us. We were back in Paul Weller's camp...

...until Wake Up the Nation. Yes, we were super into 'No Tears to Cry', but after playing the entire CD once in the car, we put it away and never touched it again. We haven't even bought Sonik Kicks. All across Facebook, people kept posting the hit song was off that album (I don't even know the name), but not once did it hit me in the right spot. A few days ago, I was listening to samples of Sonik Kicks songs off the internet when my wife walked by and gave me a perplexed look. "Are you listening to P.I.L.?" That pretty much summed it up.

So, there you have it. Hey, I still like Paul Weller and all, but I just don't hero-worship him anymore. He's done some great stuff and he's done some not-so-great stuff. Years ago at one of the first Mod parties I went to in Berkeley, my new friend (Major) Sean C. started discussing Paul Weller with me and he said something that really stuck with me. "Man, some people like Paul Weller no matter what he does. If he put out a heavy metal album, I bet you some Mods would start getting into heavy metal." And I think he had a point.

Look, Paul Weller has had a long solo career by now and most of it has been fantastic. But not everything has been a hit with me. I don't want to spend this post getting too down on the guy. After all, as you probably noticed while reading this post, he had a big effect on me growing up. His music helped open me up to other types of music I probably would have ignored as an uptight younger 'hard-core' Modnick. And despite my disinterest in his most recent releases, he has still put out a lot of amazing songs. I'd like to touch on some of those songs now, picking out my fave from each album, songs that still bring me back to different periods of my life whenever I hear them.

You're probably expecting me to post all the rockin' hits like 'Changing Man', 'Friday Street', 'The Weaver', etc. But hey... I'm an old man and I dig the slow burnin' songs. I like to just groove along with a glass of wine in my hand and my lady by my side. And seeing how these songs made me feel again after all these years, I guess I've always been an old man. So, the following are my Top 10 Retrospective Paul Weller Songs album by album.

1. Bitterness Rising - So many great songs on Paul Weller's debut solo LP (probably my favorite album, still), but this song is the one that always made me stand up! Here, Paul Weller is doing it live from the previously mentioned 1991 Brixton Academy show. Paul Weller seemed to be going through his mid-life crisis a little early leading up to this period, but damn! He sure came up with great songs like this one. (See, guys, sometimes a mid-life crisis can help bring out your creative energy... leave your high school parkas in the closet and work on developing some of your creative skills instead!)

2. Has My Fire Really Gone Out? - Another mid-life crisis song, this time off his second LP, Wild Wood. The whole album, from start to finish, was perfect. But when I heard this song again over the weekend, it was the one that made me stop what I was doing to just enjoy it.  I have no idea why I was so attracted to these songs dealing with self-doubt. Maybe it was because I was listening to these at a time when I was morphing from angsty teenager to slightly less angsty young adult, worrying more about what lay ahead in my future.

3. Wings of Speed - I had a hard time choosing between this song and 'Time Passes...', both off the Stanley Road album. YouTube made it easier by not making a good version of 'Time Passes...' available. But 'Wings of Speed' was the one that always hit my sweet spot. Pretty much just Paul Weller on piano with a nice vocal backing, featuring Carleen Anderson. Beautiful soul music and probably why I had such high hopes for the following Heavy Soul album.

4. I Should Have Been There To Inspire You - Probably the most soulful song off of Heavy Soul. A mellow groove but with a sparse yet strong backing beat. Really too bad the rest of the album didn't have this much soul.

7. Brand New Start - Alright, this one's a little special. I took it from Paul Weller's Modern Classics and made this the second track on the very first CD I made for this girl I had a huge crush on (the first song being a combo of The Kinks' 'Morning Song'/'Daylight'). I figured it was the perfect song to capture the idea of a new beginning. Must have worked because she ended up marrying me.

6. Frightened - By the time Heliocentric was released, he had already lost too much ground to other artists I was delving into, like the previously mentioned Beck. Plus, I was getting more and more into late '60s/early '70s psych/folk/country/rock'n'soul sounds. But this Paul Weller album still grabbed me right, with a great string section and music dedicated to Ronnie Lane. This song, 'Frightened', is one that still sounds ageless to me.

