A Paucity of Beat

I hastily added a footnote to last post to explain that its title was lifted from the song Spar Wid Me by the band known here in the States as The English Beat, a "Two Tone Ska Revival" band from Brummagem. In looking through the archives, I noticed that the one prior entry mentioning "The Beat" was the post I wrote concerning Maggie Thatcher's death in which I embedded a video for the song Stand Down, Margaret. As kids, my siblings and I played the hell out of "Special Beat Service" and an album which compiled singles from the band's other two albums "I Just Can't Stop It" and "Wha'ppen?" I feel that I must now rectify this lack of "Beat" on my blog.

Here's one of my all-time favorite songs by the band, Best Friend from "I Just Can't Stop It", a snarky song about the difficulties of dating someone conceited:





Mirror in the Bathroom had an altogether darker theme, the descent of a self-absorbed narrator into madness:





Jeanette is a humorous account of a one-night stand, starting with a pair "meeting cute" and ending with them swapping false addresses after an unforgettable night:





I'm going to cap off the video embeds with Ranking Full Stop, which beautifully showcases the rapidfire vocal virtuosity of "toastmaster" Ranking Roger:





It must be noted that "The Beat" had to add a national descriptor to their name here in the states because a contemporary American band was named The Beat. The American Beat was a power pop outfit which rose from the ashes of a band called The Nerves, known best for the song Hanging on the Telephone, which was a hit for Blondie. Here's America's Beat:





Apparently, there was no animosity resulting from the sharing of names across the Atlantic and the two bands went on a Transatlantic Beat Tour last year.