Specials

by

The Specials

Edit

The Specials are still the heavyweight champions of both waves of ska revivals (in the UK and later in the USA). I saw the Specials just before this album was released in 1979 at a Rock Against Racism concert in London's Hyde Park. I was warned by my two British hosts that the Specials would "blow my mind."... but nothing could have prepared me for the inspired anarchy of this young racially mixed Brits playing music that sounded like reggae on steroids. The two manic singers Terry Hall and Neville Staples bounced around the stage and banged their heads together in time to the music. The entire band had buzz cut hairdos and dressed like thrift shop refugees complete with Sinatra type fedoras, skinny ties and ill fitting suits. By the end of the show the entire stage was filled with frantically pogoing audience members and the Specials played on, as if the audience and the band were the same thing. Everything I learned about ska music started with that Specials concert in 1979.

The reason why the Specials were so...errr...special was that they were first rate musicians who not dilletantes when it came to knowledge of the early Jamaican ska and rocksteady music. Jerry Dammers was raised on the music of Prince Buster, the Skatalites, Desmond Dekker, Byron Lee and the stable of ska musicians that were part of Duke Reid's venerable British label, Trojan Records. In the UK, Trojan Records had a steady stream of bestselling ska records in the UK in the mid-Sixties. Even the godfather of punk, John Lydon, who was notorious for ridiculing any kind of popular music once professed that reggae and ska were the only music he cared about. Meanwhile, in the USA, our only knowledge of ska was 1965's infectious hit by Millie Small, "My Boy Lollipop." In the Sixties, there was little room on American radio playlists for obscure Jamaican musicians playing gimmicky West Indian pop. If anyone raised the profile of ska music in America, it was the Specials.

The songs of this album represent a fusion the anarchy of punk with the frenetic riddims of ska. It is a snapshot of a near-perfect moment in music. Elvis Costello's "ragged but right" production style resembled that of his own producer, Nick Lowe who earned the nickname "Basher" for his rough-hewn sound. "Doesn't Make It Alright" is the Special's anti-racism anthem that was a response to the National Front's campaign to bash forgien nationals from the West Indies and Pakistan who were new immigrants to London during that period. Terry Hall as the prosecuter and Neville Staples as "Judge Dread" engage in a hilarious satire of a kangaroo court in the song "Stupid Marriage." The ribald humor of "Stupid Marriage" was actually a Jamican ska reworking of Shorty Long's late Sixties R&B hit "Here Comes the Judge." "Blank Expression" was a cry against apathy and ignorance. The covers of ska classics like "A Message To Rudy" and Prince Buster's classic "Too Hot" showcase the muscular playing of the band. The cover of the Maytal's classic "Monkey Man" fires a hilarious shot from the hip at the Thatcher enthusiasts in the pompous chambers of the House of Lords, comparing the Britian's nobility to inbred baboons. The addition of trombonist Rico Rodriquez, who was a transplanted Jamaican with an involvment in the ska's early Sixties roots lent the Specials an authenticity that few of their peers could claim. Drummer John Bradbury and bassist Horace Gentleman punched up the ska sound with a heavy drum n' bass sound that appealed to the younger generation accustomed to the hard charging punk rock sound.

By the mid-Eighties the ska music revival had ebbed all too early in the UK. I always felt that the 2 Tone Records bands like the dubwise Beat (aka the English Beat), the hyper-manic Madness and the ultra-cool stylists, the Selector were among the best things about the post-punk movement. There was a second wave revival of ska music in the United States in the Nineties, but none of the stateside ska bands posessed the talent, imagination or authenticity of their UK counterparts. The Specials were the flagship of the ska revival and their magnificent but short lived career brought the joy of ska music to a lot of people who otherwise would have never heard it. I don't deejay much these days, but in the early Eighties no party or dance was complete until the floor was filled with estatic dancers slamming to the riddims of "Concrete Jungle." Those were the days, my friend.

3 1/2

Infectiously catchy older ska band will forever have a place in British punk rock history, to this day echoing many traits found in some of their more popular young bands, as well as so many of the party aesthetics found throughout the American musical landscape in the past 20 years. Obviously a band with plenty of well deserved acclaim and influence, but still a band that fails to deliver stellar albums. As fun as so much of this important '79 debut is, complimenting the fast paced, aggressive dance-offs with crisp reggae-influenced interplay guided by the impressive bass work, anyone not directly involved in the ska movement may shrug of some of the familiar framing that paints many of these compositions in the same sneeringly upbeat light. Exceptions to these head-bobbing rules (Doesn't Make It Alright) go further and provide more then the majority of stuff to be found here, but anyone searching for that perfect piece of retro ska for their next party will feel right at home with this in collection.