6. It's Written In the Stars - The last Paul Weller song I got into before a long hiatus. That sample totally brought me back to the feel of his first album! I ended up not buying Illuminations though. I think I read a review... actually, no, I KNOW I read a review that persuaded me to save my money for something else. And there was a lot to spend my money on, record-wise, at the time! After listening to the album over the weekend, I gotta say... not bad! I may have to put it on again after writing this.

After buying this single, I lost interest in Paul Weller for the most part. I skipped out on Studio 150 and listened to As Is Now once. There's not one song from this period I can talk about. But six years after 'It's Written in the Stars', we picked up 22 Dreams. Oh boy!

7. Empty Ring - Yeah, 22 Dreams brought us back into the Paul Weller fold. Each song had its own thing going on, but each of those things was right on. '22 Dreams', 'All I Wanna Do', 'Song for Alice', 'Lullaby for Kinder', 'Sea Spray' (my wife's favorite), 'Where'er Ye Go'... sorry but if an album has this many good songs, you've got a great album. But my absolute fave is this one right here. Now why wasn't this a James Bond theme song?

8. No Tears to Cry - Unfortunately, we were turned off, yet again, by Wake Up the Nation. The songs all fell flat for us, delving into dull guitar rock. But THIS song was totally amazing! Soul beat plus orchestral backing add up to a great mix.

And, quite honestly, that's the last new Paul Weller song I've actually liked. What we've heard from Sonik Kicks just hasn't done it for us. Yes, it's new-sounding, but so what? New does not mean I need to like it. A lot of people out there do, though, and that's good for ol' PW. I'll wait to see what he comes up with next, because no matter what, over the years he's always shown that he's deserved a chance. He's still got several good years left in him.

But I promised you guys 10 Paul Weller songs! So, I'm going back early into his career to talk about my two favorite Paul Weller tracks.

9. Feeling Alright - This B-side track to 'Above the Clouds' was a fantastic cover of Traffic's 'Feeling Alright'! When I first heard this, I recognized the song but didn't know the source. Despite that, I loved it to death! I played it almost daily while spending the summer back home in La Puente after my first year in college. This is the song that led me to Traffic and a love of Dave Mason's songwriting. Even today, it still sounds fresh!

10. Here's A New Thing - And here's the first Paul Weller solo song that really blew my mind. DJs... if you haven't already, go out and find the 'Into Tomorrow' single version and play it at your next club. You will get that dancefloor smokin'!

Alright, enough about Paul Weller already. Let me open this up to you guys. What was your take on his solo career? What were some of your favorite tunes or memories associated with his records? Are you still a Weller-phile or do you see his career a bit more objectively?

And I'll end this post with a cover of my fave Paul Weller track ever. Daryl Hall and the Bacon Brothers covering 'Above the Clouds'! Yes, you read that right.

In Defense of The Style Council

Time has not been kind to The Style Council. Heck, I don't think the 1980s were kind to The Style Council. They were a pretty polarizing group, especially to Mod folk then and now.

Front cover of The Style Population, a TSC Christmas card.

Many people dislike them for the musical genres they dabbled in and the dilution of their original Mod(ernist) leanings. Others love them for taking those risks and even credit Paul Weller with broadening the Mod musical spectrum (or letting him get away with things other bands could not have gotten away with). Personally, I'm mixed on the band and have been trying to give their whole catalogue another shot, coming at them with a different frame of mind in my older age.

But first, let's jump in the ol' time machine for a bit so I can think back to when I first heard them... diddly-doot...diddly-doot... diddly-doot... Ah yes... It was back in high school, at a time when I was deep into my Jam obsession and still identifying more with the punkish elements of a lot of those Mod revival bands. One day, I came across a copy of the Absolute Beginners movie soundtrack which included the Style Council song, 'Have You Ever Had It Blue?' (thanks to Le Drugstore 1968 for correcting me on the title). I knew this was Paul Weller's band after The Jam and couldn't wait to finally hear what they were about.

