Songfacts®:

• Paul Weller's father, John, was one of those old-school managers you don't really see anymore: part dad, part drill sergeant, part human bulldozer. For over 30 years he was the engine behind Weller's career, steering him through punk glory days with The Jam, the suede-jacketed soul of The Style Council, and then into the more contemplative terrain of Weller's solo life.
  
  John Weller died on April 22, 2009, aged 77, after a long decline. His passing had a profound effect on Paul. "What Would He Say?" is a raw unpacking of grief in all its messy, unflattering forms.
• Weller told Mojo magazine that the song was born out of watching how people react when someone dies - how grief, oddly, can make folks behave badly.
  
  "You get a lot of in fighting and blaming, but it's no one's fault, it's just life," he said. "But I saw that and thought it's not what he would want. He wouldn't want people in fighting and blaming each other. It should be a time for love and solidarity and unity. So that was very therapeutic for me. It was like, (breaths sigh of relief) Phew, got that one out. And I felt a lot better for its, almost to the point of light, I'm not worried if other people don't get this tune, I've just got to do this. This is for me."
• When Weller released Wake Up The Nation in 2010 – his first album after his father's death - he was adamant that none of it was about father. In fact, he said writing songs about grief would've been, in his words, "f---ing naff."
  
  Which is very Weller. There was one, sort of, exception: the song "Trees" was inspired by the experience of visiting his dad in a respite home during his final weeks. "What Would He Say?" is the first time he fully addressed his father's death and its emotional impact.