Next week, the music industry will gather to pay homage to Paul Weller as he receives a Lifetime Achievement award at the Brits.
Hailed as the voice of a generation, the former frontman of The Jam is one musician who can rightfully claim to have made an "outstanding contribution" to music.
Bands, from Oasis to the Ordinary Boys, have cited Weller as a legend while The Jam's influence is obvious on groups like the Kaiser Chiefs. Band of the moment, Arctic Monkeys, have also been compared to Weller's Woking trio.Lyrically, the songs coming from Arctic Monkeys aren't a world away from those produced by The Jam - like Weller, Alex Turner has been hailed as a wonderboy wordsmith for his gritty take on the British way of life.
But long before he was ripping up the industry with wry observations about hookers, bouncers and unrequited lust, Weller was writing politicised lyrics that defined a generation of angry young men.
Just check out these lyrics: "A smash of glass and the rumble of boots/An electric train and a ripped up phone booth/Paint splattered walls and the cry of a tom cat/Lights going out and a kick in the balls" (That's Entertainment).
Or this: "I first felt a fist, and then a kick/I could now smell their breath/They smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs/And too many right wing meetings" (Down In The Tube Station At Midnight).
While Arctic Monkeys can claim a social conscience too, their lyrics tend to be more humorous; perhaps even, dare I say, more infantile.
In Riot Van, taken off the band's massive debut album, Turner taunts: "Have you been drinking son, you don't look old enough to me/I'm sorry officer, is there a certain age you're supposed to be?".
Or: "And I'm so tense, never tenser/Could it all go a bit Frank Spencer?", from the track You Probably Couldn't See For the Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me.
Cheeky, yes, but not quite on a par with one of Weller's finest lines, taken from the single When You're Young: "And you find out life isn't like that/It's so hard to understand/Why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam".
Even Arctic Monkeys have rubbished some of their own lyrics. Turner was recently quoted as saying their No 1 smash I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor was "s**t". He added: "I scraped the bottom of the barrel. I'd hate to be just known for that song because it's a bit crap."
There's no denying that Arctic Monkeys have produced some very clever lyrics, particularly for a band so young, but let's not forget Weller was a mere teenager when he penned the tracks on In The City and This Is The Modern World.
The release of the album All Mod Cons in 1978 saw a remarkable maturity in Weller's writing on songs like To Be Someone: "And there's no more swimming in a guitar-shaped pool/No more reporters at my beck and call/No more cocaine, it's only ground chalk/No more taxis now we'll have to walk." He was 20.
Over the years, the UK has produced hundreds of impressive songwriters - Morrissey, Van Morrison and Mark E Smith to name but a few.
Coldplay's Chris Martin has been hailed as an eminent lyricist and his band named (by some) the greatest in the world. But while he's undoubtedly written a few good tunes, his self-indulgent posturing gets boring after a while.
"Lights go out and I can't be saved/Tides that I've tried to swim against/You've put me down upon my knees/Oh I beg, I beg and plead" is all a bit too navel-gazing.
No, you'll never see Martin coming up trumps with lyrics like these: "Rows and rows of disused milk floats/stand dying in the dairy yard/And a hundred lonely housewives clutch empty milk bottles to their hearts" (Town Called Malice).
Pure poetry.
The Brit Awards can be seen on ITV1 at 8pm on Thursday, February 16.
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