SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (11)
By:
November 7, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… ska records! PLAYLIST HERE. Series edited by Josh Glenn.
Art Carneys and Stan Laurels outnumber Jackie Gleasons and Oliver Hardys many times over in the rock world. There are a dozen Iggy Pop-class ectomorphs for every Meat Loaf-class endomorph. So the Gleason- and Hardy-forward physical presence of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones — clinched by their ringer, the dancing bear Ben Carr — stood out. Pie-faced, sausaged into matching bulk-enhancing suits, sweating like stevedores but light on their feet, they resembled an animate set of Populuxe living-room furniture: massy plaid-patterned couches and easy chairs floating on spindly legs to a ska-punk beat.
“The Impression That I Get” may or may not be their best song, but it’s their best pop song. A #1 hit, it follows an iron rule of pop in betting the farm on a thrilling and world-historically catchy chorus.
In the verses, Dicky Barrett forcefully talk-sings about sympathizing with the suffering of others while the band lays down a smoking groove: scratch-scratch-krrang guitar, deftly interlocked rhythm section, their second-punchiest-ever horn chart (after the one on “The Rascal King”). Sometimes he tries to jam in way too many words (“Look at the tested and think there but for the grace go I / Might be a coward, I’m afraid of what I might find out”), and his factory-installed punk sneer seems curiously mismatched to the subject matter, but it all comes off as earnest in an endearingly awkward way.
Barrett does stop talking and sing the chorus, though he sounds more like a guy in the crowd shouting along with whoever’s really singing it. It’s a hell of chorus, and that’s where the song makes the jump from good to great. When Barrett switches from muttering to bellowing, the fellas step to the mikes to help him drown out everyone else in the beer hall, the previously tortured word-music of the lyrics untangles itself and flows perfectly into the suddenly intensified groove (“I’ve NEVer had to knock on WOOD/But I KNOW someone who HAS…”), and Carr’s fussily elegant running-in-place becomes so impassioned that he seems to levitate. The whole blocky, unaerodynamic crew achieves an improbable escape velocity, taking you along for the ride.
SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Lucy Sante on Margarita’s WOMAN COME | Douglas Wolk on Millie’s MAYFAIR | Lynn Peril on Prince Buster’s TEN COMMANDMENTS | Mark Kingwell on The [English] Beat’s TEARS OF A CLOWN | Annie Nocenti on Jimmy Cliff’s MISS JAMAICA | Mariane Cara on The Selecter’s ON MY RADIO | Adam McGovern on The Specials’ GHOST TOWN | Josh Glenn on The Ethiopians’ TRAIN TO SKAVILLE | Susannah Breslin on The [English] Beat’s MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM | Carl Wilson on Prince Buster / Madness’s ONE STEP BEYOND | Carlo Rotella on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ THE IMPRESSION THAT I GET | Rani Som on The Bodysnatchers’ EASY LIFE | David Cantwell on Desmond Dekker’s 007 (SHANTY TOWN) | Francesca Royster on Joya Landis’ ANGEL OF THE MORNING | Mimi Lipson on Folkes Brothers’ / Count Ossie’s OH CAROLINA | Alix Lambert on The Specials’ TOO MUCH TOO YOUNG | Marc Weidenbaum on Dandy Livingstone’s RUDY, A MESSAGE TO YOU | Heather Quinlan on Fishbone’s MA & PA | Will Hermes on The [English] Beat’s WHINE & GRINE / STAND DOWN MARGARET | Peter Doyle on The Skatalites’ GUNS OF NAVARONE | James Parker on The [English] Beat’s SAVE IT FOR LATER | Brian Berger on The Upsetters’ RETURN OF DJANGO | Annie Zaleski on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ SOME DAY I SUPPOSE | Deborah Wassertzug on The Bodysnatchers’ TOO EXPERIENCED | Dan Reines on The Untouchables’ I SPY FOR THE FBI.
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