I got back to my record player, took the disk out of its sleeve, put the record on the turntable and prepared to be rocked with Mod power! After the song was over, I sat there bewildered. Something wasn't right. I re-played 'Have You Ever Had It Blue?' just to make sure. Yup, either my record needle was busted or the LP sleeve was mislabeled because this didn't sound like anything Paul Weller would have been involved with. Of course, it turned out I was wrong.

My wife's official Torch Society membership card, proving she was a Style Council fan before I was a Style Council fan.

It took about another year for my mind to open up a bit and the next Style Council song I sat down to listen to was 'My Ever Changing Moods.' This was the song that hooked me. After coming to terms with the fact that this was definitely NOT the sound of The Jam, I realized that, hey, it still sounded pretty good. Totally different, but good.

Over the next couple of years, I got even more into The Style Council, buying up their singles and LPs. As can probably be expected, not all of it was a hit with me. There were a lot of misses, some of which confused the heck out of me. (i.e., The Jam's lead man being okay with using drum machines?)

Over time, I think The Style Council has taken huge blows for many of those misses and I'm not necessarily going to disagree. Their attempts at rap songs, JerUSAlem, use of synthesizers and other effects, frosted blond hair, many parts of Confessions of A Pop Group... but I'm not here to pile on even more things to dislike about The Style Council. Instead, I'd like to take a different approach and offer up what I think are the
Top 10 Things The Style Council Did Right... Maybe.

1. A Return To A Mod(ernist) Aesthetic

I will go on record to say that Paul Weller was probably at his most 'Mod' during the very beginning of The Style Council, even more so than during his time with The Jam. (Now excuse me while I duck to avoid any flying shoes or tomatoes.) Fully influenced by Colin Macinnes's Absolute Beginners, he embraced café culture and '60s French stylings, eschewed parkas for rain macs, left behind a punkier sound for a jazzier one (for the most part), and really polished off his suit look. While many revival bands were probably still blasting out their mod angst singing about crowds and numbers, The Style Council smartened up and cleaned up their look and sound. They promoted a more well-read identity through their lyrics and sleeve-notes. And they tried incorporating a more jazz-based sound into their songs, again, for a good chunk of the time. Whether they succeeded or not is up to interpretation.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to pass and they eventually swayed away from this aesthetic. They left behind their Absolute Beginners leanings in favor of trendier, contemporary styles and sounds. For instance, Paul Weller (next to Mick Talbot), started off looking like this:

... and ended up looking like this:

2. Hammond Instrumentals
Paul Weller may get all the attention, but Mick Talbot, The Style Council's organist, was no slouch. According to Paul Weller, one of the reasons why he clicked with Talbot so well was that he "wanted that particular [Hammond] organ sound, because I've always like The Small Faces, who used it." Well, even though they were about as far from a Small Faces sound as you could get, they still released some pretty great Hammond instrumentals, including songs like 'Mick's Up', 'Mick's Company', and 'Mick's Blessings' (okay guys, we get it... trying Micksing it up a bit, why don't you?). Most of these songs appear on their earlier records, as Talbot eventually traded in the Hammond for a (gulp!) synthesizer, changing the band's sound overall on their later albums. It's too bad they didn't use more of these Hammond-driven songs later in their career as they probably could have provided a stronger bridge into the Acid Jazz era.

3. 'Solid Bond in Your Heart' 
I can't tell you how many times I rewound and played this video when I had it on an old bootleg VHS:

Everything thing about this was great, from the Northern Soul beat of the song itself to the dapper Mod outfits on Paul and Mick. So many things screamed 'Mod' to me in this video: Paul Weller's arrival on his scooter, Mick acting as soul DJ, a roomful of people getting down to soul sounds.

The first time I saw this video, there were only a handful of Modish types left in my area, so seeing all those people dancing in the video was as much a case of wishful thinking as it was to Paul and Mick. I mean, man... now that I think about it, this was a downer of a video! Both guys show up to the gymnasium looking forward to a day of soul-steppin' with their huge crew. Instead, they're the only two people who show up, and proceed to spend their entire allotted time at the gym reminiscing about the good old days.

