Pure Punk Picks
This Is The Modern World – The Jam
I was never a huge fan of The Jam, though I’m fairly tall and hung like a mouse. And I’m probably still not a huge fan, though fairly mousy.
But I do remember how big they were in England, though, unaware of their penis sizes. But I do know that during the early days of punk they were as popular as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned and The Stranglers.
But I also was never a huge/hung fan of The Who that, obviously, influenced this band a lot.
I never even bought an album by The Jam and they’re one of the few bands, who were either punk or new wave at the time, that I can say this about.
Now, I think they had several wonderful songs though, I still haven’t checked out any of their complete albums.
But one song hit strong and true with me then and still does- “This Is The Modern World.”
“All my life it’s been the same. I’ve learnt to live by hate and pain…I’ve learnt more than you’ll ever know. The teachers who said I’d be nothing.”
“This is the modern world that I’ve learned about…Hey, we don’t need no need no one to tell us right from wrong.”
These are the words of a new generation determining its own course, its own rules, its own values- making their own decisions, their own minds up- musically, culturally and philosophically.
Following these words we head to the chorus where three chords blast out in three beats followed by an empty space while these words are defiantly spat out- “This is the modern world.”
And then repeated again for emphasis.
This is one of those moments where I first experienced a feeling that the old musical past was being swept away and I was witnessing a new form arriving. The past was being negated and all that had been played in the past, all that had been said in the past, now must step aside. For a new music with a new style and new words, reflecting a new world because again, as this song proclaims- this is the modern world.
One that will soon set my ears on fire, make my head spin and flip my mind for a loop, while sending punk music on a desperate, exciting joyride that still hasn’t ended- at least for me.
This song is not so much revolutionary, demolishing all of what was before, but more so a sign of what will follow. There is passion and power and spirit in this tune that hits you like a lightning bolt smack between your eyes, while heading straight towards your heart, crashing hard.
“Say what you like ’cause I don’t care. I know where I’m going to. It’s somewhere I won’t preview. Don’t have to explain myself to you. I don’t give two fucks (a damn, in the original radio release) about your review.”
As a music reviewer I love that last line. As I believe one’s personal opinion- such as mine- is not greater than yours or any other. Music and any kind of art is totally subjective and I claim no authority.
I believe in what a write but I don’t expect anyone else to give any unlimited fucks of my opinions.
And there’s no need to reach back, over forty years ago, to find punk music so exciting and inspiring as this song was to me at that time. As the urgency and vibrancy of early punk music still enters my ears and mind with many bands that are brand new today.
But say what you like ’cause I don’t care. I will still say this song is as real and relevant and great as when I first heard it, long ago and still now- in the modern world…’cause-
This is the modern world.
This is the modern world.
This is the modern world.
(Slimedog)
