Friday Tunes: Ghost Town

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular music is The Specials’ 1981 hit “Ghost Town”. It chronicles the decline of urban England during a prolonged recession. This includes rampant unemployment due to deindustrialization, the shuttering of businesses.

As the song hit number 1 in 1981, rioting erupted all over Britain to express dissatisfaction with the growing sense of hopelessness. To many British workers who grew up in the era, the song profoundly reflected their experiences:

'Ghost Town' spoke to me and every other teenage kid. I remember the school careers officer telling me that if I didn't smarten up I wouldn't get a job in the local carpet factory. … 'Fuck you,' I thought when the careers office door closed. I joined the Labour Party.

The sharpest commentary in the lyrics are these:

Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place, is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country

The musical discordance that characterizes this reggae-punk fusion (called 2 Tone) song was designed to play up these themes and the song was named Single of the Year in 1981. The accompanying video shows the band driving through the empty and desolate streets of London, visual designed to convey the hollowing out of industrial towns while touring England.



This town, is coming like a ghost town
All the clubs have been closed down
This place, is coming like a ghost town
Bands won't play no more
too much fighting on the dance floor

Do you remember the good old days
Before the ghost town?
We danced and sang,
And the music played inna de boomtown

This town, is coming like a ghost town
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place, is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more
The people getting angry

This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town
This town, is coming like a ghost town

-- Bob Barnetson