“Go to church do the people from the area / All shapes and classes sit and pray together / For here they are all one / For God created all men equal”. (‘Man In The Corner Shop’, The Jam, 1980)
In one of The Jam’s most famous songs, Weller’s lyrics create a simple but powerful storyline. The music itself proceeds fairly rapidly, however the lyrics are slower.
Weller in this song focuses on three social classes: the factory worker, the petite bourgeoisie shopkeeper, and the grand factory owner. He focuses mainly on the class aspirations of the factory worker and how he wishes to be like the shopkeeper or the factory owner, instead of struggling his whole life to achieve virtually nothing. It shows the dynamic class struggles between the three levels of society, and how the proletarian at the bottom is desperate to move up the ladder but cannot.
However, Weller places these re-occurring lyrics in, which highlight that even though the three men described in the song are of different classes and have different levels of wealth, they are all equal in the eyes of God, and indeed will all leave their wealth on Earth when they die. It provides a religious element to the song and alludes to such passages in the bible as Timothy 6:7: “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it”.
Weller alludes to the fact that God doesn’t see materialistic wealth, because he “created all men equal”. Weller implies that society has been programmed to view materialistic wealth as the ultimate achievement, but Weller is saying that materialism and money do not determine your wealth.
It is one of the best songs written by Weller, not necessarily because of its imagery, but because of the simplicity of the story he tells. The story is simple to understand, yet so powerful in the way it reflects back on its biblical origins. Weller is almost telling his audience to stop wishing you were someone else and focus on being the best version of yourself, because in the end we are all equal. No manner of wealth will raise the dead.
Great insight into Paul’s psyche. I have all the Jam and Style council LPs and many of his solo works (30 something). I first saw the Jam back in 1975 at Lancaster Uni – my home town. I hope he tours the USA in the near future, I’d love to catch him in concert in the Bay area. All the best, and keep the lyrics flowing. Sincerely, Tony