Now, I don't know whose memory we're actually watching in this video, but either Paul remembers Mick being a loser with the ladies or Mick has some pretty low self-esteem. The most bummer part of the video? A bunch of teens waiting for these two friendless twenty-something old fogies to clear out so they can use the space. Heck, I'd be heading off to wallow in my early-onset mid-life crisis crying into a cup of cappuccino, too. But at least they're still dressing cool at this point, right?

4. The Cappuccino Kid
I got into The Style Council at around the same time I was heavily into Beat writers and, yes, I used to dream of moving to San Francisco to spend my days in North Beach. So, you can imagine how easily it was for me to accept the idea of a 'Cappuccino Kid.' I used to sit in my bedroom in La Puente, CA thinking about how cool it would be to walk around those San Francisco streets, dressed up in suit, tie, and sunglasses, with a copy of Desolation Angels under my arm, on my way to Caffe Trieste.

As you can probably guess, I enjoyed reading the liner notes and back sleeves of Style Council records, digging on the Cappuccino Kid's ramblings. Sure, they could be silly and pretentious, but so was I as a teen. For me, the Cappuccino Kid combined Modish sensibilities (um, he mentioned sta-prest a couple of times!) with what I perceived to be a Beat outlet (writing poetry while sipping espresso).

I'm not that young kid anymore... but I'm sure there are many young people out there, today, digging on Beat literature as if they were the first to discover it. And they may be the type of kids who would still get a kick out of the Cappuccino Kid.

For me, things are different now. I still dig Beat writers and all, but I haven't read them in years. I now live a block away from a Caffe Trieste in my neighborhood, and as much as I enjoy having breakfast there with my wife, it's nothing like what I envisioned as a teen. Instead of struggling writers counting up change for a cup of coffee, it's filled with yuppie couples and children running around eating their pastries. And these days, my work is about a 15 minute walk away from North Beach and sometimes I do walk up there in a suit and tie. Only I leave the books at home and skip drinking coffee at the original Caffe Trieste in favor of having cocktails or wine at Tosca Cafe, Vesuvio, and Specs.

5. Tracie
Yes, I'm going there.

I picked this record up based solely on the "Style Council-Related" sticker on the plastic sleeve. Tracie Young was the back-up vocalist on The Jam's 'Beat Surrender' and also provided back-up on The Style Council's first 45 ('Speak Like A Child') before moving on to a (short-lived) solo career produced by Paul Weller. The record above is totally silly and I totally dug it!

Now, I will admit that the #1 reason why I probably liked this song was because of Tracie's big, beautiful eyes. I didn't know any better and thought she was some Mod girl Paul Weller had found. (Granted, this was probably how Mod girls in the '80s, at least in LA, were dressing at the time.) There really wasn't anything 'mod' about her, but I didn't care. I was completely smitten. I'd have a crush on her up until seeing Tiffani-Amber Thiessen on Saved By the Bell my future wife outside a movie theater.

6. The Cover of 'Our Favorite Shop' 
The album cover to Our Favorite Shop is just fantastic: a hodgepodge of Modish memorabilia scattered throughout the shop while Paul and Mick loiter on. Sure, Paul's sporting a pretty 1980s haircut (same hair I'd have in my early new wave days) and Mick's wearing a 1940s-looking suit with white loafers, but for the most part, they look pretty slick. I mean, dig them creases on Weller's trousers.

But even more, dig everything in that shop! Ties, scarves, Al Green poster, Tamla Motown 45s, Kenny Burrell and Sly Stone LPs, Rave magazine with The Small Faces on the cover, '60s paperbacks to die for... I can keep writing, but I'd rather spend the time just absorbing this record cover. Oh yeah, and the LP's pretty good too. Except for maybe 'The Stand-Up Comics Instructions.'

7. Their 'Orange Album' Period Wasn't All THAT Bad
Yes, yes, you're cringing, I know it. The 'Cost of Loving' era of The Style Council, probably their most disliked. Oh, I get it. Trust me. These songs came out at a time when contemporary American R&B music was at its most over-produced and bland. I remember that music when I was a kid and I did NOT like it. Unfortunately, Paul Weller did like it at the time... a lot. So years later, when I first heard this album, I felt betrayed by Paul Weller and The Style Council (even though this album was already several years old by that point).

