I’m a British subject, not proud of it
UB40: Burden Of Shame
While I carry the burden of shame
In 1980 hard hitting multi-racial politically charged Jamaican-influenced music from the West Midlands was not the sole preserve of Two Tone and all their punky ska offspring. I would argue that UB40 were the heaviest and punchiest of them all.
Yes, seriously. UB40. Signing on for Signing Off.
My dad, reggae nut that he is, played a lot of UB40 in the house, in his van on long family journeys, enough that I just absorbed it through my very pores. I remember the LP covers, the hazy-sounding fug of their instrumentals and dub remixes, long before they became what they became*.
Like a lot of sounds that are so ubiquitous at a certain point in your life it never occurred to me to actually own them, so I only bought Signing Off and Present Arms three years ago. I would argue they are all the ’40 you will ever need**. I found I could easily sing along to tunes that I had never heard the titles of before.
I love a lot about Signing Off, but here are some preliminaries by way of foreplay:
UB40 formed and then rehearsed all day every day until they could play their instruments well enough and only then did they play a gig; in the context of their times this was an incredibly punk thing to do.
The LP was recorded entirely in the Moseley flat of Bob Lamb, apart from some of the percussion which was recorded in the garden outside.
That the gnarlier and knottier the lyrics are, the sweeter and catchier the tune is. That’s the mark of right clever bastards in my, not remotely, humble opinion.
It all begins with ‘Tyler’, starting like a mid-90’s trip hop number it is the most melancholy and righteous LP opener I can think of. Based on the 1974 imprisonment of Gary Tyler in Louisiana and the serious irregularities and racial injustices surrounding the conviction, it simply has no right to be as wonderfully catchy as it is^.
Then we get ‘King’ a bright meditation on the death of MLK and America’s mourning of him, the rhythm and brass sections are perfect, as are the reverential sung vocals. Urgent instrumental ’12 Bar’ is a double-time stepper’s treat with some great guitar touches.
If you want heavy politics hit up ‘Burden Of Shame’, an intelligent rumination on empire, the fact we Brits are subjects not citizens and baleful foreign policy. The production is notably great on this track too, hats off to Brian Travers melodica playing and I love the way it speeds up.
The best instrumental on Signing Off is ‘Adella’, which somehow manages to be both spritely and languid. It is wonderfully atmospheric and very of its time, without sounding aged. I can take or leave the next two tracks, a Randy Newman cover and the moodier instrumental ‘25%’^*.
By far the best track on Signing Off and possibly the band’s very best song*^ is ‘Food For Thought’. It deals with genocide and starvation in Cambodia and the rank hypocrisy of Christmas, as the band saw it, all in the starkest of terms. Decidedly unlikely material for a #4 UK hit, until you factor in just how jaunty and upbeat the tune was, radio DJs played it without understanding what it was about at all.
The lyrics of ‘Food For Thought’ were worked on by lead guitarist Robin Campbell and his folksinger father, Ian Campbell. They are an absolute work of art in their own right.
Politician's argue sharpening their knives
Drawing up their bargains, trading baby lives
Ivory Madonna dying in the dust
Waiting for the manna coming from the West
Signing Off, umm signs off with, umm, ‘Signing Off’ which is a ska-d up dub track with some exemplary guitar playing on it. It is excellent.
As a UK original, the LP not me, my copy of Signing Off includes a 12″ with three additional cuts. The 12:56 of scathing disdain and despair at Margaret Thatcher that is ‘Madam Medusa’. The band train their lyrical guns on the Iron Lady and the bitterness and rancour pour forth righteously and poetically^^. It does an old leftie like me the power of good to hear this every so often.
The last two tracks are much lesser, a cover of ‘Strange Fruit’ that nobody needs and the energetic instrumental ‘Reefer Madness’.
For an LP produced in a small flat, written and played by a bunch of amateur musicians Signing Off is a small miracle. That it still sounds great 44 years later is a larger one still. Huge credit should go to Bob Lamb, nothing in this LPs sound betrays any dearth of budget or experience.
Sure Signing Off is influenced by Jamaica but I think that the secret to its unique sound is that this is reggae steeped in the British city experience, filtered through punk and post-punk and ska and pop. Lyrically it still really smites all its targets, subtly, intelligently and very poetically too.
It is an LP that still has the capacity for surprise and that’s a valuable quality.
The artwork for Signing Off is just perfect too. Foreign readers/youngsters a UB40 was the form you filled out back in the 70s-80s to apply for unemployment benefit in the UK. The act of claiming was known as ‘signing on’, hence the LP title and the stamp in red with the title on the cover.
I can think of no more apposite image of 1980’s Britain than the UB40 form, it wasn’t really a decade of Lady Di, Ra-ra skirts and champagne, not for most folks. Grim perfection.
1229 Down (the dole queue).
PS: the only other LP cover I can think of with a form on the cover is Kingdom Come Galactic Zoo Dossier, anyone got any others?
*let us (toilet) brush over that, for the sake of positive vibes.
**although I do have an inexplicable thing for ‘Rat In Mi Kitchen’.
^I found myself singing ‘Tyler is guilty, a white judge has said so’ over and over in work the other day, hence this post.
^*although typing the very words ‘the moodier instrumental’ inclines me to liking it more.
*^although it would have to duke it out with a couple of cuts from Present Arms for that honour.
^^ Round her vacant features
Gilded serpents dance
Her tree of evil knowledge
Sprouts a special branch
(NB for non-UK readers, ‘special branch’ were an elite-ish dept of the British police, often very heavy-handed tactically (especially with black youths) and later proven to be riddled with some quite horrid corruption).