THE SPECIALS - DOING THE DOG !!!

THE SPECIALS

This is a rare clip from Japan. "Do the Dog" is an ecentric SKA romp with a lot of fury. Lead front man Terry Hall leaps around with enough venom and energy - as if he were going to kick your teeth out one at a time, (no worries kiddies, I hear he's quite harmless).

This frenetic version rushes past a little too quickly. The chorus of course saves it. There is so much character to the studio version and that gets sort of lost when its performed live.

The story is these guys were doing their own thing while the punk scene was spiraling out of control. Joe Strummer from the Clash attended one of their gigs and invited them to open for him. From there this caught the eye of Elvis Costello. Then after hearing them Costello produced their first album and introduced them to the states.

Their later tracks lost some of the pure SKA sounds. The Specials went off on a psychedelic oddysey -- it wasn't pure SKA. I liked the first album because it was incredibly raw and it sounded new to me -- with a touch of rudeness.

And..... I liked that.
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Cantu - The Fashion Culture Beauty Network - 2006

THE SPECIALS - DO THE DOG - LIVE IN JAPAN

THE SPECIALS - ALL OUT MANIA

" YOU DONE TOO MUCH.. MUCH TOO YOUNG.. NOW YOUR MARRIED WITH A SON AND YOU SHOULD BE HAVING FUN WITH ME.. ME.... ME !!!"

This is the film DANCE CRAZE.. from 2 Tone records... its rare.. maybe you can find it today in this age of DVD's. But it traces the SKA movement and shows this rather desperate time when music was changing. This was the very next movement after Punk Rock........ Its a high energy blitzkreig...... with bands like THE SPECIALS, BAD MANNERS, and THE BEAT.

But you knew that right? After all... I'm preaching to the choir am I not?

THE SPECIALS - DONE TOO MUCH