In a world gone crazy, where hate appears to be in the ascendancy, the public reaction to the tragic and premature death of Specials front man Terry Hall has, perhaps for a brief moment in time, restored my faith in human nature. Hall’s passing dominates my social media like no one and nothing else has done in ages. There’s proper grief out there and why shouldn’t there be? I felt the same when Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys died in 1998. And it was Wilson who said this: “(Beach Boys) music does have a spiritual quality to it, and of course that’s just a basic truth about music, is that music is an expression of spirit, and it’s a living expression. People connect to it because people ‘are’ spirit.” The same applies to whatever music it is that you like. And that’s the sense I get today.
I never got beyond liking The Specials. I didn’t love their music because by then my musical preferences had gone elsewhere. But they could not be ignored. Their music, a combination of old Ska covers and original material captured a moment in time, a multiracial band playing at a time when racial division was tearing us apart and some cities were literally burning. They released two albums at their peak between 1979 and 1980 but that was more than sufficient to cement their reputation and build a great legacy.
It is hard to overstate their importance in terms of the fight against racism which in the late 1970s we, the anti-racists, got perilously close to losing as the fascist National Front became a powerful force on the fringes of politics. When I saw The Specials on Top Of The Pops, I was reminded of the time, a decade before, when I saw Eddy Grant and The Equals on the same show, another combination of black and white musicians. For those of us growing up at the time – and I was far too young to understand what racism was – it was revelatory. Why did bands have to be all white, like The Beatles, or all black, like The Four Tops? Of course, they didn’t and as society became more woke (and I use the word in its literal sense) colour didn’t matter. Perhaps, The Specials were to the 1970s generation what The Equals were to the 1960s? One thing is for sure: they both made great music.
If the music didn’t particularly move me, everything Terry Hall stood for did. He carried the torch for the fight against racism and injustice until the end and for that reason alone, he should always be remembered. That he also made some of the most era-defining music of the day is another.
I am not one of those who think it weird to be affected by the death of someone you don’t know and have never met. Life doesn’t work like that. I get upset and cry about all sorts of things and it’s not always, perhaps even rarely, about people and things close to my heart. People doing nice things moves me more than anything. Why should people who grew up with Hall’s music not feel sad, even overwhelmed, today? We don’t save up our emotions just to be opened up for family and friends. And Hall’s death is the end of an era because there is no conceivable way the Specials name can go on. It’s the end.
63 is no age and that will have shocked people, too. After Hall’s cancer scare, maybe we thought he would live forever, just as we, when we are young, think we will. But none of us do. The important message about Terry Hall is a simple one: Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.
