By Todd Lavoie
Book alert: Horace Panter, bassist for the much-beloved ska institution the Specials, has just released his memoir, and it looks quite tasty.
Entitled Ska’d for Life: A Personal Journey with the Specials (published in Britain by Sidgwick & Jackson, but distributed in America by International Publishers Group), it promises to give plenty of fresh insight into the motivations behind some of the most memorable songs of the Thatcher era, along with some intriguing observations about why the band unfortunately couldn’t make it past three albums. Haven’t read it yet, but I’ve pawed it over a few times, and it looks quite well-written. Dare I say, it may be as authoritative as some of those wicked basslines Panter unleashed as part of the Specials’ mighty rhythm section! March on over to your favorite independent bookstore and take a look for yourself.
Ah, the Specials – they were great unifiers. Back in college, I once had a clenched-fisted straight-edge roommate who lived and breathed the hardcore lifestyle 24/7. What a mope. Swear to god, the only way to crack a smile off that guy would be to throw on some Judge or Youth of Today, which he did, relentlessly. Nothing against either band, of course, or the genre, even, but this kid was just so rigid about it! For him, nothing else existed besides two-minute anthems about the evils of drugs and alcohol, both of whom I seemed to be getting on with quite well, thank you very much.