My Top 1000 Songs #886: Wasteland

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Paul Weller is one of the few songwriters who can match Ray Davies' gift for capturing British life (at least as imagined by us Americans). But while Davies' work often focuses on the denizens of quaint rural villages, The Jam's "Wasteland" situates itself in the bleakest throes of urban blight (or maybe some post-apocalyptic future, it's hard to say). Yet for all the darkness of the lyrics, the song has a sprightly spring to its step, buoyed by a catchy melody and that wonderfully memorable woodwind hook.

It's hard for me to pick favorites on 1979's phenomenal Setting Sons--I've already chatted up "Smithers-Jones," and I almost landed on the emotionally rich "Think Of Thieves" in this space--but this one's always near the top of my list of definitive Jam tracks.

Covered by Britpop act Gene:

Live via cover band From The Jam: