The Jam :: This Is The Modern World :: 8-Track Throwback Thursday
Check it Out – it’s 8-Track Throwback Thursday time again, where we Feature the Best in 8-Track Tapes. “Track 5” on this Ongoing Throwback Feature is The Jam, with their Rare 8-Track Tape, This Is The Modern World. The Album includes Must Hear Songs like “This Is The Modern World”, “Standards”, “Don’t Tell Them You’re Sane”, “Here Comes the Weekend”, among other Terrific Throwback Tunes. This one is definitely an 8-Track Paradise Favorite.
Let’s head back to the Late-Seventies with this Edition of 8-Track Throwback Thursday. The year was 1977, in November, when The Jam Released their Second Studio Album. The Album was Released less than 7 months after their Debut, In The City. Front Cover Photography was done by Gered Mankowitz.
This Is The Modern World includes The Jam’s Cover Version of Wilson Pickett’s Classic, “In the Midnight Hour”.
Get ready to stick this into your 8-Track Player and Turn this 8-Track Tape Way Up!
THE JAM’S THIS IS THE MODERN WORLD ON 8-TRACK:
The Jam on 8-Track is one those Rare/Near Extinct Formats that requires time, patience, and the tenacity of an archaeologist. In some ways seeking out these 8-Tracks is a little like a Search for the Holy Grail, especially if you are a Music is your Religion.
I had only ever heard This is the Modern World on Vinyl back in the mid-Eighties while hanging out with my friend Odallis and her Mod friends. It wasn’t a scene I was in myself, but more one that I was adjacent to, and visited occasionally.
More recently I have Listened to the Album via Digital Stream on Spotify, or via Videos or Album Streams on YouTube. That is until we got our hands on the Rare/Near Extinct 8-Track Tape!
The Jam were an English punk rock/mod revival band active during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. They joined together in Woking, Surrey, U.K. They incorporated a number of mainstread 1960’s Rock and R&B influences, particularly from The Who, The Beatles, and from Motown Music. This set The Jam apart from most of their Punk Rock contemporaries and placed them at the forefront of a nascent Mod Revival movement.
THE TRACK LISTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
- Track 1 = “The Modern World – All Around the World”, “I Need You (For Someone)”, and “London Traffic”
- Track 2 = “London Traffic” (cont.), “Standards”, “Life From a Window”, and “In the Midnight Hour”
- Track 3 = “In the Street Today”, “London Girl”, “Here Comes the Weekend”, and “The Combine”
- Track 4 = “The Combine” (cont.), “Tonight at Noon”, and “Don’t Tell Them You’re Sane”
A first thing I noticed, before even looking at the Track Listings, is that the 8-Track’s Track Listing for This is the Modern World is based on the U.S. Release, with the inclusion of “All Around the World”, a Song that is not on the considered “Original” Version.
Also, as with the other 8-Tracks we’ve Featured here, the Track List is in different order. I think finding an 8-Track that is in the Original Track Listing Format is going to be an exception to the rule. This did bother me at first, I must admit, but now I’m finding the experices of Listening in a New Song Order a way to re-discover the Songs with more attention – especially in regards to Albums I know so well that Listening becomes almost routine, where the different order of 8-Tracks catches me by surprise, and grabs my Full Attention.
Both the Original, and the 8-Track start off with the same 2 Songs, “The Modern World” and “All Around the World” (the U.S. Version, at least), but after that all bets are off, and every subsquent Track is in a different order.
As ever, the 8-Track Sound is Stellar. With this particular Album I would have to say my Favorite Format to Hear it on is this right here – The 8-Track Tape of This is the Modern World. Honestly, the first time I Heard it my mind was blown – in the Best, Music Loving way.
Favorite Song on the 8-Track? Its honestly a tie between “London Traffic” and “Standards”.
“London Traffic”
“Standards”
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