In 1981, the UK Ska revival act The Specials had several songs featured in a movie entitled Dance Craze. At the time of the films release the label 2 Tone, which was owned by The Specials Jerry Dammers was in a declining state, the soundtrack to the film featured only 2 Tone artists, even charting at number five on the UK album charts. The soundtrack featured 15 of 27 tracks that were used in the film, one of the tracks not included on the soundtrack that is the main topic of discussion here is The Specials song “Raquel”. The song was released on a 1981 single release of The Specials song “Concrete Jungle”, the songs B-side was the then previously unreleased Specials song “Raquel”. Clocking in at about two minutes, the song is a fast paced Ska number, done in the vein of songs such as “Little Bitch” found on the 1979 debut album from The Specials. As a result of the Dance Craze soundtrack this exclusive seven inch single was released for promotional purposes and for years remained a hard to find single featuring this track “Raquel”, which was equally as hard to find. The song dates back to The Specials early days when they were known as The Coventry Automatics, it was also released on a cassette tape compilation album in 1981 with numerous other 70s Punk and New Wave hard to find nuggets titled NME C81, released by NME magazine in the UK. The track continued it’s hard to find status for about twenty years until a demo version of “Raquel” was released on The Coventry Automatics – Dawning of a New Era, which collects recordings from The Specials early days. In 1993, The Compact 2 Tone Story Box Set was released, which featured the song as it appeared on the 1981 B-side to “Concrete Jungle”, as well as all of the A and B-sides that the 2 Tone label released.
This Week's Play List:
1. Dan Sartain - I Don't Want To Go To The Party (Toerag Version)
2. Minutemen - Voodoo Slaves
3. Psycho Surgeons - Wild Weekend
4. Silent Movie Type - She Says
5. Johnny West - You Turn Me Off, I'm A Microwave
6. Pere Ubu - Misery Goats
7. Aztec Camera - We Could Send Letters
8. David Bowie - What In The World
9. Public Image Limited - Careering
10. The Stig – Who Are You
11. Huladog – R88
12. Jack Pine and The Fire - Lost In New Orleans
13. Sumner Brothers - Big Rock Candy Mountain
14. Le Butcherettes - I'm Getting Sick Of You
15. The Black Angels - Sunday Afternoon
16. The Ugly Ducklings - Hangman
17. The Specials - Raquel
18. The Love Me Nots - End of the Line
19. The Pointed Sticks - Splish Splash
20. The Libertines - I Get Along
21. Miesha & The Spanks - Night Danger Baby
22. The Jam – Going Underground
23. The Waldos - Golden Days
To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for January 3. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.
