10 Greatest Album Closers Of All Time
5. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - The Jam (All Mod Cons, 1978)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TwN_vA67MMBefore the release of their dazzling career high, All Mod Cons, things were looking bleak for The Jam. Coming into prominence at the same time as firebrand punks, The Clash and the Sex Pistols, The Jams mod chic and tunes sounded archaic in comparison to the aforementioned bands political vitriol. 1977, the year of the bands debut, was a vintage year for punk in which The Pistols and The Clash both unleashed albums so monumental that Paul Wellers bands self-titled homage to The Who paled greatly in significance. Sophomore effort, This is the Modern World, fared little better and became the recipient of such a critical thrashing that its surprising that the three-piece didnt call it a day, then and there.
Yet, the torrent of derision that would have destroyed lesser mortals actually spurred Weller into upping his game. On All Mod Cons, Weller keeps his adoration for The Who intact but takes specific inspiration from the vignettes that abound on their 1966 LP, A Quick One While Hes Away, and also borrows heavily from 60s character study maestro, Ray Davies (to such an extent that the Kinks David Watts is covered on the album) to create a record full of social critique and realistic depictions of Britain on the eve of the Thatcher administration. To Be Someone is a painful meditation on the consequences of fame, Mr Clean, a bilious attack on the countrys middle class and A Bomb In Wardour Street is a grim analysis of the casual violence perpetrated by delinquent teens and the politically disillusioned.
Down In the Tube Station at Midnight distils the decades seemingly ubiquitous paranoia and fear into a work of genuine class. Beginning with the shouts of children and oncoming rush of tube trains (the sounds of the street that Weller sings of on his bands debut), it is Bruce Foxtons driving bass line that illuminates his front mans traumatic experience. Journeying home alongside his fellow working stiffs before coming across discarded debris and newspapers complete with headlines of death and sorrow, the protagonist appears to be aware that he will become yet another victim of some madmen on the rampage.
The songs foreboding, matched brilliantly by Wellers own fierce guitar chords, evolves into an all-out assault as the narrator is beaten up and mugged by men who smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many right-wing meetings suggesting an alcohol-inspired history of brutality channelled into political naivety. Details of the assault may be sickening but the despairing scene is described with such vigour that it becomes somewhat poetic, as the speaker is hurled into a poster that reads Have an Away Day- do it today!
Blackly comic and politically-charged, it was accomplished musicianship and harrowing realism of this ilk that led bland pop-picker, Tony Blackburn, to enquire why it was necessary to address such topics, infamously remarking Cant punks sing about nice things like trees and flowers? The contentious debate over whether the Jam were a punk band aside, idiotic statements like this are why this song is important. Wellers obsession with violence and unrest isnt informed by fantasy but motivated by the urge to publicise such mindless aggression. Leaving the sugar-coating to moronic DJs, Wellers Down in the Tube Station of Midnight is one of musics greatest ever closing tracks, an impassioned critique of a culture of violence.