The backstory behind "Eton Rifles"

I just stumbled across an illuminating Sound On Sound magazine piece on the making of The Jam’s “The Eton Rifles” punk anthem from way back in 1979.

The Jam on "Top of the Pops," performing 'The Eton Rifles' in November 1979I recall buying the album “Setting Sons” from which it came the week it was released. I also recall “Eton Rifles” being my second least-favorite song on the album (the “Heatwave" cover never won me over). For me the song was too provincial for a teenager to understand, and this overly long sentence from Richard Buskin's story bears that out:

“Inspired by a news article that Weller read about unemployed demonstrators on a socialist 'Right to Work' march being heckled by what he later described as 'a bunch of tossers' from the prestigious Eton College, 'The Eton Rifles' encapsulated all that was best about The Jam: Foxton's pumping bass, Buckler's powerful drumming, a catchy refrain and Weller's hard-edged vocal delivery of sardonic lyrics — in this case, dealing with class war and opening with the typically colloquial 'Sup up your beer and collect your fags, There's a row going on down near Slough.' ”

The rest of “Setting Sons” is superb, and remains a favorite of mine to this year. Years later, my lack of love for “Eton Rifles” hasn’t changed much, but I enjoyed reading Buskin’s backstory into the making of the song.

Key surprises for me:

• Producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven buying pieces of corrugated steel and bringing them into the studio to draw a harder edge out of the guitar sound.
• Paul Weller’s dad, of all people, championed bassist Bruce Foxton’s song “Smithers-Jones.”
• The album was completed a mere five weeks before its release. These days -- a world of digital freedom -- record companies seem to take ages before letting songs hit market.
• Classic Jam songs like “Down in the Tube Station and Midnight” and “Going Underground” were struggles to complete.

Abbey Road sale worth reflecting upon

News that EMI was considering selling Abbey Road Studios triggered gasps from music afficionados this week. The studio, where The Beatles transformed rock music, is indeed something to rally around.

I don't fault EMI for considering the move; smart businesses can't be beholden to legacies that don't fit their future. As many people wrote, the news was proof that fabled recording studios were living on borrowed time in a world of low-fi Mp3s and earbuds.

Someone, possibly the British government or a historic preservation group, will ensure Abbey Road lives -- not as a studio but as a museum to milk like nobody's business. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Stax Studios, Sun Studios, Motown Studios and other studios turned museums generate big bucks while providing fun history lessons into transformative eras of modern music.

Eric Felten of The Wall Street Journal -- whose previous gig as drinks columnist for the paper had to be the best journalism job ever -- waxes nostalgic in a column that eloquently captures how the great studios transformed how we listen and why that experience may soon be lost forever. I'm a geek about recording history, and I think Felten's short piece is as good as any in quickly capturing the magic and science of studio sound, and why we need to periodically take the time to treasure the art behind it.

Lessons learned from Beck and Clapton

Rolling Stone has just published a very good interview with guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, amazingly the first time they've been interviewed together despite tasting stardom in the early 1960s.

Two guitar legends in the mid-60s, and looking a bit shaggy behind the earsI'm stunned this is the first time these two have sat down for an interview, given their close ties in The Yardbirds, blues-rock supergroups in the late 1960s and '70s and their general reputations as two of the best, if not the best, guitarists of all time. Both are co-headlining a brief tour, which sadly won't make it to the West Coast.

Rolling Stone offers a glimpse of David Fricke's interview online, but has reserved the juice for the print edition. If you're a fan of their music or musicianship in general, it's worth the $5.

I've always been a fan of Beck, whose mastery of blues, hard rock and jazz, and to a lesser extent rockabilly, is mind blowing. That inability to focus on one genre  -- or what All Music Guide describes as the "haphazard way he approached his career" -- was a double-edged sword. He's a god among musicians but his commercial success pales next to Clapton.

Clapton, on the other hand, had never won me over. His playing was soulful and technically brilliant, but he was often a jerk and tended to deliver a lot of half-ass performances. One of the worst concerts I've ever attended was a Clapton show (thankfully opener Robert Randolph ensured the evening wasn't a total waste).

But the Rolling Stone interview captures a remorseful side of Clapton, one who regrets some of his decisions and streak of laziness in the 1990s. Clapton comes across as sympathetic, almost as if the tour and growing fondness for Beck is waking a sleeping lion. Let's hope so. It's be great to hear Clapton polish a somewhat tarnished legacy.

The key takeaway for me, however, was a passage describing Beck's work ethic. Beck's public image is one of a man who can't decide whether to play the guitar or restore old cars (he once jokingly said he recorded a new album simply because he needed money for a new band saw). But as Fricke notes, "He still practices for long periods every day, when he's not on tour or in the garage -- working on chords, melodic phrases and fingerpicking exercises.

" 'I fnd it inexcusable not to get up and play,' Beck explains, 'especially now with big shows coming up. I've got a guitar on every sofa, leaning up against walls, telling me, 'Don't forget what's about to happen.' That's the way it's been for 35 years.' "

I admire people who still have passion for the hard work that creates greatness. Anyone who's seen Beck's new DVD "Live at Ronnie Scott's" is blown away by his masterful mix of detail and flash. Author Malcolm Gladwell suggested in his book "Outliers" that anyone can be great at something if they put in 10,000 hours of practice. His key example was The Beatles played multiple live shows nightly for two years before they hit it big. And so while it's amazing that after nearly 50 years in the business, one of the all-time greats still finds the passion -- and the need -- to work on the basics, it's a lesson we all can take to heart.

Update on Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 8:14 AM by Logan Molen

OK, the Clapton karma appears to be fleeting.

After posting this take last night, I was reading The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, and ran across two reviews of the Beck-Clapton concert in London (yep, both have rock writers who know their stuff).

Both the WSJ review and the FT review noted that Clapton seemed distant and unmotivated while Beck was energized. Maybe it's a matter of Beck still feeling like he'll always be David, not Goliath.