The Specials. A pretty good first album, a better second album and I've never heard the third album (but I did like the single "What I Like Most About You"). I viewed their recent reunion with the same bewilderment I do all such ventures: I don't begrudge the bands, but who the fuck pays to see bands twenty or thirty years past their sell by date? I just don't get it.As I've said before I was too young for punk and still even a bit too young for Two Tone. At the time The Specials were a band loved by older brothers. I remember liking "Gangsters" and "Ghost town" but, funnily, nothing inbetween. Ska's a pretty infectious genre but not one that I think I could take a whole evening of - a bit too repetitious. Musically it's a dead end and this is the trouble with the first album "Specials". It's in my collection but I can't remember the last time I played it. I like most of the songs on it but virtually every one is a cover I think (either acknowledged or not) and that's just not healthy.
"More Specials" is a very different kettle of fish. It strikes me as a less serious album and it was a firm Saturday night favourite from very early on - something all my friends agreed on. The two tracks below are my favourites from it and are still on pretty heavy rotation to this day. I know "Sock It To 'Em JB" is a cover and I've just had a go about that, but I like it too much not to post it here. Oh, and "Pearl's Cafe" has got the best chorus ever.
The Specials: Pearl's Cafe
The Specials: Sock It To 'Em, JB
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ReplyDeleteThe second album's a much more relaxed affair - I was too young for punk, but the right age for two-tone. But I'll happily pay to see oldie bands as
ReplyDeleteA I was probably too scared of getting my head kicked in at the time.
B - Too young to be allowed to go.
C - They're probably better now than they were then
I finally saw the pistols last year after a 30 year wait - blew me away.
It never occured to me for an instant that I might be attacked at a gig and similarly I never thought to go and see a band much before I was sixteen anyway.
ReplyDeleteTechnically some bands probably are better but I just can't believe that they can muster a fraction of their previous vitality. The Sex Pistols have always left me cold so are a bad example here. But like most right thinking people I revere the Stones 1965 - 1974, but I'd never go and see them now. Same goes for Dylan. The venues are too big, the tickets cost too much.