Paul Morley talks to the ex-Specials keyboard player and Sun Ra devotee about his love of experimental jazz. More on jazz music at www.guardian.co.uk/music
I wish Paul Morley had spent time talking directly with Jerry about The Specials, why they broke up, why he's not a part of the reunion and what would it take for him to reunite with his other 6 band mates. One of the biggest disappointments in modern music is the fact Jerry didn't reunite with the other 6 Specials when they reunited. Just a damn, damn shame.
I read that they couldnt agree on some major things. Jerry wanted to do a massive Coventry reunuon show, make the songs reinterpretations in different styles, and maybe didnt want to go on long tours. Given that he wrote mosy of the songs I can understand why he didnt want to be part of a tribute band . Specials had allready moved past Ska after the first album, but it remains center in the nostalgia movement.
Finally visited Coventry Music Museum this weekend and its fair to say there's a decent section on Jerry 🤣🎶 always been a massive inspiration. Great interview
I discovered Sun Ra because of my love of P-funk, and Bernie Worrell was a devotee as well. I had about 30 Sun Ra albums, unfortunately I had a heroin problem, and had to sell them. 30 records is just the tip of the iceberg with Sun Ra his output was so prolific. Jerry made a good point about timelines, something you thought was done in the 60's was done in the early 50's. Sun Ra should be more well known.
I noticed that as soon as I seen the thumbnail, he appeared on Channel Fours Top 100 Number Ones in 2001, 10 odd years before this, and he looked absolutely dreadful, looked about 70, so I don't know if he maybe went through a bad booze period, but what a difference in this interview
I get it. Maybe. Jerry Damners put together The Specials, wrote the songs and therefore he didn't want (need) to revisit it in 2007...but other six guys did. Terry Hall needed it...
Does Jerry create library music? Good point about the importance of and influence of Les Baxter and Exotica on Sun Ra and Reggae! 🙏 Hope Jerry writes a book and releases an audible version of it with him reading it.
erm....he hasn't got any front teeth, is an objective comment about a factual observation shallow....Mohammed Ali was black....or is that me being racist...?? BUT I'd prefer to focus on Morley's unfortunate lack of a chin....I know he has a strange protruberance below his mouth, but sadly no actual chin or jawline...fascinating....Toothless versus Chinless...FIGHT !!!
It's annoying, that's true. I saw an interview with some teeth once, where people in the comments were droning on and on about the teeth's lack of a Jerry Dammers. You should have seen the enamel on them! Fantastic! There's no pleasing some idiots.
Yeah but come on- in this day and age you can get your teeth fixed- not to be a vain twat but for health and presentation- Dammers is a great man but he looks like a fucking tramp at a bus station.
only ever seen that bloke with his shades on - 'shit man, looks completely different and yes he was responsible for the 70's ska revival. big up the specials for enlightening us all throughout our lives.
Terry Hall has stated that they want to record new material, but logistically are having problems finding the time to get everyone together . Another problem is the guys have now differing musical tastes and don't all live in Coventry anymore, there are still disagreements about how to proceed with new material. Apparently new stuff has been written but on-ones been able to get into a studio as a group . If you want to see what they stand for, buy the SPECIALIZED cd, which they were involved in.
If Jerry was with the Specials now there would definitely be a new album, as such there's not with the now reformed one. Sadly, they seem to be in it for the money and not the creativity. It takes away everything they stood for.
8:44 "when people threw out religion they also threw out the baby with the bathwater" omg.. It's like hearing myself speak... don't get me wrong, we can do without theism, but religion was more then believe in a deity and by throwing it out wholesale we also threw out things we probably shouldn't have... Glad I'm not the onlyone thinking along those lines.. Hearing my teenage hero echo these exact same words sure is a good thing...
He does facially look a bit David Beckham in the face here, handsome bloke if he had front teeth. Apparently he lost them in a fight? poor bloke. Great band.
Watching this, knowing the history of Dammers, et al, The Specials, The Special AKA - it is hard for me to believe that Dammers (as some of the other band members allege) is so difficult to work with. Dammers comes across as a fairly easy going kind of chap. Perhaps that is the effect of time. Age can mellow some folks out quite considerably. Then again, look what happened with the reunion of The Specials in the late 2000's & again with the new album last year. Sigh. Maybe some people are more mellow than others...
I think the other band members (managed by Simon Jordan) just wanted overall control and make a nice little earner. Jerry wasn't stupid, he met with Jordan at the Grosvenor Hotel in London 2004 (as Jordan was desperate to get the band reunited), and was apparently offered a £1 million contract. In 2005 Jerry then trade marked "The Specials" name with EUIPO (he obviously sussed what was going to happen), which mean't they could only use the name for gigs/concerts but not release any new material using "The Specials" name (without Jerry's consent). The new management were completely unaware of this for a few years and it was only when they looked into the possibility of releasing new material they discovered they couldn't use "The Specials" name. The matter went legal between 2012-2018 (under the guise of Windrush Aka v Dammers), Jerry eventually settled out of court (it was said he was was worried about the escalating costs and financial implications had he lost the case) and the reformed band are now able to use "The Specials" brand on new material (CD's, downloads, videos, publications etc) they release. I think Dammers was treated badly by the current line up and the jibes/mocking of him (particularly from Terry Hall) was totally unnecessary.