But I have been giving it another listen lately. No, I still don't love it, but I also don't hate it. As far as pop songs go, especially for that time period, some stuff on there isn't that bad. For instance, 'Cost of Loving' and 'Heavens Above' are pretty good songs overall. (I know, I know.) It's just all that '80s technology that gets in the way. (Full disclosure: my mom used to always play Anita Baker around the house when I was a kid and I grew to love it, which may be why I've learned to accept some of these songs.) And one of my all-time favorite TSC songs, 'Wanted,' is from this time period. Maybe it's because it sounds lifted from The Isley Brothers' 'Who's That Lady', but I've always really liked that song. Compare for yourselves:

Y'know, I'm really surprised that after all these years, some Mod band hasn't taken up the challenge of re-interpreting The Style Council's The Cost of Loving. Or imagine if one of these new soul bands actually re-did this as a real soul album? Hey, if J.J. Abrams can 're-imagine' Star Trek and  Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings can re-work Janet Jackson's 'What Have You Done For Me Lately,' then somebody can show people how good this album could be without all those synthesizers and programmed drum beats!

God, maybe I am getting old. I just wrote some positive words about The Cost of Loving.

8. Strong Political Stances
I was a naive little kid spending the 1980s worrying more about what kind of damage my little brother could do to my Transformers collection than I did about what kind of damage Reagan and Thatcher were doing to the world. But hey, childhood! Paul Weller & Co., however, were at that perfect age to see what was going on with the world and to try doing something about it.

You may not have agreed with their more leftist viewpoints, but you have to give them credit for trying to get their ideas across through the power of pop (not rock) music. Seriously, how many dance songs do you know of with lines like:

Are you gonna get to realise

The class war's real and not mythologized 
(From 'Walls Come Tumbling Down')

Sure, many of their political songs are dated these days. Things are different today than they were 25 years ago (better or worse is up to your own interpretation). And yes, they should have followed Bob Dylan's habit of keeping political songs universal instead of specific to the times. But y'know what? As much as I love Dylan, I just can't dance the same way to 'Masters of War' as I can to 'Walls Come Tumbling Down.'

(Plus, I gotta give The Style Council credit for opening my eyes to one of the French Revolution's most notorious figures, Jean-Paul Marat, thanks to his famous 'flick of the finger' speech on the back of the Café Bleu LP. I wish more pop bands assumed they had a more literate audience.)

9. Simon Halfon's Designs
What The Style Council lacked in consistent sounds they made up for in consistent design, thanks to their graphic designer, Simon Halfon. Influenced by Blue Note's Reid Miles's use of sans serif type and monochromatic images, Halfon created a great Modernist identity for the band early on. Even as the band morphed away, stylistically, from a Modernist look into more contemporary fashion styles, Halfon kept the look of their albums, singles, and posters pretty consistent, while still moving his own style forward. He kept things clean and modern with limited color palettes, sparse imagery, and the aforementioned sans serif fonts.

10. Good or Bad, They Moved Forward
Love them or hate them, you have to admit that they did try to progress musically. Starting off as late-'50s-looking Modernists trying to capture a jazzier sound, they ended in t-shirts and neon shorts playing contemporary pop music... in about 4 years. That's a pretty huge progression in any pop band's life. Take a look at how most 1960s bands shifted from an R'n'B sound and look to psychedelia in the about the same amount of time. These days, most bands don't really change all that much. The Pearl Jam of today is probably the same Pearl Jam of 20 years ago, only with less hair. The Style Council of 1983 was a vastly different band than The Style Council of 1987.

Again, the direction they moved into might not be your cup of tea (I'm mixed), but they took that risk. That's pretty ballsy in my book. Unfortunately, they were a product of the technology and music trends of their time. Drum machines, bass synths, and the influence of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis production techniques took them in an area I still haven't grown to fully accept yet. But I give them credit for being brave enough to try it. Moving forward was a great idea in theory. Too bad they were just a victim of the times. (By the way, NOT moving forward isn't a bad thing either. Some bands find a sound that works for them and just spend their career improving upon it with great results, i.e., the Daptone bands, Nick Lowe, Nicola Conte, etc.)

