"Which part of it didn't he get? It wasn't intended as a jolly drinking song for the cadet corps."
That was Paul Weller's reply when told that David Cameron has said one of his favourite songs was class conflict anthem Eton Rifles. The song was written by Weller following reports of the Right To Work marchers coming off the worst in a scrap against a bunch of obnoxious Etonians who'd spent the previous few hours jeering them as they protested. The marchers thought they could take on a bunch of "posh schoolboys" but they came off bloodied and beaten, after all "all that rugby puts hairs on your chest, what chance have you got against a tie and a crest". You do have to wonder whether Cameron actually ever listened to the lyrics, particularly "I'd prefer the plague to the Eton Rifles". Anyway...
The fourth album by the Woking's finest sons, Weller, Foxton and Butler was initially intended as a concept album but never fully realised. The suggestion is four of the songs have a narrative that follows three young lads as the go away to an unspecified war, reuniting afterwards as grown men to discover they've grown apart and are "no longer as thick as thieves". The likely tracks are 'Thick as Thieves' (obviously!), 'Wastelands', 'Little Boy Soldiers' and 'Burning Sky'. The album cover and name seems to bear this out. In the rush to get a new album out in 1979 the concept was abandoned and the band pulled together what they could.
SETTING SONS only features ten tracks and that includes a cover version of northern soul classic 'Heatwave', and a former B-side. 'Smithers-Jones' had previous appeared on the flip of the single 'When We're Young' as a typical Jam rocker. Here it's largely stripped of guitars and led by a simple string arrangement. It gives the beautifully observed lyrics about a suburban businessman walking into his redundancy further poignancy. It's a lovely moment of respite from all the moddish guitars and is similar in tone to The Beatles 'She's Leaving Home' or something from the The Kinks. It's certainly bassist Bruce Foxton's finest three-minutes of songwriting.
Although SETTING SONS is a bit of a jumble, due in large part to the fact it was rushed and the original concept aborted, it does prove that The Jam were much more than a 'singles band', a criticism they've often been labelled with.
'PRIVATE HELL'
'SMITHERS-JONES'
'ETON RIFLES'
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