The Specials - Ghost Town - Various Songs (1981-1985)

Here's the second and final stray tracks album for the Specials. 

Note that the band basically split into two in 1981. Lead singer Terry Hall and a couple others left to form the band Fun Boy Three, while the main songwriter Jerry Dammers continued with the somewhat different name the Special AKA. For simplicity's sake, I call everything "the Specials." In actual fact, only the first four songs feature Hall and the rest of the original band.

The first song, "Ghost Town," was a number one hit in Britain, and all three major British music magazines of the time named it the song of the year. However, it didn't make much impact in the US, since it was specifically speaking about the economic troubles in Britain at the time.

Most of the rest of the songs are B-sides. "96 Tears" is an unreleased demo of the classic 1960s hit, from right before the band broke up. "Jungle Music" is an A-side, but it didn't chart at all. The last song, "Starvation," is a special case. 1985 was the year of the huge "Live Aid" benefit concert, and the massive hit charity single "We Are the World." A bunch of band in the British ska/reggae movement, led by the Dammers version of the Specials, decided to do their own charity single to benefit the same problem of famine in Africa. It's a cover of a song originally done by the Pioneers in 1971.

Personally, I think Dammers wrote some top notch songs for the Specials. But after 1984 or thereabouts, he more or less stopped putting out music and mostly switched to other pursuits, such as DJing, instead. That's a shame, in my opinion. Starting in 1993, various versions of the Specials reformed. Terry Hall rejoined the band in 2008, and has led it ever since. Dammers never rejoined though. But these later versions of the band are basically an oldies act, in my opinion, focusing on concerts filled with their 1970s and early 1980s songs, so this series ends here.

Now, I have to address the very unusual bonus track, "The Boiler." I have to warn you that this song, written by Dammers and several women from a short-lived band called the Bodysnatchers, is very hard to listen to. It starts off sounding like most any other catchy, toe-tapping Specials song, with lead vocals by female vocalist Rhoda Dakar. But as the song goes on, Dakar describes a date that goes horribly wrong. It ends with her getting raped, which is expressed in audio by her screaming in horror. It is one of the most disturbing songs I've ever heard.

Dammers has said it's a song that's only meant to be heard once, in order to get its message across. Thus, I've only included it as a bonus track, an optional kind of thing, because it would stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of the rest of the songs, well-intentioned though it is. Also, note that the B-side, "Theme from the Boiler," is basically the same song, but just an instrumental version. I have included that as one of the album tracks. 

So you might want to take Dammers' advice and listen to "The Boiler" once. But I doubt there are many who would want to hear it lots of times.

01 Ghost Town (Specials)
02 Why (Specials)
03 Friday Night, Saturday Morning (Specials)
04 96 Tears [Demo] (Specials)
05 Theme from the Boiler [Instrumental] (Specials)
06 Jungle Music (Specials with Rico)
07 Rasta Call You [Instrumental] (Specials with Rico)
08 Easter Island [Instrumental] (Specials with Rico)
09 Can't Get a Break (Specials)
10 Starvation (Specials, Pioneers, UB40, Madness, & General Public)

The Boiler (Specials featuring Rhoda)

Download | Mirror

The album cover is the cover of the "Ghost Town" single. The only change I made is that the original cover included the names of the two B-sides as well. I removed those names, and increased the size of A-side name to cover the empty space.