ISC Media Scrapbook: Ghost Town by the Specials

Ghost Town by the Specials - Steven

"Ghost Town" is a 1981 song by the British SKA band The Specials.The song spent three weeks at number one and 10 weeks in total in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.It was hailed by the contemporary UK music press as a major piece of popular social commentary,and all three of the major UK music magazines of the time awarded "Ghost Town" the accolade of "Single of the Year" for 1981.

Lyric:

This town, is coming like a ghost town
All the clubs have been closed down
This place, becoming like a ghost town
Bands won't play no more
too much fighting on the dance floor

Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?
We danced and sang, and the music played in a de boomtown

This town's becoming like a ghost town
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place, is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more
The people getting angry

This town's becoming like a ghost town
This town's becoming like a ghost town
This town's becoming like a ghost town
This town's becoming like a ghost town

Background:

The tour for the group's More Specials album in autumn 1980 had been a fraught experience: already tired from a long touring schedule and with several band members at odds with keyboardist and band leader Jerry Dammers over his decision to incorporate "Muzak" keyboard sounds on the album, several of the gigs descended into audience violence. As they travelled around the country the band witnessed sights that summed up the depressed mood of a country gripped by recession. In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, "You traveled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down... We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were 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."

Effects:

Contemporary reviews identified the song's impact as an "instant musical editorial" on recent events.Although initial reviews of the single in the UK music press were lukewarm, by the end of the year the song had won over the critics to be named "Single of the Year" in Melody Maker,NME and Sounds,the UK's top three weekly music magazines at the time.All Music's review of the original single argued that the song was the band's "crowning achievement".

The summer of 1981 saw riots in over 35 locations around the UK.In response to the linking of the song to these events, singer Terry Hall said, "When we recorded 'Ghost Town', we were talking about [1980]'s riots in Bristol and Brixton. The fact that it became popular when it did was just a weird coincidence."The song created resentment in Coventry where residents angrily rejected the characterisation of the city as a town in decline.