Town Called Malice | TAB
Let’s take a look at how to play Town Called Malice by The Jam.
The chords are clever, there’s a key change/modal interchange in there, and most interesting to me, when Paul Weller plays an acoustic version, he’s changed the chord riff. We’ll get to why in a bit, let’s start with the intro and focus on the original recording.
Below, you’ll find the TAB of the bass line, it uses the root, 5th and 6th. You’ll find this type of rhythm in You Can’t Hurry Love and Are You Gonna Be My Girl.
The Jam probably heard it on Iggy Pop’s hit Lust For Life (1977), which does feel a bit like a reference track in general for Town Called Malice.
The bass is joined by keyboards after four bars. Should you play this on one acoustic guitar, below you’ll find the TAB for how.
The chords move from highlighting the root, adding a 6th, but then when repeated, it highlights the 3rd instead. This is how I would play this:
In the playlist above, there’s an acoustic version of Paul Weller playing Town Called Malice on his own. He’s completely changed the riff.
I’ve transcribed this for you so you can choose which one you prefer when you play Town Called Malice.
Paul has changed the extensions and I’m thinking he did this because if he was to add the 6th, then he couldn’t play an open D string anymore, so he just moved up a string.
This way of thinking only seems to be done by guitar players and I guess as it’s his tune, he can do whatever he wants!
Anyway, if we ignore that for now and go back to the “original”, what’s so interesting about this riff is that when it comes back for the chorus, the keyboard changes when to highlight the 3rd.
Also, during the outro, it again changes when it appears. All this was done in the key of D by the way.
Town Called Malice | Related Pages
Town Called Malice | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn how to play Town Called Malice by The Jam using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| F#m7 | F#m7 | Em | Em |
You better stop dreaming of the quiet life, ’cause it’s the one we’ll never know…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- Are You Gonna Be My Girl
- Don’t Look Back Into The Sun
- Sunny Afternoon
- That’s Entertainment
- Wonderwall
The Jam tunes
Formed by Paul Weller and his classmates in 1972, The Jam was a Mod/punk/rock band that released albums between 1975 and 1982.
Their best tunes include Town Called Malice, Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, Going Underground, and That’s Entertainment.
The Jam on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Town Called Malice. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.