— Steve Bush
Good to be careful, isn't it? Wouldn't want to risk having to once again be dealing with some irate readers, would ya? Steve Bush gave Madness plenty of praise for their debut single but all that seems to be remembered is that fact that he mixed up the A and B sides — which, if you think about it, only tells you how good these Camden lads were, that they were able to put something so good on the flip that it could easily be mistaken for a flagship release (though I suppose the inverse of that is that the intended single was so underwhelming as to be assumed to be just filler for the second side).
As if regretting the decision to relegate "Madness" to the other side of "The Prince", Madness chose a Prince Buster cover for their follow up single. Covering the same artist twice on the bounce straight out of the gate seems risky: for one thing, they were sending out the message that they didn't have a great deal of faith in their own material and, second, and more worryingly, it appeared that they were piggybacking on someone else's work and identity. A good thing, then, that their interpretation of "One Step Beyond" bears only a passing resemblance to the original.
Released in 1964 as the B-side to single "Al Capone" (from which The Specials borrowed liberally for their outstanding hit single "Gangsters"), "One Step Beyond" is a slow moving, methodical number. The sax part is so relaxed that it could have been played by the breathy, swoonsome tenor master Ben Webster. Indeed, the horn solos give it a nice jazzy feel that you won't find on its much more famous cover. (Though I would defend Lee "the guy from Madness" Thompson as a sax player in a pop group, he doesn't come close to what Dennis "Ska" Campbell is able to get out of his woodwind) Wisely figuring that there was no way they'd be able to ape the source material, Madness' version injects plenty of hot ska revival energy which just about makes up for the group's limitations. While there is plenty to like about Prince Buster's recording, there's no question which one gets stuck in my head easier and is "really hard to keep still to".
Producer Alan Winstanley, of the famed Langer and Winstanley production team that worked with The Teardrop Explodes, Dexys Midnight Runners and Elvis Costello & The Attractions in addition to their lengthy association with Madness, has said that "One Step Beyond" was recorded short, with just a minute and ten seconds of running time which they then looped in order to flesh it out to appropriate single length. This is not an unprecedented act of studio trickery. Phil Spector lengthened the George Harrison track "I Me Mine" from its similarly brief original studio take for release on Let It Be (he also added an uncharacteristically subtle string section making it the only Beatles' song he failed to cock up). 12" mixes are all about extending pop songs beyond standard radio play length and the vast majority are bases around stretching out the hooks. Bush listens to "One Step Beyond" and wants more (it "ends about five minutes too soon" he reckons) but it's the sort of wish that was better off not coming true. Yes, there is a desire to keep the party going but the repetitiveness would have become exposed had it gone on for much longer.
"One Step Beyond" gave Madness their first of fourteen Top 10 hits. I suggested in my write up on Bush's review of "Madness" that their debut may have been a tiny disappointment when held up against efforts from The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat from the same year. Their early records weren't there simply to prompt kids into the shops but also to encourage them seek these acts out on tours. You like our single? Just wait till you see our show. (The Specials went so far as to record follow up single "Nite Klub" so as to sound live and then released a live EP at the start of 1980, the chart topping Too Much Too Young) Madness proved up to the challenge with "One Step Beyond" and it quickly became one of their hallmark numbers. Though rocksteady and ska would never quite leave their sound, their days as a full-on 2 Tone act were numbered (they'd already left the label after "The Prince" and were now signed to Stiff, home of spiritual cousins Ian Dury & The Blockheads) and it was time to spread out. Luckily, they already had a track called "My Girl" that just needed some dusting off. They're away.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Yellow Magic Orchestra: "La femme chinoise"
Forget (assuming you were ever aware of) all that hooey about them being the original cyber punks, Yellow Magic Orchestra were (and still are) way too much of an original one-off to be so carelessly described. If I was to make a sweeping characterization of them I'd say they were a forerunner to both the fantastic nineties scene of futuristic Japanese retro pop known as Shibuya-kei and a whole generation of French electro-pop boffins like Air, Daft Punk and Etienne de Crecy but even that smacks of the sort of lazy musicology wherein female singers are cited only as an influence on other female singers. Transcending the novelty synth of its day, "La femme chinoise" is masterful with tricks aplenty and something seemingly brand new to discover with every listen. And I figured I'd be sick of it by now.
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