Single, 1981
. . .
The final single from the the classic incarnation of The Specials was also the greatest song that any of these musicians will ever be involved in, as “Ghost Town” — especially in its extended version — is an absolutely titanic classic that still sounds fucking amazing four decades later.
Written by keyboardist Jerry Dammers, “Ghost Town” evokes just how fucked-up things were in the U.K. during the early days Thatcherism, as unemployment, despair and violence so permeated the landscape, Dammers didn’t even have to go on and on about it in the same way that, say, Joe Strummer or Paul Weller did.
Of course, a lot of that has to do with the music: from the opening windswept fade-in featuring Dammers; Hammer Horror organ, and a melancholy flute solo from Paul Heskett playing off of the horn section, “Ghost Town” is a mood, a requiem, which only deepens as singers Lynval Golding, Terry Hall and Neville Staple all trade off vocals over a slower than slow skank.
This town (townnnnnnnn) is coming like a ghost town
All the clubs have been closed down
This place (townnnnnnnnnn) is coming like a ghost town
Bands won’t play no more
Too much fighting on the dance floor
After that is the wordless chorus: the ghosts themselves singing “aiieeyeeeaiiieeeaaaaieaaaiieyiiieyiiii” in a high-pitched screech that could also be a synth, but either way, just adds to the feeling of dread, that you just don’t want to be anywhere near the ghost town.
It’s after the first verse where the genius part of the whole song happens, as it suddenly transforms itself in to a massive party — a literal flashback to the halcyon days when Specials gigs were celebrations, not occasions for war — with Terry Hall asking a question that could literally be us thinking about 2019, or even better, 2015.
Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?
We danced and sang, and the music played in a de boomtown
But it’s just a joke. Just a trick of the memory, because we all can barely remember The Before Times, whenever they happened to be, and almost instantly we’re back in the funereal death march, with the flute and keyboards leading the way, and now the stakes are higher than whether or not bands can play gigs, as Neville Staple reminds us with his toasting.
This town (townnnnnnnnnn) is coming like a ghost town
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place (townnnnnnnnn) is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can’t go on no more
The people getting angry
And then, as Dammers’s keyboards start heading straight down to hell, a despondent chant.
This town is coming like a ghost town
This town is coming like a ghost town
This town is coming like a ghost town
This town is coming like a ghost town
On the extended version, that chant bookends a long solo from trombonist Rico Rodriguez, as the rest of the music stretches and nearly disintegrates underneath him: not quite dub, but not quite not dub either. Like everything else in this song, it’s fucking terrifying: the sound of the ghosts totally having their way with everything, including The Specials, who were not long for the world in this incarnation.
“Ghost Town” came out during that period where I was learning how to be a DJ at KFSR, but before we actually went on the air, and I got instantly obsessed with it, playing it all of the time. And I guess I wasn’t the only one who was obsessed, because while here in America “Ghost Town” was only noticed by college kids and critics, topping the Village Voice’s 1981 Pazz & Jop EP poll, it the U.K., it was a massive hit — their seventh top ten in a row — making it to number one on the U.K. charts and named “single of the year” by all three major music weeklies.
And the Specials reacted by breaking up: just as the single was taking over the U.K., Hall, Golding & Staple left to form Fun Boy Three, which was the beginning of a dizzying amount of spin-offs and reunions that have lasted nearly 40 years. As has this amazing amazing song.
“Ghost Town (Extended Mix)”
“Ghost Town” Official Music Video (Single Version)
“Ghost Town” lip-synched on Top of The Pops, 1981
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