Extras

Every great band deserves an album collecting the songs that never made it to a proper album. While “The Dreams of Children” frequently finds its way to Jam collections thanks to its double A-side consideration with “Going Underground,” The Curtis Mayfield tune “Move On Up” (a b-side to “Beat Surrender”) could easily get lost as deluxe editions of albums float in and out of print. Best of all here remain the obscure demos of “Liza Radley,” “Pop Art Poem,” “A Solid Bond in Your Heart” (a different demo for this appears on the Direction Reaction Creation box set), "No One in the World,” “Burning Sky,” “Thick as Thieves,” “But I’m Different Now,” “Saturday’s Kids," and “The Eton Rifles.” Paul Weller’s songwriting was always sharp (“The Butterfly Collector” is essential listening). But The Jam were also very good at covering other people’s songs, and their versions of The Beatles’ challenging “And Your Bird Can Sing,” The Who’s “Disguises" and “So Sad About Us,” The Small Faces’ “Get Yourself Together,” The Chi-Lites’ “Stoned Out of My Mind," and James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” showed the group’s impressive range as musicians.