That's Entertainment

Democracy Man, in an apposite comment on my "Why is the BBC so irritating" post, said "Remember, it's got to be entertainment, ya dummy". Actually he was more polite than that, but yes, indeed it is, or we wouldn't turn on at all.

However, it reminded me, as these things do, of one of my favourite songs, That's Entertainment. No, not the one from the 1952 MGM musical film The Band Wagon, the one  by The Jam. And it's not just me that likes it. The song wasn't released as a single when the album came out in 1980, but charted as an import. It remains the 2nd biggest selling import single ever, the biggest being another Jam song. Not sure if that statement has any meaning in the era of downloads, but there you are. It consistently makes similar British lists of all-time great songs, such as BBC Radio 2's Sold on Song 2004 Top 100, at No.43. Despite the very English lyric, it also slowly penetrated American consciousness, figuring at No.306 on the list of the 500 greatest songs of all time released by Rolling Stone in 2004.

I love the feel of the song,  which uses an almost entirely acoustic arrangement. The lyrics, which are mainly working class urban dystopian in flavour, are superb. For example:

"A smash of glass and the rumble of boots
An electric train and a ripped-up phone booth
Paint-splattered walls and the cry of a tomcat
Lights going out and a kick in the balls

I say that's entertainment
That's entertainment
La la la la la, ah
La la la la la, ah

Days of speed and slow-time Mondays
Pissing down with rain on a boring Wednesday
Watching the news and not eating your tea
A freezing cold flat with damp on the walls

I say that's entertainment
That's entertainment...."

But amongst all this grit there is one of the most remarkable lines I've ever heard in a song:

"Two lovers missing the tranquility of solitude"

I can't think of any other pop or rock song I know with either "tranquility" or "solitude" in the lyric, let alone both words in the same phrase.

Presciently, the long-defunct music paper Sounds ran a story about Weller titled "This is the modern poet", alluding to the Jam song "The Modern World" a good couple of years or so before "That's Entertainment" was released and before Weller's poetic style had fully emerged, though all the signs were there in Down In The Tube Station at Midnight, on 1978's All Mod Cons (good word play on Mod and Cons there by the way) which includes the line:

"The glazed, dirty steps repeat my own and reflect my thoughts".

Weller, of course, is one of the few musicians known widely just by his sobriquet - The Modfather. Excluding adopted names, like Joe Strummer, I'm struggling to think of many others who are widely recognised by their moniker, besides Bowie (The Thin White Duke) and Springsteen (The Boss). Oh, I suppose there's Louis Armstrong (Satchmo' - which I only learned comparatively recently is an abbreviation of 'satchel mouth'. Not sure that would run these days- unless he was a rapper!). If you can think of others, please remind me by leaving a comment below.

The thing I've only just fully realised about That's Entertainment is that there are several different recorded versions on release. The initially released version, recorded for the album Sound Affects has an electric guitar part played backwards a la Beatles over one of the verses, a hallmark of psychedelia and very evocative of 1960s British pop.

I'm sure I read, back in the day, that Weller wasn't entirely happy with that version, so for their compilation album Snap! he went back to his original demo, with his engineer adding some drums. A later box set version had the Jam bassist Foxton and drummer Buckler in their normal roles. But for his Hit Parade compilation album of Jam, Style Council and solo material (great CD by the way) he reverted to the Snap!  version with the bass and drums removed. This nearly raw demo is the version I'm most fond of, as it sounds as if he's sat in the corner of your room, just strumming and singing along unplugged, performing just for you.

The song was apparently written in 15 minutes when Weller got back from the pub one evening and, perhaps as a result, has a wonderful freshness and immediacy, especially in the demo versions.

Of course you can hear That's Entertainment on youtube, with a super video, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-H0uIH5HHQ. This is the originally released version, with the electric guitar part. The demo version is probably on there as well, but you'll have to find it yourself in the 17,000 items that come up on the search, or do yourself a favour and buy Hit Parade.