Chords for 30th anniversary of The Gift by The Jam

[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I heard the album the other day for obvious reasons, because the boxers were coming out
and I _ thought it was some great songs in it. _
There's a couple of things that don't kind
of [Gb] work, but I think generally I thought it had a really strong [E] direction and _ it's [C] _
just
great songs, that's the bottom line in it for [E] everyone really, it's just good melodies
and _ [G] _ lyrically I thought it was really good as [Gbm] well.
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
We'd done a lot of work up to that point and I suppose I was just a bit creatively [Bb] tired,
just needed a break from it all really.
[D] _ _ Well [Bb] I was just getting more interested and _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
[E] more angry about what was [C] happening, same
thing, [Bb] I was doing [E] that and writing about that and [B] same way that Gerry was doing it
with the [G] specials, _ [Bm] there was only a few people I [Gb] think really kind of [A] addressing it, [E] but
_ _ I don't think you could fail to not really [Eb] take a stand on it really, _ [Bm] _
it _ was _ _ [A] some in
your face really what [Bb] was happening to the country and [A] you were [Gbm] _ _ either for it or against
it really, there wasn't any [Em] real middle ground I [B] don't think.
I was going out more to [Ab] clubs and doing sort of contemporary soul music if you like, _ [G] but
I think also a big [Gb] thing for me was AD Cronestale, _ _ [B] who's the [A] fellow who runs [Eb] Sixties around
Stamford, I've forgotten how long he is, [A] _ he was our DJ, [Bb] he came up on the road with us
as well and him turning me on to loads and [D] loads of soul stuff as well _ _ and _
[Db] _ stuff I hadn't
heard before, just like the [B] early Curtis solo [A] records and stuff like that. _
I don't know if you ever sort of think whether [B] _ _
[Eb] this is going to be a classic or not, I don't
know, I think time [A] decides those things, _ but I think it's _ _ [Ebm] _ great [Bb] whenever we do play it,
we still play it even after all these years later, [Ab] the reaction it gets from young and
old and it's just one of those [D] songs that _ _ registers with people, she's always [A] a lovely
thing to happen to for a writer.
[Gbm] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] Just Who Is The Five O'Clock Hero [Cm] I thought was kind of [Gb] really about me dad I think [B] really,
or lots of people like me [D] dad who would, _ I can just remember him coming home from the
building just covered in [Bb] _ _ _ [Abm] cement and dirt and [Bb] whatever else, but Just Who Is The Five O'Clock
Hero, the [C] _
heroes were the breadwinners, the people who looked after their [Ab] family, went
out and earned a crust and _ [E] _ not [B] too many people ever give them a kind of [D] _ _ _ salute [Bb] really, so
I [D] think it was kind of written from that [F] point of view really, he was like a bit of a hero
for me because he looked after us _ [Bb] _
and like [F] a lot of _ [Ab] fathers, _ _ so it was kind of about
that really, whether that's [F] political I [Eb] don't know, [B] I just think it's the sort of people
who are [D] sort of shat [Eb] on _ _ in [Cm] [Abm] society from [Db] above, [C] but really are the core [G] of the country, they're
the [A] people who make [Eb] the wheels turn around [B] you know.
[D] _ _ _ _ _ [A] I also [Eb] thought, I liked what [Bb] we were working on, I liked the [Ab] album, _ [Db] but [Bb] _ at the same time
running [Am] concurrently with it I [Ab] also thought I've kind of had enough of this really, [Abm] I
need to _ [C] _ _ [B] have a bigger canvas to work on then, than just [F] us you know, and _ with no disrespect
to Bruce [Cm] or Rick, there's nothing to do with that, [Ab] it's just I needed to move on and _ broaden [D] it all.
_ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ I suppose [Gb] there must have been part of me that was thinking this is going to be the
last one, _
[B] maybe _ [Am] that only [B] happened halfway through [G] recording I don't know, [B] _ but I thought
we obviously want to leave [G] on a high note and _ _ hopefully we did you know, I think even
with [E] Tag or Malice alone we did [Bm] that really, _ which has [B] become _ somewhat of [D] an [G] anthem and
a [B] folk song at the same [D] time really, _ but if you think [A] about it, _ I think [C] part of the reason
why the jam's music's endured, [G] apart from it being fucking good [Bb] songs, it's not you
know, something to think about the [B] bush with it, [Eb] but it's also because it was left at the
right time for me, you know I [E] think we left it on [B] a high and _ _ [G] _ _ you [C] know we haven't had sort
of 30 years or whatever it is to [A] _
be bored with, you know, for people to look back and
think oh I like the early days best, because we finished in our early days in [Bb] some way
and we didn't drag on and drag it out you know, and we might have had [Am] another album
in us or a couple more I don't know, _ [Bm] _ _ [B] but we didn't, you know, I stopped for me at the
right time and I think that _ _ _ [D] music is always [Abm] encapsulated in that [E] _ _ five years [Ab] or six years
we were [Bb] together for.
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _