I owe my big cousin Ewan a few things even though we grew up on different continents. I ran into him in the George Hotel in '86 or '87 and had a fantastic 14 hour Guinness session with his pals of which taking a pool table from a cue spinning teddy boy sits somewhere floating in the middle of the memory between shaking hands with men who had started their career working for my grandad and being invited to join the Masons. He also walked into our grandparents living room ten years earlier in 1977, just passing though, with a copy of In the City by The Jam under his arm. Back home in small town Canada, I ordered in the first two lps and was hooked.

Tonight, heading out for some groceries, I grabbed the 1991 Greatest Hits CD of the band that only lasted from 1977 to 1982, the second half of my teens, and roughly the same time line as The Clash. The band's music started out rough, a teen response to The Who and Quadrophenia in particular. From that early era - if a five year span can have an era - is This is the Modern World" [3.0 MB .wma]. I remember that I particularly liked their guitar, which like that of the Ramones', made a wall of sound. Unlike them, though, there was just one guitar. The band was only a trio of bass drum and guitar. But they played Rickenbackers and one guitar was enough. It was rough in that it was angry and sweary. Perfect. I will be disappointed with my kids if they don't find something like it in a decade...or less.

Later, as band leader Paul Weller found his artistic side after working through his anger, the cut became more clever and easier to dance to without slamming. This is "Absolute Beginners" [3.0 MB .wma] from 1981 which I have on a twelve inch 45 backing their hit "A Town Called Malice". They drew a lot from The Kinks and The Who and have fed a few bands, I think most notably as of late Franz Ferdinand and maybe British Sea Power. Of all the 1977, probably the coolest. Listen to the guitar during the chorus and, of course, the horn section. When will I have that horn section? When will it be the year of the Rickenbacker?

Well, they packed it in after dabbling with R+B, Weller formed Style Council and by 1985 or '86 it was all Billy Bragg and The Smiths for me. If The Clash was the only band that mattered, The Jam was the first band that mattered to me.