Talk:The Eton Rifles

Lyrics

This article is hilarious! The "Lyrics" section attempts to analyse what the song is about and gets it almost completely wrong. Yes it is about class war, but more importantly it's about a real event that took place - a running fight between the boys of Eton school and a bunch of disorganised unemployed lads that thought they were starting the revolution. The Eton boys simply opened up the rifle club's locker and faced down the youths using guns. That's what "what chance have you got against a tie and a crest" means - no chance, they were armed! And of course it was obvious which side the establishment naturally supported. So listen to it again - makes more sense now dunnit? It's just a running commentary on that event and the larger implications that the failure of it to achieve anything means. You can't start a revolution by picking a fight without a plan. Perhaps someone who can make a sensible go of the article might put it into its proper perspective? Graham 10:26, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

I changed some of the interpretations and cut out some extraneous comments. I think it's very unlikely that the Eton Rifles took actual rifles from their school and brandished them on the streets of Slough. The reference to "artillery room" isn't talking about a room full of artillery, but the club's trophy room, containing their trophies for winning at rugby. ("Artillery room" is what some military units call their room for displaying trophies, flags and insignia, etc; often used as a leisure room.) The song goes on to say that the narrator was "beaten and bloody". A confrontation with rifles would either have resulted in a stand-off, or someone being shot. Some say they'll be back next week for another fight, which also isn't likely if firearms were involved. --Mujokan (talk) 03:53, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Margaret Thatcher

For crying out loud, Eton Rifles was NOT about a reaction to a Thatcherite policy decision. It was one of two songs on the album to be written before the Jam Pact UK tour of May 1979, when Weller was toying with the idea of a concept album. Since Thatcher was elected in that very month, she wasn't even Prime Minister yet when it was written. Bastin 16:31, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Right to work march (1978)

Was the specific event. The apprentices etc. marched and were mocked and verbally abused by the "posh" Eton kids they had to march past whose criticism I'm given to understand was largely 'class based' as it were. They were not "disorganised unemployed lads", this was a part of the politics of the time and a national event. Paul Weller has talked about it a few times (he read about it in a Socialist paper), its also gives this interpretation in the cassette inlay for "The Best of The Jam" and also in the book accompanying the CD box set. I'm not sure there was any actual violence in reality, it was just somewhat ugly. The "Eton Rifles" refers not to a "rifle club" but the Eton Combined Cadet Force (aka Eton Rifle Corps back in the day). I wouldn't mind but it mentions this in the main entry for The Jam anyway! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.36.92.30 (talk) 06:25, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

To be precise the march was organised by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) most of whose members are middle class posh kids (usually students or ex-students and many ex-public school themselves) trying to pretend they're anything but. Anyway they managed to con some "real" unemployed people to join the march but when the rugby lads from Eton started beating them all up the SWP types ran off ("ran off home for your tea")leaving the few working class kids to get a kicking. The SWP were a bit like the UAF are now all very cocky when they've got police protection but scared to death and suddenly very quiet if it ever disappears.

The song also has a dig at those other middle class rebels The Clash with "thought you were clever when you lit the fuse...down the House Of Commons in your brand new shoes...wrote the revolutionary symphony" lines. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.151.197.223 (talk) 01:14, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

Was a popular song at Eton

I know some men who were at Eton at the time, and the Jam song was quite a hit on the boy's record players there. It's a kind of known thing at the school, like it's one of their alternative "school songs". Actually I just heard it again over at BBC6 Music

( http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/ ).

Incidentally, Weller's reference to Slough is not a pun in any way: there's no subtext. Just text - it has no other meaning. He's simply talking about a possible fight / ruckus in Slough.
There's a school in Slough called "Slough Grammar School": of vague interest is the fact that "Slough Grammar" is sometimes a kind of sardonic nickname for Eton, but Weller would probably not have known this, and he does not reference it anyway.
That's enough help from me. I'm off for a glass of Champagne. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.151.122.69 (talk) 00:37, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Best talk page entry ever! 137.222.219.34 (talk) 14:32, 7 January 2010 (UTC)