Thirty four years ago today The Specials hit number one and for three weeks with the song 'Ghost Town' possibly the greatest 7” single of all time, in my book anyway with the release of Ghost Town, A-side and a B-side consisting of ‘Why’ and ‘Friday Night, Saturday Morning’. Yes, this might still be the finest 7” package in pop history.
Warnings of urban decay, unemployment, and violence, all which could be seen daily on our TVs in our newspapers and around us every day it hit the mood of the time. Not just in Coventry but all over the UK inner cities. At a time of similar hopelessness, towns in England suffered from serious riots across many major cities. They were perceived as race riots between communities but the real target was the police especially within the black community where there was a growing distrust of the police and authority. The four main riots that occurred were the Brixton riot in London, the Handsworth riots in Birmingham, the Chapeltown riot in Leeds and the Toxteth riots in Liverpool .
Both ‘Why’ and ‘Friday Night, Saturday Morning’ could have been standalone A-side singles.
‘Why’ is a simple yet profound anti-racism song that should be heard far more often with its simple message to live together?
'Friday Night Saturday Morning' equally castigates the pathetic standards of youth culture, delivered in Terry Hall's deadpan, uber-sarcastic style, 'Wish I had lipstick on my shirt, instead of piss-stains on my shoes.' We've all been there more times than we would like to say.
No comments:
Post a Comment