The Specials : A Message to You Rudy
On October 19, 1979 The Specials released their self-titled debut album in the U.K. Hailing from the industrial town of Coventry, the seven piece mixed race ska band, dressed up in tonic suits, button-down shirts, skinny ties, wraparound sunglasses, pork pie hats, and loafers. Keyboardist Jerry Dammers had not only written most of the songs and founded the band. He was also the brains behind the 2 Tone label that released this album and singles like "Gangsters", "The Prince", "On My Radio" and the upcoming "Tears of a Clown"/"Ranking Full Stop" by the Beat.
"I always had ideas of how I wanted it to go and part of the idea was for similar bands not to compete together and to work together," Dammers told BBC 4 in a radio documentary called This Are 2 Tone.
Elvis Costello offered to produce The Specials.
"Jerry Dammers was taking riffs from old Prince Buster records and Rock Steady obscurities and saying a number of things that needed saying right then. Like "You've done too much, much too young." And "It doesn't make it alright," Costello writes in Unfaithful Music + Disappearing Ink. "“My job was to get the band on tape before some more skilled producer got ahold of them and screwed it up completely, by perfecting things that didn’t need perfecting.”
While punk bands were tossing out anti-Thatcher slogans, The Specials focused on the personal issues they faced every day in Coventry: racism, birth control, domestic violence. That said, half the songs are covers from artists like Dandy Livingstone ( A Message to You Rudy), Toots Hibbert (Monkey Man) and Clement Seymour (You're Wondering Now)
The debut is one of the most highly rated albums of the year.finishing #10 on NME's list and #1 on the Sounds list.
From Red Starr writing for Smash Hits gave the album a 9/10:
Sick of overnight ska trendies? Me too. But hang on --this album is actually very good with The Specials showing enough genuine talent to outlast any passing fashion. Good balance of old and new songs, some excellent original touches (especially the very strong lyrics), first rate production by Elvis Costello, fourteen tracks--a very promising debut and highly recommended.
Vivien Goldman of Melody Maker was disappointed:
When the album finally came out in America in 1980 Jim Farber of Creem wrote
The sound on the album, captured by producer Elvis Costello, is wonderfully derivative of Nick Lowe's dial twisting. Musically, the album ranges from straight ska ("A Message To You Rudy") to the kind of nauseous pop XTC and The Pretenders do so well ("Gangsters"). A lot of it is as danceable as a B-52's record and on many levels as funny, with Terry Hall singing as though his tongue is miles thick and his saliva is green and sticky.
This is an album I bought on cassette in 1980 and have always treasured. So much so that I put off writing about it until the night before I posted this.
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