THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

59-Jam-Town Called Malice.

1982-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 1.59. When Roland Orzabel of Tears For Fears (see also best songs 640 and 24) wrote,’Politician granny with your high ideals have you know idea how the majority feels? So without love and a promised land, we’re fools to the rules of a government plan,’ I reckon he was probably thinking about Paul Weller, and this song.

Many of the Paul Weller songs that he wrote for the Jam reflected his anger with the political landscape at that time, so what was his reaction when the ex Conservative party Prime Minister, David Cameron told the Guardian newspaper that he had attended Jam gigs in the 1980’s, and that ‘The music of the Jam meant a lot.’ Weller said,’I’d have been really, really surprised. I think I pretty much nailed where I was at to the mast, but people come to gigs for different reasons, it isn’t necessarily about what the person on stage is singing, but at the same time, you do think, ‘Well, maybe this’ll change their minds.”

Paul Weller was born John William Weller on May 25th, 1958, in Woking, England, He was the principal figure of the 1970’s, and 1980’s ‘Mod’ revival, and is often referred to as ‘The Modfather,’ and he was also a major influence on the rise of ‘Britpop’ in the mid 1990’s. In 1972 Paul Weller was one of the founding members of the Jam, and they remained active until Weller announced he was leaving the group in 1982 while they were still at the height of their success, in order to explore other music genres as a solo artist and also with others. The discography of the Jam (see also best songs 670 and 94) includes six studio Albums released between 1977-1982, and 18 singles issued in the same time period. In the UK all 18 of those singles reached the top 40, with four of them making Number 1, while in America the Jam never managed to reach the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, with the explanation probably being that they were quintessentially too English for an American audience. For the discography of Paul Weller away from the Jam (see best songs 94.)

‘Town Called Malice’ was the first of two singles released from the Jam’s sixth and final studio Album ‘The Gift’ from March 1982, the song was written by Paul Weller, and produced by Peter Wilson, and the Jam.’The song was released as a double ‘A’ side together with another track from ‘The Gift’ called ‘Precious,’ Although ‘Precious’ was largely ignored when it came to airplay, the Jam did perform the track on the British music programme ‘Top of the Pops’ along with ‘Town Called Malice,’ making them the first act since the Beatles (‘Day Tripper,’ and ‘We Can Work it Out’) to perform both tracks from the same single on the same programme.

‘Town Called Malice’ is a play on words of the 1950 Nevil Shute (1899-1960) novel ‘A Town Like Alice,’ but the song has nothing to do with the book, in fact Weller has said that he hadn’t read the novel when he wrote this song. ‘Town Called Malice’ is about unemployment in a working town, Weller has said,’It could have been written about any suburban town, but it was in fact written about my hometown of Woking.’The UK was more than three years into Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) being the Prime Minister, the country was in recession, and unemployment had passed the two and a half million mark.Weller also recalled,’I was trying to capture a sense of the anger that I felt that a lot of people felt about ‘Thatcherism’ and the way that she and the ‘Tory Party’ at that time were trying to dismantle the communities of the working classes.’

‘Town Called Malice’ has been described as a ‘Northern Soul,’ ‘Soul,’ Post Punk,’Rock,’ and ‘New Wave’ influenced song. As always I wouldn’t want to start any legal disputes, but if you take a listen to the 1966 ‘Motown’ song from Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, (see also best songs 948) called ‘I’m Ready for Love,’….it’s got a lovely bass guitar intro.

‘A whole street’s belief in Sunday’s roast beef gets dashed against the Co-op. To either cut down on beer or the kid’s new gear, it’s a big decision in a town called malice, ooh yeah.’