Specials Redux
If there was a musical theme to my summer, it would have to be The Specials.
It started off with a friend sending me a link to this Lily Allen clip from the Glastonbury Festival:
“Wow, it’s a Specials cover! No way - that’s actually Terry Hall singing - just like the olden days! Uhhh, what is Billy Bragg doing there?” were probably my thoughts verbatim as I watched.
Well, if you send a Specials fan a video, they’re going to want a cd to go with it. I was reminded at this point that I wanted but had never gotten around to purchasing the 2002 remaster of The Specials‘ eponymously titled album (released, as I mentioned above, in the olden days — 1979). A few weeks after that, I was in the Bay Area visiting family and I got to revisit one of the record stores of my youth: Watts Music in downtown Novato. That store opened the year that The Specials album came out, but would they still have it in stock? Yes, they did - the 2002 remaster. I was happy.
I drove around Novato past my high-school haunts listening to an album that was a constant soundtrack to those times. It all seemed comfortably familiar, until nearing the end of Track 12 - “Too Much Too Young”. On the version I grew up with, the only one I’ve ever known, the song ends pretty abruptly. But on this newer version, the song starts up again, and goes on for at least another 3 minutes, with the band continuing the song’s shuffling groove and Terry Hall rehashing lyrics from earlier in the song. Here, have a listen:
The Specials - Too Much Too Young (long version)
Weird, huh? It sounds wrong to my ears, but it’s mostly because my brain is used to hearing it a certain way. I find that usually the first version I hear of a song is the one that my brain considers definitive, even if it is a demo or a live version. But in this particular case, I think whichever music executive made the call to cut it short on the U.S. edition did the right thing. That song is over 6 minutes, surrounded by 2 and 3 minute songs.
It wasn’t long after that that the feud between Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse started heating up. So I got quite a chuckle when I noticed that Amy had recorded “You’re Wondering Now” (originally done by The Skatalites and/or Andy & Joey, but really made famous by The Specials) as a b-side to her “Tears Dry On Their Own” single. So, which came first, the studio sessions for the b-side? Or the Glastonbury cover?
Amy Winehouse - You’re Wondering Now
Bad Manners were one of my favorite ska bands back in the 80’s. They’ve released several comeback albums, but none as horrid as this summer’s “Stupidity”. Call me a ska/rocksteady snob, but I hate the sort of alternative-hybrid-sounding ska with MXPX-sounding guitars that is being recorded and released these days. I’ll always be a first-wave second-wave ska lover at heart.
A Specials original, penned by Lynval Golding, massacred by another ska band that was great in their day. Eeek. But still - nice tip of the hat to the genius.
And the story of my Specials summer would have ended there, if not for a little epilogue in the form of a new UK compilation called “Radio 1 Established 1967″. The band Kasabian here turns in a fairly faithful version of “Too Much Too Young”:
Kasabian - Too Much Too Young
Pretty nice version - doth not offend. I like how they amp it up during the “it’s in your living room!” sections of the song.
The Specials were amazing. Their debut album was the “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” of its time. By that, I mean that all your friends knew it by heart - truly an album to live with - but it never blew up beyond that into the mainstream. It’s nice that artists are bringing them back into the public eye with these little homages.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 2:51 pm and is filed under amy winehouse, andy & joey, bad manners, kasabian, lily allen, neutral milk hotel, ska, summer, the specials, theme. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
What the hell is “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”?
And I can’t believe you mentioned (and even hosted an MP3 by) that whore Amy Winehouse but totally failed to mention Tim Armstrong’s A POET’S LIFE. That whole bloody album is a Specials tribute, to my way of thinking.
Harrumph!
October 4th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Can thoughts be verbatim?
October 5th, 2007 at 12:13 am
Man, you listened to much cooler music in high school than I did. I should post the song “We’re Stars” by Hear ‘N’ Aid, so you can A-B the two. Yours is much cooler.
I don’t know the Specials’ stuff at all, but I actually know this song. When I saw Sting (at the Gorge Amphitheater on the Soul Cages tour), he had a super-group open for him. They were called Special Beat, and they were made up of members of the Specials and English Beat. Being from Yakima, I had no idea about either of those bands, but my friend Drew (who grew up in Seattle, and who knows more songs than anyone else I’ve ever known) knew every song they did, even the drum fills. He played them in the air, while he was dancing. That’s what I remember about this song. That and they played it much faster live.
Oh, and you’ll be horrified to know that except for Drew, not a single person in the audience had a clue about who the weird opening band was. They kept saying, “Come on, sing along” and stuff, but we were completely unable to. Except for Drew, like I said.
Thought you’d appreciate that little story.
p.s. to B.M.M. - “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is an album by Neutral Milk Hotel, and it totally rules. Go check it out; you won’t be sorry.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:57 am
yeh the lily allen version with the pecials was ok, and the cover of “too much too young” by kasabian fell a little short of the original version, but now we also have the re-release by paolo nutini of “it must be love” by madness(originally by labi siffry) coming out on the radio 1 cd as well. looks like the music makers of today are realising that the tunes we listened to when we were young are the same ones that the youth of today want to hear as well.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
[...] Record stores have been dear to my heart since I was in my teens. Back then I’d take a 90 minute bus ride into San Francisco on weekends to do what I called RSB’ing (Record Store Browsing). I’d hit the Tower Records at Fisherman’s Wharf (they had an amazing import section back then), and then from there sometimes I’d go to Haight Street, where there were about 5 or 6 different stores I loved. I also spent alot of time at Village Music in Mill Valley, Rasputin Records in Berkeley and the Used Record Shoppe in San Rafael (long gone). Also, Planetspin Records in downtown Novato (also long gone) and Ken Watts Music (which I’ve blogged about previously). [...]