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One of my favourite bands is The Jam – I’ve liked them ever since ‘A Town Called Malice’. I wasn’t even a teenager then and the song caught my attention straight away from either TOTP/BBC1 on a Thursday night or The Charts/Radio1 Sunday. It was just so flippin’ catchy!

After that, I would always pay attention to The Jam. And although it sounds twee as f… when I was beginning to think about starting this blog what word came into my head?

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“It doesn’t matter if we never meet again

What we get will always remain

If we get through for two minutes only

It will be a start!”

^{(From the 2nd Verse)}

‘Start!’ was the 11th single by The Jam and predates ‘Town Called Malice’. It’s a great tune by The Jam with uptight bass riff from Bruce Foxton and the agitated drumming from Rick Buckler really driving the music allowing singer/guitarist Paul Weller to punctuate throughout with sharp as a bayonet piercing guitar stabs. The vocals are delivered with trademark abruptness and walk a perfect tight rope between plain and disdain. But what does it all mean?

“It’s not important for you to know my name

Nor I to know yours

If we communicate for two minutes only

It will be enough

For knowing that someone in this world

Feels as desperate as me

And what you give is what you get!”

^{(From the 1st Verse)}

Mostly it appears the song is interpreted as a one night stand where in this instance, communication (talking) is not so important. But another interesting theory is that it relates to an account by George Orwell called ‘Homage to Catalonia’ concerning guerrillas/soldiers who travelled from around the world to take up arms against the fascists in the 1930s Spanish Civil War ^{(see http://www.wow-vinyl.com)}. I know Hitler used this war as essentially a training ground for the troops he was preparing to unleash on as much of the world as he could. So, it could be the song is about how for those travelling from all over the globe to oppose this growing force, language differences simply made no difference? It was the fight that united them. Facial recognition/expression together with sign language would more than suffice…

“It’s not important for you to know my name

Nor I to know yours

If we communicate for two minutes only

It will be enough”

… also, if no names are given none can be given up in the event of capture. More evidence of people travelling to oppose an enemy could be in the lines …

“For knowing that someone in this world

Feels as desperate as me”

… with final additional weight to the theory coming from these lines which complete the 2nd verse …

“For knowing the someone in this life

Loves with a passion called hate

and what you give is what you get”

I actually quite like that theory on what the song is about. It certainly fits with the social/political reasoning that is a big part of the makeup of the band. And if we consider the singles before and after ‘Start!’ are ‘Going Underground’ and ‘That’s Entertainment’ which are themselves loaded to the gunnels with gritty social/political commentary, would you really put between those two classics (which I am sure we will return to), a song about bonking? Fun as that might be it just doesn’t seem to fit?

But on the other hand, maybe that is just the case. Part of the attraction of the track and indeed so many others is that it is open to interpretation. That way a song can take on a life of its own as it means different things to different people. Different strokes, different folks etc!

I hope you have enjoyed my post and it’s given some food for thought? Please go on to enjoy the song as here it is … ‘Start!’ … by The Jam …