Specials

The Specials put together their classic line-up in Coventry, England, in early 1979: Terry Hall (vocals), Lynval Golding (guitar), Roddy Byers (guitar), Neville Staple (vocals), Horace Panter (bass), Jerry Dammers (keyboards and main songwriter), John Bradbury (drums).

In a city sunk into decay by unemployment and racial unrest, the band positioned itself as explicitly anti-racist: two members were black, the music was a blend of white elements (punk) and Jamaican ones (ska and reggae, but also African-American soul and r'n'b), and the logo of the Two Tone label was a checkerboard.

The group started out with a run of rock and reggae covers, riding the wave of success that Bob Marley's slow Jamaican rhythms had found in England, already picked up by the Clash on "Police And Thieves" — but they soon turned to ska instead, the fast blend of Caribbean music and American r'n'b that had originated in Jamaica before the reggae explosion, with the Skatalites, the Maytals and the early Wailers.

Ska is closer to England's own r'n'b roots, which made it a natural fit for blending with the new rock sound, punk, in a mix that proved explosive right from the first single, "Gangsters", in 1979.

It was also a cultural statement: the band adopted a look built around suits and "bluebeat" hats, visually reconnecting with the original mod scene of the Sixties, by then close to the skinhead scene, and grafting onto it their own interracial, egalitarian message.

The band soon built up a huge live following thanks to the unifying power described above and the energy of their live shows, reaching the milestone of their debut LP, produced no less than by Elvis Costello, then a rising star of the English rock scene, and enriched by the horns of Rico Rodriguez, an original member of the Skatalites.

"The Specials" offers striking reinterpretations of older songs alongside original material. Among the former, the lazy, catchy "A Message To You Rudy" (by Dandy Livingstone), destined to become a single, the energetic "Monkey Man" (by the Maytals), and the more measured, rock-steady-leaning "Too Hot" (by Prince Buster).

But while the producer seemed keen to push the band back toward pure ska, they instead aimed for a hybrid with rock, embodied in the original songs by the verve of singer Terry Hall, clearly schooled on the Clash, and by Dammers' lyrics. Hall says today: "I saw it as a chance to say something, because if you're behind a microphone people listen to you, and nobody had ever listened to me. Teachers didn't listen, my family didn't hear me, but suddenly people started paying attention". Hence the rougher "(Dawning Of A) New Era" and "Nite Klub", as infectious musically as they are sharp and sarcastic in their lyrics. The latter features Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde on backing vocals, and stands as a model of the fusion between ska and punk.

If "Stupid Marriage", narrated by Neville, transplants the figure of the Jamaican "rude boy" into an English setting through a kind of comic skit, other tracks carry a much stronger message, all the more so as it's delivered through music that's vital and upbeat, banishing any suspicion of preaching to the very young kids in the audience. "Concrete Jungle", driven as much by Byers' guitar as by the off-beat rhythms, in fact describes the violence pervading the streets of a Coventry full of unemployed youth, where it takes little to spark a fight, drawing a bitter parallel with Marley's Kingston. "Doesn't Make It Alright", meanwhile, condemns racism without any half-measures, racism stoked by heavy immigration and the poor economic climate that seems to be pushing the English working class into a kind of war among the poor.

"It's Up To You", built on reggae rhythms and lively organ runs, deals more broadly with the band's spirit: tough, pure and uncompromising as punk demands, and it usually opens their shows like a manifesto, the symbol of an authentic band that people can believe in and identify with.

Featuring one of the album's finest melodies, "Too Much Too Young" finally tells the sad story of local kids forced by circumstance to skip straight through life's stages, finding themselves with a family to support at an age when they should be thinking about having fun.

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The power of the music and lyrics is such that it creates a genuine phenomenon, driving the album to success, turning gigs into cauldrons of positive energy packed with fans who follow the band like a traveling tribe, and launching the Two Tone label on its dream of building a new Stax in England.

Meanwhile, the ska revival sees the rise of new bands destined to make genre history, such as Madness, The Selecter, The Beat and the all-female outfit The Bodysnatchers.

During the tour, at Brunel University, a group of neo-Nazis is thrown out of the venue by the band members themselves, who then return to the stage and launch into the lyrics of "Doesn’t Make It Alright": "Just because you're a black boy / Just because you're a white / It don't mean you gotta hate him / It don't mean you gotta fight".

The band's momentum would produce another LP, "More Specials", in 1980, and above all a single destined to become a generational anthem, "Ghost Town", a portrait of that ravaged city and that same hunger for redemption which had already lit the fuse on their debut album.

Unfortunately, internal tensions would lead to the group splitting, resulting in a third album released under the name Special Aka (featuring the standout track "Nelson Mandela") and then a gradual slide into obscurity.

Now, in 2008, there's talk of a possible reunion of the original band for a series of concerts, accompanied by remastered reissues of their classic albums.

In a Europe shaken by the difficult coexistence with new migrants, it would be wonderful to rediscover the message of the Specials, but above all to hear it brought back to life through equally innovative musical forms.

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30/11/2008