Great post! The Kinks' "Dead End Street" takes up similar themes. "Common People" is really a brilliant piece of work. I've used it in upper year seminar classes to get students to think about the experience of class. And I've done my own 'class in music' posts on the blog: https://poprockrecord.com/2019/11/19/and-now-for-something-surprisingly-musical-class/
That was really interesting. I look forward to eventually watching the movie. I was hoping Apple would have a Black Friday Special but apparently they didn't!
That's Entertainment is one of Paul Weller's finest songs.
The Jam is my all time favorite band and I consider Paul Weller one of the greatest songwriters currently living. Him and Ray Davies.
Of which genius says, "Beginning their debut album by singing about the British holdings of North Ireland during the contentious along with torture. It ends up also making commentating on the illusionary power of consumerism in what would be expected by Gang of Four’s Frankfurt School style of philosophy."
I don't listen to them much anymore, but there was a while when I would have argued strongly for _Entertainment_ as one of the greatest albums ever (I still think it's very good but my tastes have shifted enough that I don't know that I'd make that strong a claim anymore).
Excellent stuff. Thanks. So pleased to see Weller getting attention. I went through the same process when watching Blitz - having only seen Weller in concert a few weeks before, it still took me some time to get it. Weller was actually working class and his kitchen sink dramas rang true and authentic. Very different to the art school middle class pretenders (Blur/Pulp). The Jam were in some ways a rough and rowdy version of the Kinks. Ray Davies took the John Osborne play-write approach to music but scattered it with a great deal of humour. Authentic, and writing about the things that we were all familiar with.
Nice piece!
Thanks, man!
I’m the same way trying to watch a movie. My mind usually drifts off to something musical.
I'm so easily distracted these days...
Great post! The Kinks' "Dead End Street" takes up similar themes. "Common People" is really a brilliant piece of work. I've used it in upper year seminar classes to get students to think about the experience of class. And I've done my own 'class in music' posts on the blog: https://poprockrecord.com/2019/11/19/and-now-for-something-surprisingly-musical-class/
Thank you! I feel like that strain of guitar pop music really took off with The Kinks.
That was really interesting. I look forward to eventually watching the movie. I was hoping Apple would have a Black Friday Special but apparently they didn't!
That's Entertainment is one of Paul Weller's finest songs.
The Jam is my all time favorite band and I consider Paul Weller one of the greatest songwriters currently living. Him and Ray Davies.
This article greatly brightened my morning.
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you dug it. Joking aside, we really enjoyed the film.
You should watch more movies if we're going to get essays like this.
Ha! I almost didn't publish it for various weird reasons. Glad you dug it. Thanks for the kind words, as always.
That's a nice write-up. "That's Entertainment" is a great song, and not one I'd thought of recently.
When I saw the title I also thought of The Gang Of Four and their classic album _Entertainment_. For example, here's the first track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QinSfmJAjo&list=PLnopXb9fCtcm5NXn0zLotyxavsmyM3oP4&index=1
Of which genius says, "Beginning their debut album by singing about the British holdings of North Ireland during the contentious along with torture. It ends up also making commentating on the illusionary power of consumerism in what would be expected by Gang of Four’s Frankfurt School style of philosophy."
Hey, thanks! Love Gang Of Four.
I don't listen to them much anymore, but there was a while when I would have argued strongly for _Entertainment_ as one of the greatest albums ever (I still think it's very good but my tastes have shifted enough that I don't know that I'd make that strong a claim anymore).
Fantastic post about a masterpiece of a song...
Glad you dug it! And I agree...MASTERPIECE.
Excellent stuff. Thanks. So pleased to see Weller getting attention. I went through the same process when watching Blitz - having only seen Weller in concert a few weeks before, it still took me some time to get it. Weller was actually working class and his kitchen sink dramas rang true and authentic. Very different to the art school middle class pretenders (Blur/Pulp). The Jam were in some ways a rough and rowdy version of the Kinks. Ray Davies took the John Osborne play-write approach to music but scattered it with a great deal of humour. Authentic, and writing about the things that we were all familiar with.