SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (17)
By:
November 27, 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.
Back in high school, a close friend of mine (to this day), who was admirably further ahead on the new wave curve than I was, introduced me to the Specials and the English Beat, bands on the 2 Tone Records label.
I already had a “reggae friend” and a “Deadhead friend,” but none of that music hit me the way ska did. A bit like the Stray Cats managed with rockabilly and Los Lobos with conjunto, these British 2 Tone bands took something that was, to my teen ears, archaic, and made it vibrant, even challenging. In retrospect, all these modernizations were akin to the earlier Folk Revival, just on a more modest scale.
As with the English Beat’s cover of Smokey Robinson’s Motown classic “Tears of a Clown,” the Specials made the past present by updating old songs, which in turn provided a path for teen me back to where the music originated. But streaming services didn’t exist in (my) high school (years), so a lot of time passed (an embarrassing amount, truth be told) before I heard many of those originals. That delay partially explains why encountering Dandy Livingstone’s 1967 “Rudy, a Message to You” — later retitled “A Message to You, Rudy,” a rendition of which opened the Specials’ debut album in 1979 — felt so captivating to me. You may not be able to go home again, but you can sort out, decades after the fact, that your home had more rooms than you knew it did.
Not surprisingly, given the impact of punk on British pop of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Livingstone’s original “Rudy,” which he wrote and sang, is a more coolheaded and streamlined affair than what the Specials would do with it a dozen years later. His horn section, for one thing, doesn’t sound like a block party on the verge of chaos. Vocal harmony is essential, but with fewer lines and more pointed intervals. The Specials sing the song en masse; their “Rudy” is an intervention. In contrast, Livingstone’s reedy voice slots alongside and leads his horn section. When he delivers the song’s damning line — “Better think of your future … Else you’ll wind up in jail” — you sit up a little straighter. Then the chorus comes ’round, and you can relax again.
There’s a continuum of societal-issues pop that ranges from public service announcement (Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t Drive Drunk”) to after-school special (Suzanne Vega’s “Luka”) to cinéma vérité (Jane’s Addiction’s “Jane Says”). Despite veering close to the PSA side of the radio dial, “Rudy, A Message to You” transcends lyrics that could — when simply read on the page — be mistaken for an admonishment delivered by a grade school principal. Livingstone is like the coolest principal ever.
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’ 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.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!