‘If You Go Away’: the song Terry Hall wished he had written
Rolling blackouts, economic deprivation, and neoliberalism slowly rearing its ugly head made the late 1970s a particularly depressing period to live in the United Kingdom. Many young people felt hopelessly disenfranchised, destined to work in factories that were rapidly closing down. For those kids, the only shred of hope came in the revolutionary sounds of the 2 Tone movement, with The Specials’ Terry Hall as its straight-faced frontman standing against all that was wrong with the nation.
Built upon a message of unity, anti-racism, and an unwavering adoration of Caribbean rhythms, 2 Tone music blended elements of punk with the infectious groove of Jamaican ska music. In a more profound sense, however, the movement blended white working-class culture with the Caribbean influences that had arrived in the UK in the wake of Windrush following World War II.
Racist attitudes were rife throughout society during the 1970s, and The Specials were among the first bands to directly address those issues, in addition to issues of unemployment, youth violence, teenage pregnancy, and nuclear war, to name only a few. Throughout it all, Terry Hall was the spokesperson for The Specials and, by extension, the wider 2 Tone universe. With Neville Staple by his side, the band’s singers reflected the inherent message of the movement.
For much of the band’s admittedly short tenure, Hall shied away from songwriting duties. A lot of The Specials’ material was cover versions of old Jamaican ska tunes, and original efforts were usually penned by the band as a group. Aside from select tracks like ‘Man at C&A’ or ‘Friday Night, Saturday Morning’, Terry Hall did not get an opportunity to espouse his own songwriting skills until he left the group in 1981.
After leaving the band, Hall was free to explore all the avenues of songwriting and musical inspiration that might not have fit within the checkerboard landscape of 2 Tone. Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, and Vegas, among multiple other musical projects kept Hall occupied in the post-Specials years, and his debut solo album Home, released in 1994, showed that his knack for songwriting and performance only improved in the years since he first burst onto the scene bedecked in black and white.
Back in 2016, when Hall was back performing with a reformed Specials, alongside Lynval Golding and Horace Panter, the songwriter was interviewed by Fred Perry. Giving an insight into his musical tastes and opinions, Hall highlighted Richard Hell’s ‘Blank Generation’ as a continued source of inspiration but cited Scott Walker’s classic ‘If You Go Away’ as the song he wished he could have written.
Featured as the final track of Walker’s 1969 album Scott 3, ‘If You Go Away’ is a perfect example of the singer’s emotive tones and deep, cinematic quality. Ironically, given Hall’s wish to have written the ballad, Scott Walker didn’t have a hand in its writing either. It is based on Jacques Brel’s 1959 track ‘Ne me quitte pas’, which was first rendered in the English language by Rod McKuen.
A sense of hope contrasts its melancholic tone within the lyrics, which creates a unique feeling to the pop standard that clearly resonated with Terry Hall.
Arguably, the appeal of ‘If You Go Away’ lies within its hopeful lyrics, which are contrasted by the melancholic atmosphere created by Walker. This contrasting theme clearly resonated with Terry Hall, whose work often explored the complexities of emotion and mood. Even if Hall didn’t get to write ‘If You Go Away’, his work has certainly left a lasting mark on the face of British music.
