The reason Rick Buckler was most proud of The Jam: “We always had the core of what The Jam was”
No artist can shape their own legacy at will. While they may write the songs and choose what the public hears, there’s only so far they can go before obstacles emerge. The Jam may have burned bright for only a few years before bowing out, but for Rick Buckler, their catalogue stood as proof of a legacy worth celebrating.
When the band first started out, they were already slightly ahead of the curve. The punk scene was about burning the past to the ground, but Weller and Co knew the ash they had risen from. In The City may not have been all that different from similar punk outings happening at the time, but looking at their covers of songs like ‘Slow Down’ and the way that all of them interacted onstage, there was clearly a wink and a nod to the rock and roll of days gone by that no one picked up on at first.
Even when some of the albums didn’t hit nearly as hard, each of them had their own specific sonic identity. This is the Modern World might exist in fans’ minds the same way that Give Em Enough Rope does for Clash fans, but there was always an impressive knack for songwriting going through their later records like All Mod Cons and Sound Effects.
A lot of the diversity came down to the way that Buckler played the drums. He had his trademark punk rock stamina, but the majority of his best moments came from him playing the drums the same way that Ringo Starr would have in the 1960s, always serving the song and knowing when there wasn’t any need for anything extravagant on tunes like ‘That’s Entertainment.‘
Aside from predating the Britpop movement by a few years, though, there was even more versatility in the music they played. Sure, there music was indebted to the classics, but the way Buckler switched up his rhythm always kept audiences on their toes. He may have been aggressive in songs like ‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight,’ but then there is the soul beat on ‘A Town Called Malice’ which was enough for people to dance to.
When looking back on his history, Buckler said it was that versatility that made him proud to be in the band, saying, “We were very proud of the fact that not one album is the same as any other album. You do get a lot of bands that do that they sort of get themselves, it’s like a trench. That’s fine if that’s what you want to do. But I think bands should come out of their comfort zone, they should explore their extremes. There were some songs that we did that were a little bit questionable, really. But we always had the core of what The Jam was about, to fall back on.”
And that’s the kind of music that his bandmates excelled at as well. Despite wanting to leave The Jam behind once the 1980s officially kicked in, Weller has spent the majority of his solo career continuing to deliver on that promise, always putting in tunes that were a bit offbeat but no less adventurous than before.
Because that was always the greatest strength of any band willing to push the envelope a bit. Anyone could try to find their sound and develop it over time, but it takes courage and a real sense of professionalism to make something that isn’t normal but still manages to work all the same.