And, let me say now that, NO, there's nothing necessarily 'mod' about moving forward. I know people out there may think that by virtue of changing with the times they were, in fact, being 'mod' or living 'modernist' ideals to the fullest, but I disagree. Just because what they were doing was modern for the time does NOT necessarily mean it was 'mod'. Remember, 'mod' was never short for 'modern'. (Heck, if that was the case, everything modern today would be 'mod.')

That said, The Style Council's choice to build upon their sound and change with the times or move forward was not necessarily a bad thing for them. You and I may not have been into it, but for them, it was all growth. And from what I've been reading, Paul Weller's still growing.

And ain't nothin' really wrong with that.

[For further Style Council readings, try these links:
1. Wholepoint Publications for all your Style Council needs.
2. The Anorak Thing's experiences with The Style Council, Part 1 & Part 2 (A counterpoint to this post that is very well written and super funny!)
3. The It Sparkles blog with some fantastic scans of TSC memorabilia.]

Style Council-era Paul Weller, walking away from the ugly look of parkas and (ugh) boxing boots. Unfortunately, the slicked-back hair and highwatered, cuffed pants aren't much better. (Thom Browne must have loved this look, though.)

Discovering The Jam

So last week, I spent an unhealthy amount of time talking about how The Smiths played an important role in my my early adolescent identity and how that indirectly led me to the Mod thing. I figure I should probably follow that up with how I discovered the band that would replace The Smiths at that stage in my  life.

In the 8th grade, after I was put on the correct path towards Modtopia (a story for a future blog post), what little I knew about Mods was all I talked about to anyone who would listen. (And as you can tell, things haven't changed since.) I felt like I had discovered something that NO ONE else in the world knew about... well, at least no one at Giano Intermediate School.

So imagine my surprise when, after blathering on and on about how Mods wore army jackets before punks to this kid in home room, he responded that his older brother was a Mod! At first, I thought that this guy was completely lost on what I was talking about. How could his older brother be a Mod? They were extinct as far as I knew. Then, he went on to tell me that his older brother was even fan of a band called The Jam. THE JAM?? Now I knew this kid was mixed up!

Now, let's journey back to the late '80s when this conversation took place. Ahh... the late '80s, a time when guys wanted the Richard Marx hairstyle, 'bad' still meant 'good', and this song was a hit:

In addition to this song, the term 'jam' could also be used in the following contexts: "Hey man, I wanna mack on those girls. Let's jam!" and "Have you heard the new Pebbles song, Mercedes Boy? That jam is bad!" Also, Lisa Lisa and the Cult JAM were HUGE. So, this kid talking about his alleged Mod older brother who liked a band called The Jam just didn't sit right with me.

The following week, this same kid showed up in his older brother's red sweatshirt with the following logo in puffy white lettering:

How on earth could this 'tagged' logo be 'Mod'? I just didn't buy it. This guy just did not know what he was talking about... The 'Jam' being Mod? Pssh! (Now, you want to know the sad fate of this Jam sweatshirt? The kid ended up CUTTING THE SLEEVES OFF and using it as a P.E./gym shirt!)

The next time I came across The Jam was almost a year later, when I was a freshman in high school. I was record shopping at Aron's Records on Melrose, when I came across The Jam's This is the Modern World LP.

I was still very skeptical about this band so I had to study the record a bit. Let's see... they weren't wearing suits... but one of the guys did have a pin of The Who on his sweater. Hmm... the album was called This is the Modern World... hmm... no graffiti art on the cover... then I turned the record over and oh my god they were actually wearing suits just like the Mods used to!

So, I bought it, along with my first Specials LP and first Madness LP (but I'll save those for a future ska post) and brought it to my grandmother's where I was staying. Early in the 9th grade, I still associated Mod music with a more punky/new wave sound, so when I heard those first chords and Paul Weller shouting, "THIS IS THE MAW-UN WOOLD," I was sold!

My First 'Mod' Suit

We all had to start somewhere.

