The Current Music Blog
< The Decision: The National's Journey out of Ohio (Part 1) | Main | Honey-Do: Psychedelic rock >

Win The Specials on 180g vinyl!

Posted at 3:12 PM on July 30, 2010 by Jim McGuinn (5 Comments)

412Y8K5HTXL._SL500_AA300_.jpgOne of my most vivid memories of 1983 was going to the beach repeatedly that summer with a bunch of high school friends, cranking up The Specials everytime. It was my first brush with teen freedom and driving licenses, and the mix of The Specials youth politics, ska beats, punk energy, and mod fashion made for an unlikely yet understandable connection between Midwestern Reagan-era youth and Midlands Thatcher-era youth.

Produced by Elvis Costello and including both original material and original Jamaican ska era covers, The Specials 1980 debut is one of those albums that is both timeless and rooted in a very specific moment: that time in the UK when Punk had blown the doors off the music world and anything was possible. An interracial ska band from dreary, industrial Coventry hitting the Top of the Pops with a punk-infused remake of a nearly style that fell out of favor in Jamaica back in 1965? Why not?

A label called 2-Tone was their home - the creation of Specials' keyboardist Jerry Dammers (and home to the iconic Beat Girl and black and white checkerboard logo), and over the course of a few short months helped launch the careers of The Specials, Madness, and The English Beat, becoming one of the biggest cultural movers in the UK in 1980. Yet just a few short years later, it was all gone.

The Specials began to splinter after their second album, 1981's decidedly less ska-sounding More Specials, with lead singer Terry Hall leaving to form Fun Boy Three with bandmates Neville Staple and Lynval Goulding. The Special AKA hung on for one more album (1984's In the Studio) before calling it a day in 1985.

But the spark of the music lit a slow-burning fuse. After the brief heyday of the Specials, ska never went away - it continued to gain converts, leading to a brief US chart heyday more than a dozen years later in 1996 behind bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish.

After a few half-hearted and halfway reunions, a full Specials reunion (minus keyboardist Dammers) happened in the UK in 2009, and they played their first US dates around Coachella in the Spring. Thus far, no extensive US dates are scheduled that include our neck of the woods, but Chrysalis has re-mastered and re-issued the classic first album now 30 years after it's original release, on 180 gram vinyl.

Fill out the form to win a copy from the Current. (Official rules)

The original Specials from 1980 singing "Too Much Too Young"

Comments (5)

Love ska.
Seen the Specials back in the day.
They are amazing, stand the test of time for sure.
Let's begin the campaign
We will bring the 2-Toned labeled lads
To the Twin Cities
That's a Promise!!
MK

Posted by Mary Kay Welter | July 30, 2010 9:25 PM

Awesome.

Posted by Eirik | August 5, 2010 10:53 AM

Saw The Specials @ Merlins in Madison, circa 1980 or so--still in my top five live gigs of all time--as much fun as I've ever had...

Posted by W Iams | August 5, 2010 7:20 PM

Well said, Jim. One of my favorite albums of all time...it's perfection. Hearing those songs live in NYC this Spring was amazing.

Posted by Joey O. | August 6, 2010 10:18 AM

The Specials, Madness,to x-ray Spex to the Jam- Love all the brits. SO excited to hear of this re-master. delightful!
amy

Posted by Amy Wilkerson | August 6, 2010 5:14 PM

July 2010
S M T W T F S
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31


Master Archive
Recent Entries
Tools
Categories
Services
Become a Sponsor