The Jam – Snap!

I have such a weird relationship with The Jam. Considering when they were big – right in my late teen years – I really should have been very, very into them. But the thing is, I’m in the US. The Jam had no chart presence, no radio play, no nothing until “Start!” came out in 1980, and even that only appeared on the dance charts here. I probably only became aware of them around then, or 1981, 1982, when I was sometimes springing for a copy of NME, or Trouser Press. Style Council, Paul Weller’s next project, got a lot of attention in 1983, and that, too, brought some awareness that there had been this band called The Jam.

In 1985, my old roommate Danny sent me a pair of CDs that were hugely influential on me. One was The Best of Elvis Costello & The Attractions – a band that I had frankly ignored until that point. I wrote about that when writing up “My Aim Is True.” The other was “Compact Snap!” by The Jam. Having heard little to none of this material before, I was absolutely floored by that impressive collection, put together after the band had split up. But, as is sometimes the case with a good survey, it was so thorough that I didn’t feel the need to go back and find any of the actual albums. At that point I was mostly done pawing through used record bins, and, given how little attention they received in the US, it’s entirely possible I didn’t run across CD re-releases of their actual albums in those years. In any case – “Compact Snap!” was my entire Jam collection for nearly 40 years. I listened a lot, but only to that one disc.

Interestingly, when they were in high school, my younger kid became quite enamored of The Jam – and by that time, of course, there was YouTube and other ways of finding music. Somewhere in there they got a copy of “Sound Affects,” which I still don’t have, and a couple of years ago I got them a copy of “All Mod Cons.” So my kid was well-supplied with The Jam, and, while I was able to get those digitally, my shelves remained Jam-free.

That is, until last New Year’s Eve Eve, the penultimate day of 2023, when I bought “Snap!” for myself. Omigod, how was this missing from my rotation?!

In fact, just sitting here listening, I can see that I’m going to have to get down to the shop and ask for a couple of special orders, just to see what’s available. I mean, how do I not have any of their live material, digital or vinyl?

Oh, and hey, this reissue came with the live 4-track EP!