I wouldn't classify myself as a Jazz musician there was great band at that time the Lounge Lizard who you kow invented this thing called fake Jazz so that meant i felt like oh I can never go as well there isn't and in some ways they although it was fake, it was more jazz than real jazz. Jazz(real) is the search for the blue known or the unexpected known in asolo you know that's what and also the unexpected music so you know the great jazz musicians always push him forward into the next . it the art of the unexpected that was what it was anyway you could say that no hundred years into it. Jazz musicians mixed jazz with European electronic music .316 Itr actually goes back along ...if you want to get into deep that it goes back a long way to him the whole thing a carnival ...the carnival was a day where the slaves were allowed to mock their masters in dance and dress you know i think a lot of that tradition actually carried right though black music and culture and dressing that was always a part of it . Duke Ellington had danced the bands always look right ....
Remember the Bob Hope quote when America Landed a man on the moon. "It just goes to show that our German rocket scientists are better than Russia's German....."
His outer space comment is hilarious! yes, jerry, nothing came from the space program... there definitely weren't any technological advancements that came from it at all... Ok, well, you created the Specials, so you're forgiven
Total bollocks regarding Manchester .......yep they have had great artists, but Birmingham and the west mids have had the most diverse and most memorable in uk music history..
Jerry's teeth seem to have improved since 1979, he wouldn't be Jerry Dammers without those teeth, I'm disappointed they don't seem as crooked as of yore.
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jerry dammers, the man responsible for the ska revival , and the start of 2tone as we know it. Legend
hear hear !
He also made a significant contribution to the Western anti-aparteid movement.
Dammers is a very knowledgeable guy about music and music history , endearing and smart. Top notch revealing interview and great interviewer.
Genius is a word that gets chucked out there quite a lot. I think in this case it's perfectly apt.
God bless you Jerry ,
changed my musical tastes forever
Jerry Dammers = Genius. Wish there were more JD interviews, I could listen much longer than 21 minutes to what he has to say.
I wish Paul Morley had spent time talking directly with Jerry about The Specials, why they broke up, why he's not a part of the reunion and what would it take for him to reunite with his other 6 band mates. One of the biggest disappointments in modern music is the fact Jerry didn't reunite with the other 6 Specials when they reunited. Just a damn, damn shame.
I read that they couldnt agree on some major things. Jerry wanted to do a massive Coventry reunuon show, make the songs reinterpretations in different styles, and maybe didnt want to go on long tours. Given that he wrote mosy of the songs I can understand why he didnt want to be part of a tribute band . Specials had allready moved past Ska after the first album, but it remains center in the nostalgia movement.
Great, intelligent, talented, fascinating, erudite bloke.
I really had a crush on him in 1979/80.. I still adore the specials
Knows his onions does Jerry.
Legend.
gotta love that smile!
Good interview. Morley connects well with Dammers the eternal dreamer.
Wonderful. An innovator and archaeologist- a cultural catalyst and archivist. A visionary as much as Sun Ra ever was. And there’s the rub! X
Finally visited Coventry Music Museum this weekend and its fair to say there's a decent section on Jerry 🤣🎶 always been a massive inspiration. Great interview
Jerry Dammers, a true legend
I just cant stop seeing him as the guy in that video , your girlfriend , thats you 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Watching this in July 2020 from the current perspective of western culture imploding. This interview a decade old. Fascinating.
Ginger Spice...where is she?
It's 2023 and it still hasn't happened. I hope you're not holding your breath
We need to celebrate our greats like JD more
honoured to know him!
I wish there were fewer drunken interviews with JD becase he was brilliant.
jerry get back in the specials its the missing link,, 2019 come on bro
I discovered Sun Ra because of my love of P-funk, and Bernie Worrell was a devotee as well. I had about 30 Sun Ra albums, unfortunately I had a heroin problem, and had to sell them. 30 records is just the tip of the iceberg with Sun Ra his output was so prolific. Jerry made a good point about timelines, something you thought was done in the 60's was done in the early 50's. Sun Ra should be more well known.
Genius at work. Simple as that.
always an inquisitive musician
_older than his years... genius_ 🎉
He's 56 years old here and looks healthy and young.
only looks in his early 40s.
