“Pretty Green” meets “Green” :: Weller Wednesday

It’s Weller Wednesday. For the first installment of Weller Wednesday and the Best of Paul Weller’s Music, let’s do a Mash-Up of sorts by taking a look at one of the Best Songs from The Jam and one of the Best Songs from solo Paul Weller – both with the color Green in their Song title.

“Pretty Green”:

“Pretty Green” :: The Jam

“I’ve got a pocket full of pretty green,
I’m gonna put it in the fruit machine.
I’m gonna put it in the juk box,
it’s gonna play all the records in the hit parade.”

“Pretty Green” is the opening track from The Jam’s 1980 album, Sound Affects. Polydor pushed for “Pretty Green” to be the first released single, but Weller insisted on “Start!”.

The song, “Pretty Green” includes a funk bassline and rhythm with melodic guitar breaks and psychedelic sound effects.

The song has been covered by Mark Ronson and Santigold (see below).

“Pretty Green” :: Mark Ronson, featuring Santigold

Sound Affects was the fifth studio album by The Jam. The cover art for the album is a pastiche of the artwork used on various “Sound Effects” records produced by the BBC during the 1970’s. It is their only album co-produced by the band, and contains the only album track co-written by the entire band.

Weller has name-checked The Beatles’ album Revolver and Michael Jackson’s album Off the Wall as major influence on Sound Affects. He has also been quoted as saying it is the Best album The Jam released.

“Pretty Green” (live, 1981) :: The Jam

“Green”:

“Green” :: Paul Weller

“Fake it, take it, leave it, feel it.
Fake it, green, take it, green.
Leave it, green, feel it,
green green, green, green.”

“Green” is the opening track from Paul Weller’s 2012 solo album, Sonik Kicks. “Pretty Green” was not officially released as a single, but there was a Music Video made for the song (see above).

The design and animation for the Music Video was done by Ruffmercy, and produced by Andy Soup from Soup Factory.

Sonik Kicks is the eleventh studio album from Paul Weller. The album reached # 1 on the UK Albums Chart, in 2012.

The song, and album, were recorded at Weller’s own Black Barn Studios in Surrey, with co-producer Simon Dine and engineer Charles Rees.  It is made up of stream-of-conscious, free form, spoken words which Weller explained in a Q magazine interview saying:

“There’s a track called ‘Green’ that’s a sort of mad, stream-of-consciousness thing taken from lists of everything Dine and I saw on our journeys to the studio one day.”

Weller name checks Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music as being an influence on the song saying:

“I’ve been listening to a lot of free form music, call it electronica or whatever. And I like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, so I guess there’s a certain amount of influence, but more in textural and sonic terms. There are some avantgarde and electronic elements that have been incorporated into the songs and there a couple of soundscape pieces. There’s an experimental edge to it, but with some good tunes.”

“Pretty Green” and “Green” are two of the Best of Weller Songs. They showcase two different eras of the many eras of Paul Weller’s Music career. Check back every Wednesday for more of the Best of Paul Weller on Weller Wednesday.