Stop your messing around

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts.

18/11/79 : The Specials - The Specials

Well, doesn't this segue nicely after Madness - I'm pretty certain I've never heard it but I'm expecting to like it. I also have to say that 1979 has totally delivered in terms of iconic acts so far - Showaddywaddy are probably the least famous act we've seen and they've been going for over fifty years. Yes, it could have been better on the gender equality front, but it's got plenty of time to catch up (spoiler alert, it won't).

Yeah, this feels like it nicely catches the time - however, I do have to offer up the proviso that I was 11 and living in Kent, so it's not like I had my finger on the pulse that this was reflecting here. I can imagine it spoke to a lot of people though - it has a really "everything's fucked but we're not going to let that stop us" vibe. I particularly liked "Message To You Rudy", "Monkey Man" and "Too Much Too Young" but it's got a decent amount of variety across it with a lot of intelligence and attitude on display.

We're at #12 in the charts this week on their fourth week of an impressive 45 week run with it having peaked at #4 in its debut week - which might well be the highest new entry we've seen this year, The top five this week were ABBA, Diana Ross and Rod Stewart best-ofs, The Jam (a new entry also at #4) and The Police and the next highest new entry was Elvis and his collection of love songs.

Wikipedia tells us this is their debut album, released on 2 Tone on the same day that Madness released their debut album on Stiff Records. Apparently, it "encapsulates the first wave of British ska" (don't shoot me if this is way off) and was produced by Elvis Costello - I didn't know he also produced Rum, Sodomy & The Lash. At the time, the critical reviews were mixed with NME loving it but Melody Maker and Sounds (both much missed) thinking it was a wasted opportunity - retrospectively, it's viewed as "a perfect moment in time captured on vinyl forever", which might be a slight exaggeration but I can see what they're saying. Commercially, it did way better elsewhere than I was expecting - #5 in New Zealand, #20 in Australia and even #84 in the US. 

If you're looking to pick up a copy, discogs.com tells me it will set you back a whole £3 but if you really want to splash out, a mint condition US pressing from '80 will set you back £220 - which feels slightly excessive to me. I can imagine this brings back many (quite possibly not so fond) memories for a lot of people who are 5-10 years older than me - I missed the window of relevance at the time, but it was still an enjoyable slice of the past for me.

11/11/79 - A most peculiar album
25/11/79 - A load of fun

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