The roots of rude boy: Five ska masterpieces that inspired The Specials
From the beating sun of Kingston, Jamaica, to the perpetual drizzle of Coventry, ska music formed the unlikely sounds of a musical revolution back in the 1970s, with the 2 Tone movement uniting its rocksteady rhythms with the rebellious attitude of punk and giving rise to one of Britain’s most important bands: The Specials.
Emerging from the tail-end of Coventry’s fledgling punk scene, The Specials struck upon a truly pioneering sound which blended the attitude and energy of punk rock with the infectious rhythm of ska and rocksteady music. Not only was that blend musically magnificent, but it also had a tangible political impact, too. After all, 2 Tone was born from a unifying blend of Black and white artists and Black and white influences.
During an age in which the National Front marched through the streets, having hijacked the skinhead subculture and transformed it into an army of brainless, violent hooligans, and Enoch Powell was ranting about ‘Rivers of Blood’, all the while the nation marched closer and closer to the Margaret Thatcher years, The Specials’ multi-racial output was utterly essential. Not only did the band show black and white musicians playing together for the first time, but their material itself spoke directly to the nation’s youth.
Over the course of The Specials’ tragically short tenure, between 1979 and 1981, their material covered a wealth of different issues, from teenage pregnancy to violent hate crimes, essentially telling their audience that there was an alternative to the bleak existence which many kids in cities like Coventry were told to accept.
Throughout it all, though, The Specials were always indebted to the original ska sound that emerged from Kingston during the post-independence days of the early 1960s. Their message might have been more modern, but the sound of 2 Tone was always the sound of Jamaican ska, and here we have collected five prime examples of the songs that first inspired The Specials’ ska revolution.
Five ska masterpieces that inspired The Specials:
Prince Buster – ‘Al Capone’
Without the pioneering sounds of Prince Buster, there would be no ska and no reggae music; it’s as simple as that. Not only was Cecil Bustamente Campbell one of the very first artists to strike upon that distinctive ska sound, but he was also among the very first to popularise that sound, with his album I Feel The Spirit becoming a favourite for the British mods of the 1960s. It is only fitting, then, that he also had a colossal impact on The Specials.
With his 1964 track ‘Al Capone’, in fact, Buster laid the foundations for The Specials’ debut single, ‘Gangsters’. Although Jerry Dammers added his own original lyrics to Prince Buster’s instrumental masterpiece, the group stuck close to the sound of the original, albeit speeding up the rhythm to fit in with their punk-fueled energy.
Adding to its credentials, when ‘Al Capone’ was first released in the UK, on the legendary Blue Beat label, its B-side was ‘One Step Beyond’, which received its own 2 Tone rendering courtesy of Madness some years later, speaking to the omnipresence of the ska progenitor.
Dandy Livingstone – ‘Rudy, A Message To You’
Another essential figure within the story of ska is Dandy Livingstone, whose teenage move from Kingston to London back in the 1950s was essential in establishing the roots of ska in Britain. By the late 1960s, his material had become a staple of the skinhead subculture, and he even managed a top 20 hit in 1972 with ‘Suzanne, Beware of the Devil’, on Trojan Records.
For The Specials, Livingstone’s greatest composition was his 1968 track ‘Rudy, A Message To You’. A cautionary tale to the wannabe gangsters of Kingston, with Livingstone issuing a warning to “Stop your running about”, the classic song fits quite neatly with The Specials’ musical manifesto.
With only a few alterations to the lyrics, then, ‘A Message To You, Rudy’ ended up forming the opening track of the band’s 1979 debut album, featuring fellow ska legend Rico on trombone.
Toots and the Maytals – ‘Monkey Man’
One of Jamaica’s all-time greatest groups, The Maytals played an essential role in spreading the gospel of ska and reggae far and wide across this pale blue dot, with tracks like ‘Pressure Drop’ and ‘54-46 Was My Number’ setting the tone for the entirety of the genre. It was in 1969 that the group released their first UK hit, in the form of ‘Monkey Man’.
A classic tale of a love rivalry, the song’s lyrics aren’t nearly as important as its incredible rhythm, backed up by Toots Hibbert’s incessant “aye, aye, aye” singing. Its modest entry into the UK charts back in 1970 marked a momentous occasion for ska on the global stage, and so it is no real shock that The Specials chose to record a cover of the song for their first record. Unlike other covers on this list, though, Dammers and the gang remained pretty faithful to the original, rather than their usual policy of changing around the lyrics and adding their own message.
Since The Specials’ take on the track in 1979, there have been countless other ‘Monkey Man’ covers, featuring everybody from Amy Winehouse to Melt-Banana, and even a fever dream version by Kylie Minogue and the Wiggles. Ultimately, though, nothing can truly match The Specials’ take on proceedings, injecting some punk attitude into the classic ska masterpiece.
Lloyd Charmers – ‘Birth Control’
One of the stand-out tracks on The Specials’ first album, and one of their only two number-one singles in the UK, was ‘Too Much Too Young’, an essential endorsement of contraception during a period in which teenage pregnancy was on a worrying rise. It is among the band’s most overt and up-to-date tracks, to such an extent that it is often forgotten that the song is, in fact, a cover version of Lloyd Charmers’ 1969 track ‘Birth Control’.
Charmers recorded a variety of rather risque reggae tracks during his illustrious career, including the likes of ‘Pussy To Kill You’, ‘Free Grind Ticket’, and his version of Prince Buster’s ‘Rough Rider’, and ‘Birth Control’ certainly fits in with that material. Rather than being the cautionary tale contained on The Specials’ album, Charmers’ original is largely instrumental, with only the chorus and the occasional sound of a mock orgasm interrupting.
The Specials’ tendency to take these old tracks and update them with a modern message lasted throughout their career, and in 2019 they notably rendered Prince Buster’s rather misogynistic ‘10 Commandments’ into a modern feminist anthem with Saffiyah Khan on vocals.
Andy and Joey – ‘You’re Wondering Now’
Whatever there is to be said about The Specials, they certainly knew how to close out an album. On their divisive sophomore effort More Specials, they closed proceedings with a version of Carl Sigman’s ‘Enjoy Yourself’, and on their debut, they chose the similarly effective ‘You’re Wondering Now’, previously covered by The Skatalites but first recorded by Rueben Anderson and Joanne Dennis, better known as Andy and Joey.
A triumph of the early ska sound, the track was originally released in 1964, but The Specials likely first heard it on the 1970 compilation The History Of Ska, of which Jerry Dammers declared, “This was our inspiration,” during the BBC’s Rudies Come Back documentary in 1981.
Unlike ‘Too Much Too Young’ or ‘Gangsters’, The Specials chose to change virtually nothing about ‘You’re Wondering Now’, keeping its gentle ska rhythm and lyrics intact. Rather than injecting the track with their own political message, the group instead decided to preserve its musical quality and introduce the track to a whole new generation of listeners.
