Delicate Wallflowers

You've gotta laugh. Even on Twitter

This week I have been mostly upsetting Specials fans on Twtter. Nobody told me what delicate wallflowers they all are. Ah well, at least Horace Panter saw the funny side. In the end.

That being the case, it's probably best I say only good things about Terry Hall; shouldn't be hard, I actually like the fella. Really, I do. He's a fine songwriter, no question about it. In fact, if you asked me today to list my Top 50 albums there's a very good chance Laugh from 1997 would be in there. I can't say fairer than that, now can I?

Terry Hall - Summer Follows Spring (1997)

Terry Hall - Love to See You (1997)

Postscript 16.2.19

On the advice of Mark (see his comment below), I sat down for an hour with a cup of tea and watched Richard Herring's podcast with Terry. And, can I just say, what a revelation it was. Quite literally. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're at a loose end this weekend (and even if you're not) please give it a coat of looking at. You'll be glad you did, I promise you.

Special

It was all a bit tragic when Terry Hall dug out his Alexi Sayle suit from the back of the wardrobe and pretended to be twenty years old again. The Specials weren’t designed for the 21st Century;  at least not without Jerry Dammers. They weren’t railing against anything. And if Dammers - their leader, their mentor, their one time friend (it was his band, after all) - had been asked to join the party he would sure as hell have breathed new life and new arrangements into their tired repertoire; imagine full blown orchestral versions of Nite Klub or Little Bitch: Sun Ra meets 2 Tone.

And it's not as if Hall doesn't know a thing or two about rearranging older material. His reworking of Todd Rundgren’s I Saw The Light and Music To Watch Girls by, the Andy Williams lounge classic, are nothing short of sublime. And as for his 1994 take on Bacharach and David’s This Guy’s In Love With You. Now that is special.