When recently posting the video of “Ghost Town” by The Specials in the “Man Recordings Inspiration Series”, I received various emails from across the globe from people saying that this song was highly influential for them too. On my trip to Buenos Aires with Deize, I met Fantasma, a musician who is appropriating songs from European pop and making the finest digital cumbia out of it. One of the songs he gave me was his cumbia version of “Ghost Town”.

Download it from here:
Fantasma – Ghost Town

Only two weeks after my posting I found out that NY T-Shirt chief rockers Supreme made a T-Shirt with lines out of “Ghost Town” (see above). Seems there´s something in the air about The Specials….



For me, The Specials are one of the best UK bands of all time, right after The Beatles and The Clash. Inspired by 1960s Jamaican ska, Jerry Dammers, Terry Hall and their band The Specials started with cover versions of Jamaican ska classics such as Prince Buster´s “Al Capone” or Dandy Livingstone´s “Rudy, A Message To You” in 1978, entering the UK charts with their fresh new sound. One of their most classic tunes is “Ghost Town”, probably the biggest song to emerge from the 2 Tone label (which defined the 2nd wave of ska produced in UK ). “Ghost Town” still mesmerizes with it´s Oriental melody, Rico horns and child choirs embedded in a song about the decaying UK inner cities of the Thatcher years. If you look for one of the main roots of, err “tropical”, use this as your late early 1980s starting point.