ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #094

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

# 094: The Specials – ‘Nite Klub’ (Chrysalis Records ’79)

Good morning friends,

well, there was no way whatsoever in being able not to include The Specials in this series, was it? As far as I’m concerned it is of course debatable whether I chose the right song or not, but the main thing is that the band features – simply because they are ace – all of the time!

Now, ‘Nite Klub’ it is. And not ‘Ghost Town’, but there you are. Of course the importance of the latter is clear to me re deindustrialisation, urban decay, violence, but I reckon everybody is fully aware of the role The Specials played in the late 70’s – being a black and white Ska revival combo praying love and happiness in the heydays of punk and National Front probably wasn’t the easiest thing one could have gone for! And ‘Ghost Town’ was not the only song which showed what they stood for, there are many others which make this more than clear!

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: there is a small chance that only one single person reads this nonsense who is too young – or too busy with Ed Sheeran – to know anything about Two Tone and The Specials in particular, so, should you be wondering what the heck I’m talking about: please delve deeper, it surely is worth five minutes of your life, promised: ‘Nite Klub’ is as good a start as any other song on The Specials’ debut album!

Opening up with the sounds of clinking glasses, muffled conversations and some Jamaican patois which is so non-understandable that it still drives me nuts whenever I hear it some 46 years later, it also features Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders on backing vocals, which surely brings bonus points, at least in my little world.

mp3: The Specials – Nite Klub

‘Nite Klub’ has always been a firm live favorite, if you watch videos of gigs of the time (‘Dance Craze’ is highly recommendable in fact) you’ll see the band clicking on all cylinders, giving us bursts of energy … all of this with a bassline which is beyond this world, although you could tell the same about the horn section (something which becomes even more evident in the live part of the deluxe version of the first album).

Briefly coming back to ‘Ghost Town’ again: people love to interpret things into a song, but this does not always make sense, I always thought: the more sophisticated amongst you could ask for example whether ‘Nite Klub’ follows the lineage of Caribbean music with sociopolitical commentary in confronting the opulence and disparity of British nightlife during times of an economic standstill and continuing unemployment.

Then again you could not do this and simply take the tune like I always did – a tale about myself, with a bottom line I can fully relate to (because I did not do pretty much else when I was younger): pissing down your hard-earned cash on overpriced booze, surrounded by beautiful girls who would not care about you at all – sometimes things are exactly that simple, they are not more, but also they are not less!

Enjoy,

Dirk