| Paul Weller: Blogs | Bruce Foxton |
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Filed under www.guitarlesson.me.
B. Foxton is a great Bass player and his work shined through time and time again whilst he was with the Jam from the Jam’s very first Album in the city till their last recorded album the Gift Foxton clearly illustrated just how much his bass sound is worth.
Foxton, Paul Weller, & Rick Buckler had their own sound and when other members from bands formed by Paul Weller did their work for me their feel degraded those tracks. He did some great complementary bass lines to numerous Jam tracks a great example is the Beat Surrender, down in the Tube Station at Midnight, Funeral Pyre, Start, and absolute beginners. Those tracks are only to name but a few but in general all the bass lines which added to the Jam songs were good.
Another thing which Foxton always held down was his stage presence he was always dancing whilst playing the bas and the impression you would get is that he is really into the music and work shows he was, what this did was give a great feel to the song. Weller generally did little body movement so it was nice to see Foxton unable to keep still whilst he was playing the bass.
Foxton unique ability to make his bass lines shine through I guess comes from is own personal touch as well as how he feels each Jam song should be reflected. I’m sure there are bass guitarist out there who are technically more competent than Foxton however if you applied their technique to a Jam song it would have probably ruin it.
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [1] |
US [2] |
NZ [3] |
SE [4] |
NL [5] |
NO [5] |
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| 1977 | In the City
|
20 | – | – | – | – | – | |
This Is the Modern World
|
22 | 201 | – | – | – | – |
|
|
| 1978 | All Mod Cons
|
6 | 204 | – | – | – | – |
|
| 1979 | Setting Sons
|
4 | 137 | 14 | – | – | – |
|
| 1980 | Sound Affects
|
2 | 72 | 2 | 17 | – | – |
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| 1982 | The Gift
|
1 | 82 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 30 |
|
| "—" denotes albums that did not chart or were not released in given country. | ||||||||
| Release date | Title | Album | UK Singles[7] | Australia | Canada | NZ Singles[8] | Notes | UK reissues | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 1983 | 1991 | 1997 | 2002 | ||||||||
| 29 April 1977 | "In the City" | In the City | 40 | — | — | — | The only Jam single to chart higher as a reissue than as an original release. | 40 | 47 | 36 | ||
| 23 July 1977 | "All Around the World" | — | 13 | — | — | — | 43 | 38 | ||||
| 5 November 1977 | "The Modern World" | This Is the Modern World | 36 | — | — | — | 52 | 51 | ||||
| 11 March 1978 | "News of the World" | — | 27 | — | — | — | 53 | 39 | ||||
| 26 August 1978 | "David Watts" / "'A' Bomb in Wardour Street" |
All Mod Cons | 25 | — | — | — | 54 | 50 | ||||
| 21 October 1978 | "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" | 15 | — | — | — | — | 30 | |||||
| 17 March 1979 | "Strange Town" | — | 15 | — | — | — | 44 | 42 | ||||
| 25 August 1979 | "When You're Young" | 17 | — | — | — | 53 | ||||||
| 3 November 1979 | "The Eton Rifles" | Setting Sons | 3 | 50† | — | — | 54 | |||||
| 10 March 1980 | "Going Underground" / "Dreams of Children" |
— | 1 | 50† | — | 28 | "Dreams of Children" did not chart in Australia or NZ. | 21 | ||||
| 11 August 1980 | "Start!" | Sound Affects | 1 | 50† | — | — | 62 | |||||
| 7 February 1981 | "That's Entertainment" | 21 | 50† | — | 34 | Charted in UK as an import-only single in 1981. | 60 | 57 | ||||
| 6 June 1981 | "Funeral Pyre" | — | 4 | 72 | — | — | 82 | |||||
| 24 October 1981 | "Absolute Beginners" | 4 | — | — | 35 | 83 | ||||||
| 29 January 1982 | "Town Called Malice" / "Precious" |
The Gift | 1 | 15 | 19 | 14 | In Canada, NZ, and for UK reissue, only "Town Called Malice" charted. | 73 | ||||
| 3 July 1982 | "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?" | 8 | — | — | — | Charted in UK as an import-only single. | ||||||
| 10 September 1982 | "The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow)" | — | 2 | 91 | — | 50 | 30 | |||||
| 26 November 1982 | "Beat Surrender" | 1 | 35 | — | 35 | |||||||
† In Australia, the songs "Going Underground", "The Eton Rifles", "That's Entertainment" and "Start!" made up an Australia-only EP entitled 4 Side Affects. This EP charted at #50 on the Australian singles chart, and all f:our tracks from it are considered to have peaked at #50.
(Note: EPs are ranked on the Billboard album chart, not the singles chart.)
There were many compellation albums other than extras few offered anything new. Foxton played bass on all the songs except a few on the album called extras.
A simple soure to progress with the guitar is Guitar Lesson and another source One Way Links.