Kill´s 50 greatest albums ever - #42

[Kill]

T h e   S p e c i a l s

THE SPECIALS
(1979)

In 1977, when The Sex Pistols shocked the nation with brutally cynical songs and The Clash experimented in merging the relatively new genre of punk rock with Jamaican reggae tunes, creating melanges like "I Fought The Law" or "Police & Thieves", The Specials formed under the peculiar name "The Coventry Automatics". But it was in 1979 when their independently produced single "Gangsters" surprisingly climbed up to the top of the UK charts that the band, which had just changed its name, became famous and a new hype hit the streets: ska.

Ska was almost an overnight in-thing and The Specials´ 2 Tone label had artists the calibre of Madness and The Selecter signed shortly after the band was known about at all. 2 Tone was more than just a label, it was the definition of a new sub-culture in popular music. Rude Boys and Girls with shaved heads and left-wing, anti-racist attitudes popped up in every other city. Although the ska revival would turn out to have been a rather short fad only two years later, some of the material left behind had a strong impact in the long run - Californian third wave ska bands like No Doubt or The Mad Caddies are indubitably feeding off the British material of the late 70´s.

The possibly most important, influential and quite simply most outstanding release of this era is The Specials´ self-titled debut album. "A Message To You Rudy", "Little Bitch", "Monkey Man" and "Concrete Jungle" are all classics ska fans are equally fond of today as back in the days of Great Britain´s second wave. Produced - but made with little influence - by Elvis Costello, the album bursting with energy, laconic refernences and brillantly shaped eclecticism took ska to another level, which might still be the highest one the music style ever reached.

Side note: This version contains "Gangsters" as a bonus track, originally the song was not on the CD

[Lincoln]

Heard it before, thought it was alright.

[eS El Duque]

never heard of these boys

[Kill]

Heard it before, thought it was alright.

well, I guess if you´re into ska, you´ll love it but since I don´t think you really are it might of course be difficult for you to get into

[Lincoln]

Heard it before, thought it was alright.

well, I guess if you´re into ska, you´ll love it but since I don´t think you really are it might of course be difficult for you to get into

I don't mind ska, but it's too much for me sometimes. It's so loud with way too many instruments, sometimes it seems to "crowded". I can dig ska sometimes though, just in small doses.

[Kill]

Heard it before, thought it was alright.

well, I guess if you´re into ska, you´ll love it but since I don´t think you really are it might of course be difficult for you to get into

I don't mind ska, but it's too much for me sometimes. It's so loud with way too many instruments, sometimes it seems to "crowded". I can dig ska sometimes though, just in small doses.

yeah, it´s kinda similar to what jazz is for me. in small doses it´s very interesting, but spending too much time on it just makes it tiring, because of the instrumentation etc. I love ska though...a personal fav list of mine would have more of it than this one will

[Rampant]

Not really a fan of ska.

I'm really anxious to see what your top 10 are.