I’ve been listening to some 2-Tone Ska recently. Mostly the two bands that I used to listen to in high school, “The Beat” (also known as “The English Beat” and “The British Beat” for copyright reasons) and “Madness”.
I started reading some wikipedia on Madness and ska and discovered some things that were very surprising to me. I had no idea that ska in general, and Madness in particular, is skinhead music. So then I read the wikipedia entry on skinheads. To my surprise, skinheadism originally had nothing to do with white supremacy, and was in fact originally inspired by the Jamaican “rude boy” subculture. Apparently the nazis took over skinheadistan in the 1970s, and there are still pockets of resistance. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinhead#Racism.2C_anti-racism_and_politics.
The wikipedia article on Madness in particular is very sympathetic. The basic idea is that, while many fans of Madness were nazis, the band in general tried to distance itself from skinheadism. (Note that Madness first gained success in 1979, by which time most skinheads seem to have been nazis, and see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madness_(band)#Skinhead_controversy).
Madness often opens live performances with the song “One Step Beyond”. This song was also the first track, and title track of Madness’ (very successful) first album. Here’s the lyrics:
Hey you, don't watch that
Watch this!
This is the heavy heavy monster sound
The nuttiest sound around
So if you've come in off the street
And you're beginning to feel the heat
Well listen buster
You better start to move your feet
To the rockinest, rock-steady beat
Of Madness...
One step beyond!
The song itself is an instrumental song by Prince Buster, but the lyrics are by Madness. The first two lines are a quote from another song by Prince Buster. Clearly, the term “buster” in line 7 is a reference to Prince Buster. According to Wikipedia, the members of the band idolize Prince Buster, who (according to some accounts) is the inventor of ska. Prince Buster is a black Jamaican.
The problem is that line 4 isn’t really “the nuttiest sound around”. Listen to it. It’s “the naziest sound around”. I’ve listened to the original and a performance from 1991. Is “nazi” just Cockney for “nutty”, or something? I checked three lyrics sites and they all said “nutty”. Also, Madness recorded a Spanish version; if some of my Spanish-speaking readers could listen to the Spanish version and tell me if that says something analogous to “nazi” or “nutty”, I’d very much appreciate it.
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was wondering the same thing. Thanks for the history though.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that, in 2011, someone is perpetuating the "naziest" sound myth. It's "nuttiest" and it always has been. Madness defined their style as "the Nutty Sound" (a style combing their influences including ska, motown and rhythm and blues). The problem you may be having is understanding a London accent. The way a letter "u" is pronounced in a working class London accent is almost indistinguishable from a letter "a", so I can perhaps forgive your misunderstanding. Back in 1979, there was a skinhead revival (Skinhead being a youth cult started in the 60s by white kids who listened to reggae). Later, right wing organisations such as the National Front, started to recruit skinheads as they were seen to be easy targets. Nazi skinheads were not just present at early Madness gigs, but also football matches and at gigs by The Specials and The Selecter, both of which had black members. The problem Madness had was they were all white, and therefore weren't as able to easily show they weren't fascists. They also ignored it to some extent saying that they were only musicians and therefore weren't interested in politics. They were given a hard time by the press, as can be seen in this article in the NME headlined "Nice band, shame about the fans" (http://www.madnesstradingring.com/InPrint/1979/NMENov24-79.html). They finally had to issue a statement to the press saying "There is no way any of us are facists. We are categorically against it". If you need further proof, get hold of the vinyl single of "One Step Beyond". The phrase "That Nutty Sound" is scratched into vinyl between the song and the label.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope you're right sounds like you know what you're talking about. They don't seem stupid enough to be Nazi.
DeleteThanks Dominic!
ReplyDeleteI hope you're right.
thnx Dominic
ReplyDeleteThanks Dominic, you are right. It's all eggs, bacon, beans and a fried slice.
ReplyDeleteJust listened to it again a few times (Longtime Madness fan so know that they are not racist at all). The reverb and delay also make it hard to make out
ReplyDeleteThey probably said "nutsiest" to "take the piss" or before they realized it sounded like something unintended. Anyway they come from a mixed race culture and embrace it for sure.
ReplyDeleteMate it's nuttiest with a London accent so London is pronounced "Land'n"and nuttiest is pronounced "nattiest" if you get what I mean also 2tone music is an offshoot of reggae + ska and has its roots in Coventry . Source : me! Coventry born and bred and was raised n Covent . The home of 2tone sound. You might want to look into the specials and the selecter both from Coventry . Multi racial bands from Coventry . The selecter lead singer was Pauline black . A black woman. There was nothing racist about this sound apart from a few racists who may have been into it. Also there will be racists who may like to listen to classical music. Music is multi racial. Heck go back far enough and you will find a lot of the musical instruments that we use in the west will have originated from the Arabs and Indians anyway . That's history for ya ! Anyway nice write up thank you
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