The Specials 01/25/1980 SBD [FLAC, MP3]
Back in the late ’70s a new style of music called 2 Tone originated in England. 2 Tone music combines groovy reggae beats and catchy pop melodies with a whopping dose of punk snarl. No one played 2 Tone quite like The Specials. The Specials took what some of their contemporaries were doing to the next level.
Today, we’re featuring a fabulous recording of The Specials’ performance at Hurrah in NYC taken from a radio broadcast. The bad news is that this download only contains about half of The Specials’ set, but this is all that was aired. We take what we can get around here. The British ska legends start things off with an energetic Monkey Man and keep the rapid fire pace going throughout the evening. I particularly dig A Message To You Rudy and Gangsters (which was played twice) thanks to the catchy melodies and killer horn lines. Supposedly, The Specials are reforming for a World Tour next year, but until then we’ll always have these stellar tapes.
