A song a day: The Jam – Going Underground

It’s hard to imagine now but as a child of the 70’s and 80’s the notion of nuclear war seemed to be a constant threatening reality. The constant vilification of Communism combined with nutjobs like Reagan and Thatcher in power only added to the paranoia. With popular culture producing films like The Day After, Red Dawn and that crappy Sting song about the Russians loving their children too, I’m often surprised we’re not living a post-apocalyptic Thunderdome. Of the songs dealing with this topic – the arms race and the helplessness in the rise of the conservative right, Going Underground is my favourite. Apart from being a roaring kick in the guts musically, it shows what a great lyricist Weller was at the time. People naturally move to the Clash (for good reason too) but the spiky end of the class war always came from the Jam.

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