Friends, I know what you're thinking, but no, no, no,  I wasn't born with a pair of cufflinks in my mouth. In fact, it was actually pretty late in the game (in my eyes) before I even got my first suit. And no, this doesn't count:

Don't worry kid, you'll be diggin' it in about 12 years.

My first steps down the ol' Mod trail were difficult as I did not have the benefit of a sibling guiding my path, a group of friends already way into this, or knowledge of any fanzines dedicate to the culture. All I had was a vague, basic description of Mod style that my dad shared with me: thin ties, parkas to protect their suits, and scooters. 

Out of these three things, what stuck with me most was the thin ties. For me, that became the defining factor of what separated a Mod from the regular guy on the street in the late 1980s... a time of wide, obnoxious, Ralph Lauren ties. So, for the next couple of years, that was what I noticed in the photos I hunted down. And early on, the main photos I had to go on were from a couple of Jam records, a picture of The Who, one Specials LP, and one Madness LP. Yes, these were all a part of my first fashion inspiration.



At this time in my life, around the age of 15, my dad had just turned me on to the idea of shopping at thrift stores for clothes. Prior to this, my wardrobe had just shifted from Bugle Boy sweaters and pants to Smiths t-shirts and, well, Bugle Boy pants. See, I was never one of these guys who came to school one day sharing a love of '80s alternative music and the next day transformed, overnight, into Mod guy(!). I saw people at school pull similar transformations, like switching overnight from Depeche Mode t-shirts to flight jackets covered in ska pins or showing up on a Monday in new, pre-Hot Topic goth wear after spending the last several months in Esprit labels. No, an immediate shift in style like that and I risked being labeled, *gulp*, a poseur. 

No, wouldn't want anyone to think I was a poseur or anything.

My switch from new-wave-KROQ kid to Who-patch-covered-parka kid was a long, deliberate process. I felt I had to first get the music down before jumping into the clothing. Plus, other than thin ties and suits, I still didn't know much about the clothing. I had yet to see Quadrophenia or read the Richard Barnes Mods book. But, those Jam, Specials, and Madness albums gave me a clue. (Note, I didn't mention my Who LP... Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy was not the path I was leaning toward.)

So, one day, I went on a thrift store trip with my dad, grandma, and aunt. I went straight for the suit section and started hunting for my first Mod suit. And boy, did I find it! A two-piece, B&W, houndstooth number... just like the one I could swear Paul Weller or the Specials would wear! I ran to my dad, "Look, a Mod suit!" Yes, it was slightly large on me and, yes, I'd either have to get it tailored to fit or else grow another inch, but still, this suit was totally Mod! All that was missing was the thin tie. 

We got back and I hung the suit up so I could study it. I opened up my Jam LP and tried to compare the two looks I saw.

Okay, so something wasn't quite right... I thought it was the shoulders maybe. Paul Weller's suit shoulders weren't as big as the shoulders on my suit. That had to be it. (As you can tell, at this stage in my life, my Mod attention-to-detail Spider-sense still wasn't quite yet honed.) My dad just looked at the suit and made a face... he knew something I didn't. 

Later that day, his friend came over for a visit. My dad pointed out my suit to him and said, "Hey, the kid thinks this is a Mod suit." His friend looked it up and down and said, "Naw, man, the lapels are too wide." I looked again... that was it! He was right! The lapels on my jacket were HUGE compared to Paul's!

Yup, imagine this in black and white.

I never wore this suit. After experiencing my first failed attempt at a Mod suit, I put this in the back of my grandmother's closet and didn't think about it again until fairly recently. But I learned something important that day... it wasn't just thin ties that made, what I considered then, a Mod look. It was also thin lapels. 

About a year later, my buddies and I were off to our first actual Mod show. Unfortunately, I still didn't have a suit yet that fit me. One of my friends, kind as he was, brought over a jacket to lend me from his older brother's closet. I took a look and thought, yeah, the lapels seemed to be a little thinner. But I wondered... what could I do to make them even thinner? Oh my god, I got it! I asked another friend to add a THIRD button to the jacket which would raise the cut and thin the lapels out perfectly. So, my friend sewed the button in... as in sewed the button straight through both sides of the jacket without a button hole so that I had to pull it over my head to wear it! But it didn't matter.... this, my friends, actually looked like something Paul Weller would wear! I was ready for my first Mod show.