I noticed that as soon as I seen the thumbnail, he appeared on Channel Fours Top 100 Number Ones in 2001, 10 odd years before this, and he looked absolutely dreadful, looked about 70, so I don't know if he maybe went through a bad booze period, but what a difference in this interview
guys a legend
Jerry is quality...a visionary...;o)
These are great these Morley things. *****.
Great interview.
I get it. Maybe. Jerry Damners put together The Specials, wrote the songs and therefore he didn't want (need) to revisit it in 2007...but other six guys did. Terry Hall needed it...
Good to see a fellow public schoolboy make it in rock
Does Jerry create library music?
Good point about the importance of and influence of Les Baxter and Exotica on Sun Ra and Reggae! 🙏
Hope Jerry writes a book and releases an audible version of it with him reading it.
30 years later and still no teeth, Jerry? No worries, I still love ya!
How shallow some people are going on about his lack of teeth .the man a genius and a proper cov kid
he's the Shane MacGowan of 2 tone
erm....he hasn't got any front teeth, is an objective comment about a factual observation shallow....Mohammed Ali was black....or is that me being racist...?? BUT I'd prefer to focus on Morley's unfortunate lack of a chin....I know he has a strange protruberance below his mouth, but sadly no actual chin or jawline...fascinating....Toothless versus Chinless...FIGHT !!!
It's annoying, that's true. I saw an interview with some teeth once, where people in the comments were droning on and on about the teeth's lack of a Jerry Dammers. You should have seen the enamel on them! Fantastic! There's no pleasing some idiots.
Yeah but come on- in this day and age you can get your teeth fixed- not to be a vain twat but for health and presentation- Dammers is a great man but he looks like a fucking tramp at a bus station.
@@cronulla70 Jerry seems pretty sober, and mentally cohesive. Shane is a mess, at least every time I have seen him.
Maestro Jerry Dammers!
What a legend
only ever seen that bloke with his shades on - 'shit man, looks completely different and yes he was responsible for the 70's ska revival. big up the specials for enlightening us all throughout our lives.
top bloke
what a legend, who needs front teeth anyway? what exactly do they do....
I am a molar guy myself, anyhow.
They don't do much at all.
Strange how people don't comment on so called celebrities with their plastic teeth.....still keeping it real Mr.Dammers 🤘
For some reason, an obscure reference to "The big book of British smiles", (from an old Simpsons episode) keeps coming to mind???
That's a proper 1971 post-suedehead fevva cut. Knows his oats does old Jerry.
Jerry Dammers, the Man is a Cat! Paul Morley's not too shabby either.
What happened to Jerry state of him jeez he needs to come back to the specials
"music is dead, as you know, but its fun to stick electrodes in the corpse and watch it twitch"
Terry Hall has stated that they want to record new material, but logistically are having problems finding the time to get everyone together . Another problem is the guys have now differing musical tastes and don't all live in Coventry anymore, there are still disagreements about how to proceed with new material. Apparently new stuff has been written but on-ones been able to get into a studio as a group . If you want to see what they stand for, buy the SPECIALIZED cd, which they were involved in.
Well they managed it eventually, after a legal battle apparently.
How on earth did it get from Joe Meek, searching for the blue note to landing on the moon? Can’t find a coherent link
Just watched the Sun Ra documentary. Now I understand how it got from blue note to moon landing.
If Jerry was with the Specials now there would definitely be a new album, as such there's not with the now reformed one. Sadly, they seem to be in it for the money and not the creativity. It takes away everything they stood for.
Encore lol
@@andrewroberts9802 Yeah and its shit.
@@leemorris2924 The only decent Specials albums are the one's on 2 Tone records, all the rest are crap.
@@stumagoo2395 I agree.
Encore was a great LP and whats wrong with making some money...?!
Jerry Dammers is like an older version of David Beckham. And he sounds just like him.
hey, he does actualy sound like him ! never noticed that before.
david Beckham can barely string three words together...you're a joker
Beckham has a huge management team to get him through a day; Dammers has a brain.
We have no right to inflict our view of what someone should look like we are not sheep
to call Jerry Dammers a legend would be underrating him. If there were official t-shirts with Dammers as the subject i'd wear them with pride.
I worship the specials and Jerry Dammers by extension.
8:44 "when people threw out religion they also threw out the baby with the bathwater"
omg.. It's like hearing myself speak... don't get me wrong, we can do without theism, but religion was more then believe in a deity and by throwing it out wholesale we also threw out things we probably shouldn't have...
Glad I'm not the onlyone thinking along those lines.. Hearing my teenage hero echo these exact same words sure is a good thing...
Absolute fucking bullshit. You're thinking on a very ignorant level.
You'd have thought with the money Jerry earnt he would get his nashers fixed. Up the Sky Blues.
I'd love to watch him try to eat corn on the cob
Dammers looks good for 56. I'm not gay but he has good skin for a guy his age.
You sound gay
No homo, right?
Birmingham is well bigger than manchester! whats he on about?
He does facially look a bit David Beckham in the face here, handsome bloke if he had front teeth. Apparently he lost them in a fight? poor bloke. Great band.
Watching this, knowing the history of Dammers, et al, The Specials, The Special AKA - it is hard for me to believe that Dammers (as some of the other band members allege) is so difficult to work with. Dammers comes across as a fairly easy going kind of chap. Perhaps that is the effect of time. Age can mellow some folks out quite considerably. Then again, look what happened with the reunion of The Specials in the late 2000's & again with the new album last year. Sigh. Maybe some people are more mellow than others...
I think the other band members (managed by Simon Jordan) just wanted overall control and make a nice little earner. Jerry wasn't stupid, he met with Jordan at the Grosvenor Hotel in London 2004 (as Jordan was desperate to get the band reunited), and was apparently offered a £1 million contract. In 2005 Jerry then trade marked "The Specials" name with EUIPO (he obviously sussed what was going to happen), which mean't they could only use the name for gigs/concerts but not release any new material using "The Specials" name (without Jerry's consent). The new management were completely unaware of this for a few years and it was only when they looked into the possibility of releasing new material they discovered they couldn't use "The Specials" name. The matter went legal between 2012-2018 (under the guise of Windrush Aka v Dammers), Jerry eventually settled out of court (it was said he was was worried about the escalating costs and financial implications had he lost the case) and the reformed band are now able to use "The Specials" brand on new material (CD's, downloads, videos, publications etc) they release. I think Dammers was treated badly by the current line up and the jibes/mocking of him (particularly from Terry Hall) was totally unnecessary.
Greatness comes at a cost. Typically those that have such a clear vision and drive won't compromise much and tend to employ rather than collaborate.
How can a man of such intelligence come out of such silly country?
You'd think he could afford some false molars but he seems happy enough without em
its his look,he is more recognised as "the guy out the Specials" without them,.......
Paul Trewin he is the specials.
Czech Neck Morley
I wouldn't classify myself as a Jazz musician there was great band at that time the Lounge Lizard who you kow invented this thing called fake Jazz so that meant i felt like oh I can never go as well there isn't and in some ways they although it was fake, it was more jazz than real jazz.
Jazz(real) is the search for the blue known or the unexpected known in asolo you know that's what and also the unexpected music so you know the great jazz musicians always push him forward into the next . it the art of the unexpected that was what it was anyway you could say that no hundred years into it. Jazz musicians mixed jazz with European electronic music .316
Itr actually goes back along ...if you want to get into deep that it goes back a long way to him the whole thing a carnival ...the carnival was a day where the slaves were allowed to mock their masters in dance and dress you know i think a lot of that tradition actually carried right though black music and culture and dressing that was always a part of it . Duke Ellington had danced the bands always look right ....
Remember the Bob Hope quote when America Landed a man on the moon. "It just goes to show that our German rocket scientists are better than Russia's German....."
Dentist required
Donkey !!!you are the Best !!! IN town ?? no ! no ! no ! Over world !!
Sorry Gerry nobody went to the Moon.
chris giles sun Ra came from space
Dammers has aged a lot better than Morley.
この人がいなかったら、スカパラも生まれなかったんだろうな・・・
BIG UP SPATIAL AKA!
Cut your hair and get a shave, you magnificent genius bastard. x
His outer space comment is hilarious! yes, jerry, nothing came from the space program... there definitely weren't any technological advancements that came from it at all... Ok, well, you created the Specials, so you're forgiven
Dammers is the man but c'mon no wonder how the other Specials members did not want to partner with em - totally different views in music ;)
Exactly....why take sides anyway ? You can love what Terry Hall does, what Roddy Radiation does with Skabilly and Jerry with his Arkestra.....or not .
Implants. Bridge. Veneers. Dental. Now. Please?
+Miriam Ni Fhathaigh He needs them.
Total bollocks regarding Manchester .......yep they have had great artists, but Birmingham and the west mids have had the most diverse and most memorable in uk music history..
Shut it dickhead
after birth ?
My god it looks like Morley has took pity on him and offered him a coffee and a warm place to doss.
Lindjo
Trouble with purists is they tend to disappear up someone else's backside
I think Jerry goes to the same dentist as Shane McGowan. No disrespect to either of these legends but bloody hell those teeth!
WTF!!
You don't need teeth to be talented
dammers is a dude
Does he eat with a straw ?
teeth
Where?
Not there.
For God's sake, where does he have teeth?
Jerry's teeth seem to have improved since 1979, he wouldn't be Jerry Dammers without those teeth, I'm disappointed they don't seem as crooked as of yore.
All that fame and fortune should = a new grill!
Free Nelson Mandela became one of the anthems of the 80's. Dammers will always be one of my favorite artists.