I’m re-visiting this as much for the title I came up with as the posting itself:-
WELLER, WELLER, WELLER, OOOOOH (tell me more, tell me more)
In one of my earliest entries on TVV, I wrote at length about my love for The Jam, and how they remain the only band I’ve ever camped for overnight so that I could get concert tickets.
I didn’t go in a huff with Paul Weller when he broke the band up, and indeed I was soon more than happy to be buying records by The Style Council and going along to watch his new band playing live.
But somehow, I’ve never got into the solo stuff by the so called Modfather. I’ve just found most of it rather dull and dreary. Everyone tells me that his LP Stanley Road is one of the best of the 90s. I’ve tried listening to it a few times and it just bores me. There’s just nothing original about it.
I’m also a bit bemused by the re-writing of history when it comes to Paul Weller. He did not have a period in the wilderness from demise of The Style Council at the end of the 80s to his solo comeback in the mid 90s when the Britpop movement, and in particular Noel Gallagher, paid homage to him. There were a few attempts at re-igniting his career in-between, including this single from 1991:-
mp3 : The Paul Weller Movement – Into Tomorrow
If you have a listen, you’ll hear that it’s not much different from the stuff he would go on to release to great critical acclaim a few years later. It just wasn’t fashionable back in 1991……
Oh there is one Paul Weller solo single that I adore. If he had gone down this sort of route rather than re-hashing his love of the 60s, I might have remained a fan:-
mp3 : Paul Weller – Wild Wood
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2013 update
The other tracks on the 1991 12″:-
mp3 : The Paul Weller Movement – Here’s A New Thing
mp3 : The Paul Weller Movement – That Spiritual Feeling
mp3 : The Paul Weller Movement – Into Tomorrow (Original 8 track demo)
WARNING : ‘That Spiritual Feeling’ is more than 7 minutes of horrible instrumental jazz-funk that has dated dreadfully….
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 