Track Listing: 1. Desire
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In the late Seventies a sound emerged from the English midlands, a unique fusion of roots-rock, ska, and punk. The band that started it all, and went on to do it better than anybody else, was The Specials. The energy, intelligence, and political awareness of that band may have been a surprise to their overseas audience, but clubgoers in the area of Coventry can't have been surprised. They had seen the Wild Boys, Bonediggers, Tearjerkers, and other outfits featuring Roddy Byers, AKA Roddy Radiation, who was a prime mover in The Specials throughout their career. Roddy co-wrote The Specials' hit single "Gangsters," wrote "Hey Little Rich Girl," and both wrote and sang their hits "Concrete Jungle" and "Rat Race." Roddy had been leading other bands before his years with The Specials, and he kept playing local gigs with those groups even during the years the Specials were touring. This CD is evidence of that parallel career, and of a style of music that Roddy has dubbed "Skabilly." Roddy invented the term in the midst of an interview with Face Magazine in 1981. As he flippantly expressed it, "Black and White players borrow ideas from each other, and the hybrid ideas are the key to musical progression. So I mixed my two favourite styles, and hey, presto!" As you will see when you listen to Skabilly Rebel, the twang and country rhythms of rockabilly and the slinky backbeat of ska work exceedingly well together. Many songs that became anthems for The Specials were written years, even decades earlier, and had a more raw, immediate sound in their original incarnations. If Roddy hadn't been distracted by his touring and recording duties with the Specials, it is likely that he would have been attacking the charts with one of his other bands. Instead those bands have mostly been side projects, popular in the genial atmosphere of the British club circuit but virtually unknown elsewhere. During much of the past twenty years this type of music has been unfashionable, as overproduced bands with image consultants monopolized the top of the charts. Roddy's bands the Tearjerkers, Bonediggers, and Raiders went on making straightforward, heartfelt music, making a living and keeping their fans happy. It's the nature of rock and roll to constantly rediscover its roots, and perhaps the time has come for it to happen again. Rockabilly was almost forgotten in 1981 when The Stray Cats reminded the world of its existence by taking it to the top of the charts. Ska itself was a distant memory when The Specials introduced it to an audience tiring of metronome punk-rock. Will Skabilly have a rebirth in the early years of the 21st Century? Trends are impossible to predict. What can be predicted with confidence is that you will find much to love on this CD of the past twenty years of Roddy Radiation's music, and that if you go to one of his concerts you are in for a rockin' good time! |
