The Jam song that Paul Weller labelled “a piss-take”
Paul Weller and The Jam have something of a complicated relationship with the idea of social class and hierarchy. On one hand, the trio rose out of the working-class town of Woking, but on the other, they soon became synonymous with the middle-class art school atmosphere of the early punk rock scene. Nevertheless, the idea of class struggle permeated through much of Weller’s early songwriting, particularly on tracks like ‘Eton Rifles’ and, perhaps most obviously, ‘Man in the Corner Shop’.
Released on The Jam’s penultimate studio album, Sound Affects, in 1980, ‘Man in the Corner Shop’ is often overlooked within The Jam’s discography. That probably comes as no surprise; any track on the same album as iconic songs like ‘That’s Entertainment’ or ‘Start!’ is inevitably going to fade into the background a little bit. Nevertheless, the song is well worth revisiting, as it is perhaps Weller’s greatest deep dive into the ridiculousness of the class system in England.
Lyrically, the song focuses on – no prizes for guessing – a man working in a corner shop. Within the track, a factory worker is jealous of the corner shop owner, “Says it must be nice to be your own boss, really,” meanwhile, the corner shop owner is jealous of the factory owner who comes in to buy cigars, “Says it might be nice to own a factory”. Weller then goes on to make a Blakeian point about how, in the eyes of the church, all these men are equal despite their obvious social and economic disparities.
“It keeps coming back to the man in the corner shop,” the Modfather explained in The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters, “the person underneath who’s jealous because he thinks he’s making all the money, but the man in the corner shop’s struggling and the boss in the factory also gets his cigarettes from the corner shop”. The track holds a mirror up to the absurd concept of class hierarchy in England, inspiring feelings of class consciousness within the minds of the listener.
Weller himself has argued as much, once saying of ‘Man in the Corner Shop’, “The whole song is a comment or piss-take, whatever way you look at it, me being flippant about the class system”. In some ways, Weller is underselling his songwriting talent here. The song is not a flippant criticism of the class system; it is a profound analysis of British society and how the subject of class is so deeply ingrained within everyday life.
‘Man in the Corner Shop’ is a revolutionary anthem that should be hailed among The Jam’s greatest moments in songwriting. It might not have the same punk impact as songs like ‘Eton Rifles’ or ‘Going Underground’, but it is virtually unmatched when it comes to its simplicity and profound nature.
Of course, ‘Man in the Corner Shop’ was not Weller’s first flirt with Blakeian revolutionary tendencies, nor would it be his last. Even after The Jam disbanded in 1982, Weller would continue his calls for class consciousness and uprising, most notably on The Style Council’s seminal hit ‘Walls Come Tumbling Down’. The topic of class has provided rock inspiration for countless artists, but few have dealt with it as tactfully as Weller.
