Running On The Spot

Purple Hearts

As punk started to implode in England in the late 70’s, many musicians started to apply the energy of punk to other genres.  At the same time, many artists were starting to look back at the past in an attempt to rediscover prior genres of music.  One musical sub-culture that emerged and became immensely popular was the mod/ska revival of the late 70’s.  Mod, originally short for modernist, was originally a movement in England centered on dandy dressing, motor scooters, and dancing; musically mod was heavily influenced by American R&B and soul as well as Jamaican ska.  Groups like the Who, the Kinks, and the Small Faces.  In the late 70’s there was a growing movement to fuse the energy and excitement of punk with the sound and look of 60’s mod.

Foremost among the bands pursuing this approach was the Jam.  Originally formed as a sort of pub rock band in the early 70’s by singer/guitarist Paul Weller, the Jam eventually evolved toward a more straightforward mod sound by ’76.  Their first single, “In the City”, has the high energy of the punk of the Pistols and Clash (and even has the same descending chord structure of “Holidays In the Sun” by the Pistols, which it preceded by several months) and a heavily Who and Small Faces influenced sound.  “The Modern World” off their second album, This Is the Modern World, is another killer track with a great opening and more of a buzzsaw guitar than their earlier work and a wild, feedback-laden solo.  “To Be Someone”,  “A Bomb on Wardour Street”, and the title track off their third album All Mod Cons, continues to pursue this high energy punk-infused mod sound, with lots of big pulsing bass from Bruce Foxton.  “The Eton Rifles” off their fourth album Setting Sons is a little slicker in sound but has a big bold chorus.

But to me the Jam’s finest hour remains their final album, the Gift.  From the bombastic, echoed beginning of “Happy Together”, which may come the closest of all their many songs to the feel of classic Who, this is a terrific album.   “Ghosts”, the next song on the album, is arguably their finest effort; a slow, quiet, introspective song with a very subdued guitar line and Bruce Foxton’s big bass throbs and little horn accents toward the end, this is one of the best songs to come out of England in the 80’s.  “Carnation” is another slow, bass-heavy song, while “Town Called Malice” is much more uptempo, with blasts of Hammond organ and a snappy beat—it was the big hit from this album.  Finally, “Running On the Spot”, like “Happy Together”, is a peppy, catchy song with a singalong chorus.  These five songs are easily some of the best songs to come out of the mod revival.

In the wake of the Jam’s immense popularity, many other bands surged forth to produce more mod revival music in the late 70’s.  Arguably the two next best bands to the Jam were the Purple Hearts and the Chords.  The Purple Hearts released just two albums in their heyday (though like most bands they have reformed and released some newer work in the 21^st century); their magnum opus was 1980’s Beat That! (which is available on iTunes).  The songs here are less political, less overtly Who influenced, but often were catchier and more soul-influenced.  “Jimmy” has a staccato guitar riff and a big, soaring chorus and is a major standout, as is “Frustration”, which has a slightly rawer guitar sound and a driving bass line.  “Millions Like Us” became a mod anthem, and the title track is perhaps the best tune on this excellent album, a heartfelt ode to avoiding early fatherhood that echoes “News At Ten” by the Vapors in its rejection of settled normalcy.  If you only download two songs by the Purple Hearts, these are the two to take.

The Chords, also from London, were another standout mod revival band.  The Chords sound very very similar to the Jam but their lyrics were often more pointedly political.  Their outstanding song is “Maybe Tomorrow”, a fantastic high energy mod rave-up with a wonderfully big bold chorus.    Other standout songs from their 1980 album So Far Away are “British Way Of Life”, “Now It’s Gone”, “The Way It’s Got To Be” (my next favorite song after “Maybe Tomorrow”), and “What Are We Gonna Do Now”.  Anyone who likes the Jam will love this band.

Originally from Lewes, Sussex, the Lambrettas (named after the scooter of choice for most mods) released several outstanding singles, including their outstanding song “Dance”, with its sweet guitar and driving backbeat; “Poison Ivy”, which is really more ska than mod; and “Another Day (Another Girl)”, which is very influenced by the Small Faces.

The Merton Parkas had two excellent singles, “Face In the Crowd” (the title of their sole album), which had a twitchy guitar and a very propulsive rhythm section, and “You Need Wheels”, which has a excellent R&B rhythm and an almost ska chorus.

Secret Affair’s sound was much bigger and brassier, with heavy horn flourishes on songs like “Time For Action”, but could also be more guitar-driven as on “Soho Strut” and “Glory Boys”.

At the same time the mod revival was occurring, England was undergoing a similar revival, this time of ska.  Ska was Jamaican music that predated reggae that had elements of calypso and American R&B.  The majority of English ska bands were on the label Two Tone, and often music of this period is called Two Tone or Two Tone ska to differentiate it from first-run 60’s Jamaican ska.  These bands went on to even bigger success in England and America than the mod revival bands, which aside from the Jam and a only in few markets never made much of a splash in the U.S.  But the English Beat, the Specials, and Madness all had top 40 hits in England and America both.    The English Beat were hugely popular in Southern California where I grew up in the early 80’s, and their cover of Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown” as well as their originals “I Confess”,  “Mirror In the Bathroom”, “Ranking Full Stop”, “Best Friend”, and especially “Save It For Later” were all big hits at my high school. 

“Pressure Drop” by the Specials is a fantastically catchy and danceable song that was featured on the soundtrack to the late 90’s John Cusack movie “Grosse Pointe Blank”.   Their early singles “Nite Klub”, “Concrete Jungle”, and “Gangsters” are all wonderful, memorable horn-driven ska.  But their greatest song, and one of the greatest songs to emerge from England in the last 60 years, is “Ghost Town”.  Essentially a protest song about the effects of Thatcherism as well as increasing racism on the economy of their city of Coventry, this song represents both a lyrical and musical high point to the ska revival and is as powerful as anything the Pistols released. 

The Specials broke up in 1981 shortly after the release of “Ghost Town”, and vocalists Terry Hall, Lynval Golding, and Neville Staple formed Fun Boy Three, who achieved some fame for co-writing “Our Lips Our Sealed”, which was first recorded by the Go-Go’s but later re-recorded by FB3 and became a hit in England for them as well.  Jane Wiedlin had dated Terry Hall and the song was written about the intrusive presence the English tabloids were on their relationship.  Two other standout tracks by Fun Boy Three are “The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum”, with its stilted, syncopated beat, and the jaunty “The Telephone Always Rings”, which almost sounds like the Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry”.

Its hard to overstate how popular the mod and ska revivals were in Southern California where I grew up.  Many of my friends were hardcore mods who rode scooters and wore parkas and black suits and bands like the English Beat and the Jam were hugely popular even though to my knowledge they never toured there.  But mostly through the radio station KROQ and through the nascent field of music videos these bands developed quite a massive following then.  I can still remember seeing the video for the English Beat’s “Save It For Later” and just being blown away at how cool they seemed.  In the 80’s and 90’s many bands infused their sound with mod and particularly ska influences, and several achieved lasting fame, including the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (their song “Where Did You Go?” was featured in the Alicia Silverstone movie Clueless and they also performed “Someday I Suppose” in the movie as well), Goldfinger, Operation Ivy, Sublime (from my home town of Long Beach, CA), and the biggest of all, No Doubt.