U5 skope 9 John Coan 9

[rayge]

A UK Subs - C.I.D.



B UB40 - Food For Thought

[oh oooh]

Decent UK Subs track that - one of the best I've heard by them, actually (I assume we're going for the first track only). Wee bit Ruts-like with the intensity, the bass rumbling away, the raging vocal.

However, no match for

B

which remains UB40's only solid-gold moment - lyrically smart, musically gripping, an absolute peach.

[fearlessfreap]

Hard to imagine UB40 was ever more than a Brett Kavanaugh frat band but this was good — B

[bungo the mungo]

that may be ub40's finest moment, but if i never get to hear it again then life will have been kind. as soon as they open their gobs, it will always sound like cod reggae.

i agree with JC. nice subs pick and the bass playing really propels it.

A

[DayoRemix]

The UB40 track just lays there, not doing a whole lot..At least he Subs track has SOME movement..Vote A

[Sneelock]

 Y

i couldn’t get the UB40 to play. Try this if you have the same problem.
i think both are pretty swell. I’m going A by virtue of that crunchy guitar sound. I just love that kind of shit!

[toomanyhatz]

I'd love to punish one or the other of these for what they hath wrought, but it's no more fair to blame A for the macho idiots that they influenced on the US hardcore scene than it is to blame B for all the cod reggae that's appeared since. So I guess I have to go with my ears. Where B has a (very slight) edge at the moment. Reserving the right to change my mind...

[Deleted]

I've already ranted about third rate punk in another tie so I won't repeat that here and, to be fair, this a better pick than the other Subs track. They don't have much songwriting talent but compensate here through the supercharged urgency of the whole thing. Harper still seems a complete chancer to me though.
It's all too easy to forget that for six months very early on, UB40 were actually pretty good and this is their crowning glory. The cod reggae slur seems a lazy and rather inaccurate thing to throw at this track in particular. They very much seem to be doing their own thing here, the sax on here seems closer to "Stranger on a Shore" than anything found on a Jamaican record of the time. The result is a rather mournful track of quiet dignity that accumulates a lot of power. When this came out I thought they sounded like a depressed Dexys, both bands were from Birmingham of course, cut to half speed.

B

[osgood]

Close match for me, I did enjoy both. Strangely I found A to be more worked through than B.

A

[fonz]

I like Live in a Car better than CID, and way better than B1C (which is filler).
The Nicky Garratt years were the best, and he influenced my choice of guitar when I was starting out.

I could never vote for UB40, under any circumstance. They nauseate me, and I despise their music.

This is an automatic win for the UK Subs.

A

[bungo the mungo]

Aug 15, 2021 11:42:46 GMT fonz said:

I could never vote for UB40, under any circumstance. They nauseate me, and I despise their music.

well quite! i never thought i'd see the day when ub40 would be selected in a bcb/preludin cup tie, let alone pick up votes along the way. a very sad day and one that will not go without retribution once the dust has settled.

the writing WAS on the wall though, with the recent police love-in thread.

[Deleted]

Hopefully it signals a new era of Preludin open-minded Ness. Judge the song not the act!

[neige]

Aug 14, 2021 15:01:22 GMT oh oooh said:

UB40's only solid-gold moment

Totally agree

B

[DarknessFish]

This seems fairly unspectacular. I did go to a UK Subs gig sometime around 1993/4, but I can't remember a thing about it other than the fanbase seemingly being obsessives, toddlers to pensioners in full punk gear and mohawks. Didn't do a lot, thank God it's not the full 5 minutes. Really chug-chug stuff, feels a bit of a Stooges throwback.

I'm not going to have a pop at UB40, they may be cod-reggae, but that was practically an innovation that many have followed, I don't think they ever thought of themselves as authentically reggae. This song doesn't do an awful lot, but there is a bit of a mood to it, that's just about doing enough. Nice light/dark sax.

B

[~ / % ? *]

A

UB40 like most cod reggae errs more in pop vein, enjoyable, forgettable, file with Aswad, Misty, etc.,