For all of Paul Weller's crusade to disown white-bred rock music with the Style Council (he was always saying stuff like black people were "the only people making any good music" in interviews throughout the '80s), I've always felt his best R&B-derived songs were written during the last couple years of the Jam's existence. "Beat Surrender," "Absolute Beginners" and especially the Stax homage "A Town Called Malice" far outpace any of the washed out, "hep cat" soul the Style Council would peddle. This video is a stunningly tight, punked up cover of his hero Curtis Mayfield's classic "Move On Up" performed live on Granada TV, probably in the last months of the Jam's existence (Ya'll might know it best as the sample for Kanye West's "Touch the Sky"). It's a shame Weller gave up guitar for most of the '80s; his fiery interpretations of funk guitar sound pretty incredible here, especially given the added complication of his vocals. And '' talk about style! '' Bruce Foxton's mullet is always a treat.
***Note: Vintage Video is a regular post in which we explore the wasteland of old music videos available on YouTube for insight, oddity, hilarity, current relevancy or just plain awesomeness.
