Two days ago (December 19) Terry Hall died of pancreatic cancer at the age of just 63. The sudden death of the singer of the pioneering ska band The Specials has shaken the British music world – as has Damon Albarn.
He wrote on Instagram: “You meant the world to me. I love you.” He also released a video in which he performed a short, melancholic piano version of the 1980 Specials track Friday Night, Saturday Morning. His American colleague Beck commented on the post with the words “We love Terry” and three broken hearts.
Spent Friday night in paradise
The song originally written by Hall was released in 1981 as a second B-side. While the single “Ghost Town” denounces the poverty and decay in the English inner cities, “Friday Night, Saturday Morning” is the hedonistic flip side of the same coin. The song sings about the usual course of a Friday night in the life of a man in his early twenties – including going to the discotheque, going to the bar and, consequently, being drunk. Hall must have known his subject very well: at the time of publication, he was only 22 years old himself. Because “Ghost Town” stayed at the top of the British singles chart for three weeks, the B-side also became known to a wide audience. The third and last stanza is particularly touching given the death of its author.
“But two o’clock has come again
It’s time to leave this paradise
Hope the chip shop isn’t closed
Cos’ their pies are really nice
I’ll eat in the taxi queue
Standing in someone else’s spew
Wish I had lipstick on my shirt
Instead of piss stains on my shoes”