Retroaudition

Listening The Jam's In The City this evening, I noticed for thefirst time -- I know, this may seem odd -- how much it sounds like the pre-psychedelic incarnation of The Who. I'm sure that was deliberate, given The Jam's many nods to Mod. But my interest in classifying The Jam in relation to both first-generation punk and The Cure, a band that was originally considered to be a Jam copycat, somehow deafened me to the strains of the mid-1960s that impressed themselves with such force upon me on this listen. Because I love the early Kinks, Who and Revolver-era Beatles more than almost anything shy of cherry pie, making the connection allowed me to inhabit The Jam's music in a new way. I was transfixed.