Photograph known as "Peaches! Near Greenville, Mississippi" by William Eggleston, 1971
My knowledge of the British mod-punks the Jam pretty much begins and ends with 1978's All Mod Cons, but I also own a copy of their demos/b-sides collection Extras for some reason. Made up largely of tracks from the years following All Mod Cons, it makes a strong argument that I need to go buy Setting Sons and Sound Affects when I get a chance. I was reminded of this when "Smithers-Jones" popped up on the Jukebox today - written by Jam bassist (and David Cassidy look-alike) Bruce Foxton, it's considered an anomaly in the band's Paul-Weller-dominated oeuvre. It's not much of one, though - it basically sounds like a very good Paul Weller song from that period.
The interesting thing about this version of "Smithers-Jones" is that it is a conventional pop arrangement of the song that is not as well-known as the all-strings version found on Setting Sons. It was released as the b-side of the "When You're Young" single in 1979, and it's my preferred version of the song. Kicking off with a great Motown bass line from Foxton, it has a sprightly melody that (like many Jam songs) is a sharp contrast to the song's lyric, a tale of workplace woe. The vocals are Quick One-era Who, and it's pretty catchy in spite of having an odd structure to it. The song's best moment is on the bridge, where Smithers-Jones gets called into his boss's office and finds out he's been made redundant. The boss's pronouncement is accompanied by a pounding drum fill that ends with some sweet harmonies, as the boss says, "Sorry, Smithers-Jones."
"Smithers-Jones" by the Jam
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