FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
The Specials – More Specials
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BECAUSE of the hugely unexpected loss…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Specials in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Grecco Productions Inc.
of The Specials’ Terry Hall earlier this month, I have been thinking about the group that he led. One of the most influential Ska bands ever, the 2 Tone legends formed in Coventry in 1977. After some early changes, the first firm lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Lynval Golding and Roddy Radiation on guitars, Horace Panter on bass, Jerry Dammers on keyboards, John Bradbury on drums, and Dick Cuthell and Rico Rodriguez on horn. Iconic songs like Ghost Town and Too Much Too Young are embossed in music history. Such a phenomenal singer and lyricist, Terry Hall was the heart and guts of the band in my opinion. A massive loss to music, I wanted to look at one of The Specials’ best albums, More Specials, for Vinyl Corner. You can get a copy of this classic album on vinyl. An L.P. that houses Enjoy Yourself and Rat Race, More Specials is a treasure that everyone should own. I want to bring in a couple of reviews for an album released on 19th September 1980. This is what the BBC had to say in their review:
“So how does The Specials’ second album sound, nearly 30 years after its first release?
The group had stormed the British charts in 1979 with a brash, high energy brand of pop ska. But on this album keyboardist Jerry Dammers starts to become their production mastermind. Damners' favourite musical textures are odd and particularly British: basic rhythm boxes, brass sections in full cry, and a variety of cheesy keyboards and fairground and cinema organs.
There’s a brace of very strong songs with very good tunes. Two of them sounded even better as hit singles: Stereotypes and Do Nothing. But others are good enough to be hits too: the kitchen sink drama of “I Just Can’t Stand It”, the sad tale of “Pearl’s Café”.
While the tunes are jolly, the lyrics are bleak. English life is portrayed in all its drab, suffocating despair and there’s no way out. The Poor Little Rich Girl escapes to London only to end up in porn films. The air flight of International Jet Set is a claustrophobic nightmare which ends with the passengers screaming as the plane crashes. The irony of the two versions of Enjoy Yourself is very black indeed. It’s certainly accurate; life in Britain wasn’t much fun around then. But there are times when this unremitting gloom tips over into self-parody. And the second, dub half of Stereotypes is self-indulgent, while Sock It To ‘Em JB and Holiday Fortnight are filler.
The album sounds like a first draft of the Specials finest hour. Nine months later, Dammers organised all the different elements here together into Ghost Town, one of the greatest number one singles in UK pop history. After that the group fragmented. So More Specials has lots of quality, and is almost a classic”.
I will wrap things up in a minute. Even though the lyrics are political and as charged as they are on The Specials’ eponymous album of 1979. Following that album’s success and impact, band member Jerry Dammers stepped up as the band's leader where he broadened their 2 Tone sound to incorporate other genres of music. More Easy Listening. That blend works effectively and shifted The Specials on. There was some disagreement within the ranks about a fairly radical sonic shift, so we find a few different genres and sounds fighting one another throughout. I think they blend and merge brilliantly. More Specials features The album features collaborations with The Go-Go's members Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, and Jane Wiedlin, in addition to Rhoda Dakar from The Bodysnatchers, plus Lee Thompson from Madness. In their review, AllMusic noted the following:
“Less frenzied than its predecessor, but more musically adventurous, More Specials was nearly as popular in its day as its predecessor, falling just one chart place below their debut. It kicked off in similar fashion as well, with a classic cover, this time with an exuberant take on Carl Sigman and Conrad Magidson's 1940s chestnut "Enjoy Yourself." A slower, brooding version with the Go-Go's in tow brings the album to a close, taking the place of the set-sealing "You're Wondering Now," which brought the curtain down on their first set. But there the similarities come to an end. The rest of the album is comprised of originals, including a pair of instrumentals -- the Northern soul-esque "Sock It to 'Em JB" and the Mexican-flavored "Holiday Fortnight" -- as well as a duo of minimally vocalized pieces, the intriguing "International Jet Set," and the overtly apocalyptic "Man at C&A." But fans had already been primed for the band's changing musical directions by the release the month before of "Stereotypes," its spaghetti western aura filled with the group's more mournful mood.
It's an emotional despair taken to even greater heights on "Do Nothing," as the group futilely searches for a future, but musically stumbles upon a cheery, easygoing rhythm more appropriate to the pop styles of the English Beat than the angrier sounds the Specials had made their own. But to prove it's no fluke, there's the equally bright and breezy "Hey, Little Rich Girl," boasting fabulous sax solos from Madness' Lee Thompson. However, it's an immortal line from "Pearl's Cafe" that Terry Hall and the guesting Bodysnatchers' Rhoda Dakar deliver up in duet that best sums up their own, and the country's pure frustration: "It's all a load of bollocks, and bollocks to it all." It was an intensely satisfying set in its day, even if it wasn't as centered as their debut. The group seems to be moving simultaneously in too many directions, while the lyrics, too, are not quite as hard-hitting as earlier efforts”.
Nobody expected such awful news as the death of Terry Hall. I would urge people to seek out More Specials, but also listen to the entire catalogue from The Specials. Also listen to some of Hall’s other work, including Fun Boy Three. One of music’s nicest people and greatest talents, it is so sad that we have had to say goodbye to…
A music genius and innovator.