YouTube Gold: The Specials

One of the more fun bands to emerge from Margaret Thatcher’s U.K.

It’s hard for people today to understand the U.K. in the late 1970’s and ‘80’s. There was a lot of political energy around the rise of Margaret Thatcher. who became the Prime Minister in 1979.

Musically, punk was still a powerful force and Ska had also emerged. There were a lot of bands with political messages, not least of all The Clash.

There were many others too and one that emerged from the cross-pollination of punk and Ska was The Specials.

Formed in Coventry in the late 1970’s, The Specials began charting in 1980. It was a working class band with distinctly political interests, much like The Clash or, occasionally, The Jam and Elvis Costello.

That was true for a lot of their songs, but not for A Message To You, Rudy. It’s just a song about a guy who wants his girl to take her life a bit more seriously. It was danceable so the lyrics didn’t really matter all that much. The trombone did though.

The trombone doesn’t get a lot of play in modern music but here, it plays a key, funky role and even gets a solo. It’s played by Reggae and Ska legend Rico Rodriguez.

The Specials broke up and re-formed multiple times but this early version didn’t last long. Even so, they were an influential band that came along at a time of immense upheaval in British society and their music reflects that.