THE 50 GREATEST PAUL WELLER SONGS
KEEP ON PUSHING
A 20-PAGE CELEBRATION
“T
HE FIRST TIME I remember seeing and hearing The Jam was on the telly in 1979, performing The Eton Rifles. I was 12 years old. Paul looked cool as fuck. Ricky. Shades. I was in! Forty-five years later it’s STILL a fucking tune!
The amazing thing is that he’s never slacked off. I’m as big a Style Council fan as I am a fan of The Jam. One is just an extension of the other for me – the next stop on the journey. Then there was Red Wedge, where he learned – like I did – that there comes a point in the life of a working-class boy done good where the Labour Party WILL try to ingratiate themselves with you. But the line-ups at some of the gigs were great. Both he and Johnny Marr have told me of an amazing night in Newcastle where The Style Council and The Smiths shared the stage. Imagine that?!?!
The solo career has been one brilliant surprise after another. Me and our kid went to see him at Manchester Academy in 1992. Paul had been out of the game for what seemed like years – we were there out of blind faith. At some point during the gig he says: “Here’s summink new for ya” and played Into Tomorrow. We’d never heard it before. He was back!
PLUS!“WHAT A FUCKING CAREER, MAN!”
An all-new Paul Weller interview. Songwriting secrets, a Quincy Jones encounter and more.
FACES & NUMBERS:John Aizlewood, Martin Aston, Chris Catchpole, Stevie Chick, Andy Cowan, Bill DeMain, Dave DiMartino, Tom Doyle, Danny Eccleston, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Pat Gilbert, John Harris, Ian Harrison, David Hutcheon, Andrew Male, James McNair, John Mulvey, Andrew Perry, Mat Snow, Roy Wilkinson, Lois Wilson, Stephen Worthy
INTERVIEWS BY:John Harris (Mick Talbot) & Danny Eccleston
And there was loads more to come. Wild Wood was and is and always will be one of THE great tunes of my lifetime. It never ages. It’s a song that every songwriter dreams of writing. White Horses off True Meanings blew me away when he sent it to me on some blank faceless CD one morning. He belled me about 12 hours later and said, “What d’you think?” I made that noise you make when you puff out your cheeks. “What’s that supposed to fackin’ mean?” he said.
What have I learned from him? As a songwriter, that you never ever stop learning. The people who are coming up behind you can teach you so much and you should never stop listening. As a musician? Not much, to be honest, as I’m not much of a musician and he’s a virtuoso. He’s so far ahead of me it’s a fucking joke. And as a man? That I should probably at some point give up the booze!”
Illustration by Del Gentleman, Getty, Matt Crockett
NOEL GALLAGHER
50
TREES
(Paul Weller, Wake Up The Nation, 2010)
Weller’s Recherche Du Temps Perdu.
An album dedicated to Weller’s recently deceased father and longtime manager, John, was always destined to grapple with mortality and nowhere more so than on Trees, where an elderly couple separately celebrate their lascivious pasts. There’s swing, swagger, plinksome piano and punk guitar, but they’re all undermined by the grim realisation of physical and cerebral decline. Inspired by Weller’s hospice visits to his father, he kept it in the family by inviting his cousin, Mark Boxall, to contribute guitar.
JA
49
SONG FOR ALICE
(Paul Weller, 22 Dreams, 2008)
The spiritual jazz awakening, done and dusted in 3:38.
For all his bona fides as a jazz connoisseur, Weller has recorded little actual jazz, 1984’s bop instrumental Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse being something of a false start. The experimental safe space of 22 Dreams, however, nurtured this sweetly transparent Alice Coltrane tribute. The harp glissandos could’ve floated straight off Journey In Satchidananda, and there’s an interlude with Robert Wyatt on trumpet, too. Yet, for all the ethereal trappings, Song For Alice rhythmically pounds along: a muscular, no-nonsense, spiritual realignment within Weller’s own galaxy.
JM
48
I WOKE UP
(Paul Weller, 66, 2024)
Still got it.
On an album of cowrites, this was all Weller’s own work: a haunting premonition of a future bereft of friends, purpose, possibly sense itself; a portrait of alienation all the more profound for its profound gentleness. Original Jam guitarist Steve Brookes adds acoustic guitar embroidery, arranger Hannah Peel subtly affecting strings, collaborators from both ends of Weller’s career lending a poignant symmetry. Anyone wondering if Weller could possibly have any more great musical ideas, check the ascent in the bridge on the word “shoes”.
