In a late-night conversation during Twangfest, the subject of favorite bands of all time came up, and we went around the room, each listing our favorite band and trying to guess which band others would name–with mixed success. Nobody could come up with mine, though several people made completely plausible guesses–the Replacements, Soul Asylum, one of Jay Farrar’s bands. I kept saying “No,” “Definitely not,” “Oh, not for years,” etc., certain that the suggested names weren’t right but not completely sure what the correct band was. And then finally Matt asked me directly, and I said the Jam. (“Or Joy Division,” I added, but then I took it back.)
It was a late-night, off-the-cuff answer, but a few days later, I’m still pretty sure it’s the right one. The Replacements were, for years (hell, decades), the band I’d name when asked for my favorite, but leaving aside my…erm, past personal attachment to the band, I don’t actually listen to them very much, and haven’t for ages. I can’t even claim “I Will Dare” as my favorite song anymore, or at least not my only favorite song—the Clientele’s “Since K Got Over Me” has become, in the six years since I first heard it, just as important to me, and objectively it might be just as good a song, maybe. Plus the filler has gotten harder to overlook as time has gone on. Can I count a band that recorded “Askin’ Me Lies” or “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out” as my favorite band? I don’t think I can.
As for Soul Asylum, I’ve listened to them far more often over the last couple of decades, and they’re still the band I’ve seen the most, by a lot. I love their first two full-length records as much as I love any music, but I can’t call them my favorite band–maybe because of how little I like the albums that made them famous, but even before those albums came out, they were never my *favorite* band. Too familiar, maybe, or it might just be that they were runners-up to the Replacements in my fandom back when I was still following them, so I never learned to think of them as favorites. And Uncle Tupelo plus the first three Son Volt albums could possibly be my favorite band, if they were by a single band. But they’re not, and because it wasn’t *just* Jay who created those records, I can’t really cheat and say that Jay Farrar is my favorite band. (Besides, I don’t really listen to much Uncle Tupelo anymore either, though I listen to Son Volt all the time.)
So does that mean it’s the Jam by default? Nah. If I think about it, I’ve been listening regularly to the Jam without any significant hiatuses for more than half my life, and there isn’t really another band I can say that about. (Even Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, who I never took more than a short break from, haven’t been quite as much of a constant, though close.) Thirty+ years after I first heard those records, they still wow me: the lyrics, the guitar, the Jam-ness of it. And I’m pretty sure that thirty years from now, if I haven’t gone completely deaf (a big “if”), I suspect I’ll still be listening to the Jam. So yeah, they’re my favorite band of all time. No question, really.
So who’s yours?