Rhoda Dakar: the enduring brilliance of 2 Tone’s leading lady
“At one point, you’ve got it, and then you lose it, and it’s gone forever,” said Trainspotting’s Sick Boy in the classic 1996 film. When looking at the music stars that came and went during the pop apocalypse of the 1980s, it is certainly hard to disagree with him. While countless artists came in strong during this period, few had the songwriting talents to stay fresh over the years. There are, however, a few notable examples to the contrary, of which the ska and rocksteady icon Rhoda Dakar is certainly one.
Dakar first burst onto the scene, bedecked in black-and-white checkerboard, in 1979, the peak of the 2 Tone revolution. The musical movement, started by Jerry Dammers and The Specials, sought to challenge the political regression of the United Kingdom and the rise of far-right extremism and widespread racist attitudes throughout the nation. In order to achieve this, groups on 2 Tone blended traditional Jamaican ska and rocksteady music, usually from the late 1960s, with the energetic sounds of punk and new wave.
The line-ups of the bands that made up the 2 Tone scene were just as subversive as the music itself. The movement saw Black and white musicians together on stage for the first time in the United Kingdom—or, at least, on such an all-encompassing scale. When Rhoda Dakar joined the ranks of the ska revivalists as the lead singer of The Bodysnatchers, the band became the first and only all-female, mixed-race outfit signed to the 2 Tone label.
Within the context of 2 Tone, the impact of The Bodysnatchers is often downplayed. In fairness, the group only ever released four tracks officially, and only one of those – ‘Easy Life’ – was written by the band themselves. The track that the group, and Dakar by extension, is best remembered for is their cover of the Dandy Livingstone classic ‘Let’s Do Rocksteady’, which brought the old-school track firmly into the pop age of the 1980s.
Although the band failed to live up to the notoriety of groups like The Selecter, The Beat, or The Specials, Dakar’s role in the revolution was not limited to The Bodysnatchers. She also provided backing vocals for multiple tracks on The Specials’ divisive sophomore record More Specials, as well as providing the band with their harrowing single ‘The Boiler’. The song was the first release by The Specials under the name The Special AKA, following the departure of Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter. Telling the nightmarish tale of a young woman who gets raped by her boyfriend, the piece is as chilling as it was groundbreaking.
From there, Dakar proved to be an essential part of The Special AKA and their most notable song, ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, which brought the strife of the South African political prisoner to Western audiences for the first time. Yet, in spite of all this incredible work, Dakar became something of an obscure figure once the dust had settled on the 2 Tone age, while the likes of Terry Hall, Madness, and even Bad Manners continued to populate the singles charts.
Inevitably, Dakar was to make a triumphant return to the music world. In 2007, she did just that, releasing her first solo album, Cleaning in Another Woman’s Kitchen. This incredible record affirmed that the singer had never lost her distinctive and captivating singing style, which she continues to flaunt on more recent singles like her beautiful version of ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’, released last year. There is something so captivating about Dakar’s performance that gives all her music – whether that be the 2 Tone of The Bodysnatchers or the mellow reggae of ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’ with a kind of timeless beauty that will surely outlast many of her 1980s pop peers.