DE
47
RUNNING ON THE SPOT
(The Jam, The Gift, 1982)
The lyrics verge on requiem. The music says reveille.
Arriving on The Jam’s last studio album: a fascinating weld of euphoric music and elegiac words, the latter arguably applying to society, a love affair or a band about to end. Running On The Spot’s Northern soul whomp aligns with the Motown feel elsewhere on The Gift, but the descending chords and sweetly siren-like guitar hook take it elsewhere. Sleaford Mods sampled the intro count-in on 2007 track R&B Paul. Pointed invocation of Mr Weller?
RW
From Chuck Berry to66with OG Jam guitaristSTEVE BROOKES.
We met at Shearwater school in Woking. He was always a bit apart from the crowd – he had a sort of ‘cool’ vibe going on even then. I’d mentioned to him that I was getting a guitar for Christmas and he said, “Oh, I’ve already got one – an electric. We should hook up.” It was probably within six months of learning three chords that we started writing songs. Probably the best of them were inspired by The Beatles, early Beatles, and their influences – Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry – were our influences too.
A turning point for Paul was seeing Dr. Feelgood on this Saturday morning TV music show. That’s where we started seeing music a bit differently. The Jam went on to be great, but personally, I think his solo albums are the most exciting and interesting work that he’s done. I love Time Passes… onStanley Road– it’s such a special, poignant song. But I also love the rockers that he does. You know, Peacock Suit is just such a ‘cock out’ song!
I’ve been on a few songs since22 Dreams. You can hear my Spanish guitar on One Bright Star – if you listen very carefully! And I play slide on In The Car onSaturns Pattern. He said he wanted something gritty – it’s pretty edgy, that track, innit? More recently I was on Mayfly [True Meanings] and Baptiste [On Sunset] and I Woke Up [66]. But he doesn’t call me in out of sentiment.
It’s a serious business, and you’ve got to deliver.
46
IT JUST CAME TO PIECES IN MY HANDS
(The Style Council, B-side, 1983)
A fallen/false idol speaks…
The Style Council moved fast. Issued within 12 months of Beat Surrender, Weller used A Solid Bond In Your Heart’s B-side to consider, perhaps, the hollowness of his former lauded status in The Jam. Backed by a single electric guitar, bass and soulful backing vocals, he didn’t mince words or hold back on self-abasement, donning robes of youthful arrogance and selfdelusion, the so-called voice of a generation no more than a “shit-stained statue” after his fall from grace. See also: Stanley Road’s Porcelain Gods.
AC
45
TALES FROM THE RIVERBANK
(The Jam, B-side, 1981)
A psychedelic trip into his past – and future.
Inspired by Arthurian adventures to the West Country and psychedelic remembrances of childhood, on this B-side-that-beats-the-A-side (Absolute Beginners) Weller turned his gaze away from England’s troubled towns and cities towards the Surrey countryside of his youth. Through a dreamy haze of images – pastel fields, water meadows, still waters – he finds a powerful connection with his past; and in doing so creates his own bewitching Strawberry Fields Forever. A decade later he would be back here again, of course, for his first solo album.
PG
44
A MAN OF GREAT PROMISE
(The Style Council, Our Favourite Shop, 1985)
More grit in the Style Council pearl.
The Council’s brantub second album split MOJO’s voters – Come To Milton Keynes, Down In The Seine and The Lodgers all enjoyed support. Yet A Man Of Great Promise is its most durable and flexible fruit, Weller’s eulogy to early-Jam compadre, wannabe bohemian and junky Dave Waller deceptively jaunty with a potent undertow of regret, with guitars and keys that peal, echoing the church bells in the intro. Sporadically returned to live, as if in repayment of a debt, or as a warning to self.
DE
43
HAS MY FIRE REALLY GONE OUT?
(Paul Weller,
Wild Wood
,
1993)
One-word answer: No.
After 10 years of critical drubbings, Weller returned to something resembling Jam-era fury in this flame-eyed riposte to his detractors. “A lot of words but no-one talking/…Something real is what I’m seeking,” he spits, his rasp in the refrain’s “fire” and the escalating bridge conveying untetherable urgency. This was the Modfather working himself up into a lather for all of our benefits, much referenced in Wild Wood reviews as a signifier of his artistic rebirth. Rarely has a question seemed more rhetorical.