And it started a love of 3-button suit jackets from that day forward.

The Mod Target

Yeah, I get down on the Mod target a lot, as seen here and there. It's not at all that I don't dig it, really, but it's just so over-used as a Mod image. It's as if putting a target on anything makes that thing 'MOD!' I just don't buy it. Plus, in my eyes, only one guy has really ever made the target look slick:

My fave image of the Mod target as clothing on Keith Moon.

As seen above, the target as a design motif can be pretty cool. The Parka Avenue blog has a nice write-up on the target-as-Mod-icon worth checking out: http://parkaavenue.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html. For me, though, the standard blue/white/red target has been done to death.

However, over the years, I've always appreciated the attempts at either creating variations on the ol' blue/white/red image or coming up with something new altogether. For instance, as a teen, I thought this was amazing and oh my god why didn't anyone think of doing this earlier:

It's like the standard Mod target, but something's just a little off...what could it be...?

Wow! By reversing the colors, I was blown away by the look. (Hey, as a teen I was easily impressed, so lay off.)

I was also really taken, at the time, with the color contrast of this, my ol' Squire pin:

Back when I used to walk the streets thinking it was a Mod, Mod world.

Such a simple, great design that can really work well with other color schemes. In fact, the Anorak Thing blog had a great post a while back on the varying Air Force roundels that have influenced many a Mod badge: http://anorakthing.blogspot.com/2011/06/bullseye.html.

But why limit it to just 3 colors? During my last year of high school, I saw the Mod target taken to a new, cool level with this record sleeve:

Oh yeah... bringin' back memories of senior year in high school!

I loved the liberty taken with the old Mod icon on this sleeve... and no, I'm not talking about Paul Weller and his love beads. Adding in an extra ring along with the green and yellow colors made the the target seem new again. After this, why go back to the standard?

Today, with so many awesome graphic designers out there, the target can be an excellent tool or jumping-off point for nice designs. Saw this recently for an all-dayer thing that recently occurred:

I just like how they built the imagery over a usually stale target.

 Some time ago, this guy I know tried to take the target and build it up with slightly psychedelic paisleys for a club night. Don't know if it was successful or not:

And no, I didn't swipe the idea from Ben Sherman... in fact, didn't see their version until a month later!

Back in high school, I would spend so much time trying to research anything Mod and, thanks to The Who, anything pop-art. That's how I came across Jasper Johns, the guy I thought responsible for the target imagery in the first place:

Jasper Johns, age 29. For more info, click here.

I'm horrible because I used to cut images of his paintings out of books to hang up on my wall... one of many things I'll have to answer for come Judgment Day.

Now, oddly enough, there was another pop artist around this time playing with targets: Sir Peter Blake.

Self-Portrait with Badges  1961 - This must be where the idea to cover up your jacket in badges came from!

Peter Blake is an interesting guy, especially when it comes to Mod iconography, such as his painting of... you guessed it:

The First Real Target, 1961

Most famous (I think) for his design of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP, Blake has also gone on to design record sleeves for The Who (Face Dances), Band-Aid (Do They Know It's Christmas?), and Paul Weller... and what's that I see on the sleeve:

That's a pretty awesome cover, you gotta admit.

According to interviews, Sir Peter Blake refers to himself as a 'lifelong Mod' and has recently teamed up with Fred Perry to offer a limited range of shirts taking cues from his art style:

Interested in what this is about? Look no further than here.

And the amazing ModCulture website posted a very recent interview with Sir Peter Blake that's worth checking out for his take on pop-art and the Mod thing: http://www.modculture.info/2011/08/video-sir-peter-blake-interviewed.html

The target can be a great visual tool in design, but overall, I'm just a little burnt-out on its use to identify anything as Mod. These days, you won't find any targets on me. Not on my suits, not on my coats, not on my shirts. My target days are behind me because I think that at my age, I shouldn't need to brandish a target to let anyone know what I'm all about. Too easy.

Now excuse me, I've got some shopping to do: