Story of the song: Start! by The Jam

Start!” began life titled “Two Minutes”, after the line “If we get through for two minutes only, it will be a start.” It was written by Paul Weller, probably while The Jam were touring America. Their label, Polydor, originally pushed for the song “Pretty Green” as the new single. Weller knew a hit when he wrote it and wouldn’t be swayed.

“I thought ‘Going Underground’ was a peak and we were getting a little safe,” said Weller. “That’s why we’ve done ‘Start!’” “There was a heated debate,” said Polydor’s Dennis Munday. “It was left to the last possible moment to decide: two sleeves waited at the printers.” Weller got his way. “Start!” was The Jam's second consecutive No 1 hit single in the summer of 1980.

The Beatles’ landmark 1966 album Revolver had been on permanent repeat on The Jam’s tour bus during their recent American concerts and George Harrison’s infectious “Taxman” inveigled its way into Weller’s auditory cortex. Harrison’s jerky riff was directly lifted for “Start!”, and George Martin's treble-light production on “Taxman” also influenced the overall sound of The Jam's recording. Despite the single’s obvious popularity, critics cast Weller as a plagiarist. Weller rebuffed the accusations: “Apart from the first notes, the rest of the bass line is quite different,” he argued. He said that listeners were meant to notice the similarity between the songs.

It was a high point of The Jam’s album Sound Affects, which Weller had named after finding a BBC sound effects album in the studio. His subtle change of spelling gave the album title an active emphasis. “It’s in the lyrics of ‘Start!’ as well,” said Weller, emphasising the song’s positive message, which, he claimed, was inspired by a George Orwell story. The lyrics are, he said, about maintaining human contact. Names are not important; keeping the connection open is.