A Dark Song For a Dark Time. The Best Songs: Ghost Town
By the mid-70's, the hippie movement was dead. People from that era were still making music. People still opposed Nixon and the Vietnam war, but songs directly responding to the political moment like "What's Going On" and "Ohio" were seemingly a thing of the past. The next generation chose to turn back the clock. Patti Smith embraced the political topics and sonic experiments of The Velvet Underground as The Ramones developed a style of speedy, simplified rock. When The Ramones toured the United Kingdom, the nation's youth watched. By 1977, punk rock was an undeniable force.
Consider listening to “I’m Waiting For The Man” as an example of The Velvet Underground’s proto-punk, “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” for an example of The Ramones’ early punk, “Gloria” to see Patti Smith’s more intellectual and experimental side of early punk (and because it is one of my favorite songs), and “New Rose” for an example of British punk from The Damned.
As quickly as punk came to prominence, it fell apart. Bands split up or evolved into post-punk, a loose label given to the bands that experimented beyond the style's simple conventions. In 1979, the rapidly crumbling punk scene's best band took inspiration from Jamaica. While American music put politics in the backseat, Bob Marley made massive waves in his homeland and abroad, proving there was still a demand for artists with a political bent. On "London Calling", The Clash mixed Marley's epic, meditative reggae with ska, a style combining native Jamaican ideas with American R&B, and the band's signature punk-rock style for an album so good The Clash earned the title "The Only Band that Matters".
Consider listening to Bob Marley’s masterwork album “Exodus”, especially highlights in the title track, “Jammin’”, “Waiting In Vain”, and “Three Little Birds”. Consider listening to highlights from “London Calling” including “Spanish Bombs”, “Lost in the Supermarket”, “The Guns of Brixton”, and “Rudie Can’t Fail”. Lastly, enjoy some 1979 post-punk in Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control”, The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry”, and Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime”.
However, 1979 saw another band prove they mattered as well. Alongside The Clash, The Specials created and defined Ska's second wave. They added onto the Jamaican rude boy aesthetic a motif of black-and-white checkerboards. This image, tied to their label Two-Tone Records, carried with it a political message. Black and white stood together, as they did within the band. Multiracial band’s are rare even now, but band mastermind Jerry Dammers had spent time playing in all kinds of music scenes, and believed that anti-racism was a fruitless endeavor without including Black people.
Consider listening to songs off The Special’s first, self-titled album, like “A Message To You Rudy” and “Gangsters”. Also consider listening to some more multiracial bands, including X-Ray Spex and their legendary “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”, Skunk Anansie with “Hedonism”, Death with the proto-punk (or perhaps punk before punk was a thing) song “Politicians In My Eyes”, or the classic from Sly and The Family Stone, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”
Though the band saw fast success, just as quickly there came turmoil. The band members grew tired of touring, and clashed with Dammers' vision on their second album, "More Specials". But the biggest change was in the government: 1981 was the Thatcher era. The late 70s had seen a massive sweep of strikes and the collapse of the Labour party's coalition known as the Winter of Discontent, and the early 80s saw saw a global recession. Thatcher's response was union opposition austerity, cutting social services and privatizing state utilities. At the same time, The Specials were seeing clubs they'd played at on their rise to fame close. The rising racist skinhead movement was causing fights at their shows. Most powerfully as quoted in The Guardian, Dammers saw "… these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong."
The band’s response to this era of turmoil was "Ghost Town". The song begins with a grand swell before diving into its meditative groove. As a younger music fan, I believed the signature reggae groove would make the genre repetitive, and if you feel the same I hope this song can prove that belief wrong. True to its name, the song's sonic landscape is haunting and evokes the feeling of walking down a dark alley. The horn section jumps out at you from the dark, not as a true attack but perceived threats the dark that keep you on high alert. The group vocals transform the aesthetic into true thought, the undeniable reality that anywhere you lived in the United Kingdom you were likely to think, "this town is coming like a ghost down". Producer John Collins had the group repeat that chant through the entire song, as a piece that could be muted or un-muted as necessary (a stylistic convention of dub music), and the result was the line becoming a mantra, an ominous performance that perfectly fits the songs feel.
The lead vocals reflect on the state of the United Kingdom including the previously mentioned clubs closing, poverty, and racist violence. The reflection leads to one succinct conclusion that, "the people getting angry". The week “Ghost Town” hit number one on the UK hot 100, the summer had been defined by riots. On top of the economic issues, Thatcher had increased police powers. Stop and frisk laws gave cops an excuse to search anyone "suspicious" (which officers often interpreted as "Black"), and as sung in Ghost town, the people could not go on anymore. The violent rebellion of British youth sent a message: Thatcherism and its results were unacceptable.
Yet Thatcher stayed in power until 1990, when she was replaced by another conservative. A riot, as described by Martin Luther King Jr., is the language of the unheard, but despite living under a government meant to represent all people, even a riot was left unheard. For as much as I want to believe in that happy ending, where punk rock and The Specials obliterated conservatism and brought about a righteous era of rock and roll, it isn't true. I don't know how to emotionally understand how we all idealize rebellion while refusing to let it result in anything. I don't know why there hasn't been police reform in America since the 90's. I don't know why Joe Biden resolved to "fund the police" numerous times during his presidency. I don't know why Donald Trump is president.
I don't have a better way forward in politics. For as much as a widened perspective on history makes me think less of protest music and big activist performances, they still resonate. My answer as a scholar of performance: even if music fails as revolutionary action, it can still succeed as a document. YG and Nipsey Huddle didn't stop then-candidate Donald Trump with "FDT", but there is no better document of the baffled anger felt in early 2016. "Respect" did not earn women greater rights overnight, but it epitomized the drive behind the sexual revolution and women's liberation. "Ghost Town" embodies a bleak moment where conservatism grabbed power, and contrary to reason there were no indications it would let go. Despite its darkness, I find the song brings me comfort. They lived through dark times, and we might too. And the art we leave behind will ensure the world knows how we feel.
