Hey you, don't watch that watch this!

November 25, 2014 9:39 AM

This is the heavy heavy monster sound, the nuttiest sound around so if you've come in off the street and you're beginning to feel the heat, well listen buster you better start to move your feet to the rockinest, rock-steady beat of Madness... One Step Beyond!
posted by fearfulsymmetry (47 comments total)

LOVE THIS SONG: Instant mood medicine.

And if memory serves, I came to it (having unaccountably not known of it before) through a playlist that someonen suggested on MetaFilter.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:45 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Madness? This is that nutty sound!
posted by Artw at 9:45 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Being a Cold War kid I always leaned towards The Specials. Warning, warning! Nuclear attack!
posted by Artw at 9:47 AM on November 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

I remembered getting a bit over excited when a cover turned up on Wolf Of Wall Street
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:49 AM on November 25, 2014

Prince Buster's original (1964)
posted by rocket88 at 10:03 AM on November 25, 2014 [16 favorites]

"The nattiest sound around" ... back in the 80's I played the song w/intro at a party with mostly slightly older friends, many Jewish, and one misheard that as "The Naziest sound around". I was able to clarify matters, whilst also ensuring that I did not mention anything about skinheads.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 10:03 AM on November 25, 2014 [4 favorites]

Well, I think I've found my father-daughter dance song if I ever get married.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:04 AM on November 25, 2014 [5 favorites]

I read the lyrics you transcribed and I swear I actually heard the grinding sax intro.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:27 AM on November 25, 2014 [18 favorites]

benito.strauss, me too!!!
posted by Sophie1 at 10:30 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

So one day, I was looking through Melody Maker and saw an advert saying: “Semi-professional north London band seeks professionally minded singer.” When I recognised the phone number, I knew I’d been sacked.

So cold.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:35 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Swan Lake" live: that show must have been SO MUCH FUN.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:43 AM on November 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

Wait a minnit: the FPP says it's "the nuttiest sound around," but King Sky Prawn says it is "the nattiest" -- and I always heard it as "nastiest" (completely ignoring "the Nazi-est"). So which is it?
posted by wenestvedt at 10:45 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

100% worth it for this anecdote alone:

Dave Robinson of Stiff Records was trying to see us play live, but was getting married and couldn’t make the dates work, so in the end he just booked us to play his wedding. I can still picture the shock on people’s faces when we started our set. His wife kept asking us: “Don’t you know any Hot Chocolate numbers?” When we noticed Elvis Costello was there, we jumped off the stage, grabbed him and got a big conga line going.

Using your wedding band as an A&R showcase is thumbs up Macca style in my book.
posted by Hartster at 10:48 AM on November 25, 2014 [13 favorites]

the FPP says it's "the nuttiest sound around,

It's the nutty sound... (going/being nuts being slang for madness)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:50 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Though apparently they had trouble with the far right skins at their early gigs - partially and unfortunately because they were an all white band while the other ska revival band were more mixed
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:52 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

This guy says it's "nuttiest" (YouTube link to video w/lyrics). And that's probably right.

I prefer "nattiest" : )
posted by King Sky Prawn at 10:54 AM on November 25, 2014

I always heard it as "Nuttsiest". so you're ALL wrong.
posted by SPUTNIK at 10:57 AM on November 25, 2014 [10 favorites]

I needed that today. Thank you. "One step beyond!" is a good motto for life, actually.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 11:05 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Another vote for "Nutsiest sound."

It's awesome that a lot of this song harkens back to Jamaican reggae and roots traditions.

This song also gets the little light thief "butt wiggle" of approval (I'm thinking about starting a blog or something with music reviews ranked on how my son reacts to the music).
posted by filthy light thief at 11:08 AM on November 25, 2014

Ooo- listening to this makes me want to go down the Kebab & Calculator.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:11 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

benito.strauss, me too!!!

No kidding! I read the title in the original voice before I even knew what the FPP was going to be about, and it's been years since I've heard the song.
posted by hypersloth at 11:15 AM on November 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

But do any of that lot know Summer Holiday, by Cliff Richard?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:17 AM on November 25, 2014 [7 favorites]

You hum it, and I'll smash your face in.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:17 AM on November 25, 2014 [16 favorites]

"The nattiest sound around" ... back in the 80's I played the song w/intro at a party with mostly slightly older friends, many Jewish, and one misheard that as "The Naziest sound around". I was able to clarify matters, whilst also ensuring that I did not mention anything about skinheads.

Funny you should say that. In their early days, Suggs was friends with Ian Stuart Donaldson of Skrewdriver. He reportedly roadied for them a bit, and Ian appeared as an extra in a Madness video. All of this was circa 1978, before Skrewdriver developed a particularly nasty case of politics.
posted by snottydick at 11:18 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

NAZIEST SOUND AROUND!


I mean, come to think of it, they seem like an alright band to have at a wedding...
posted by alex_skazat at 11:22 AM on November 25, 2014

The Nazziest Sound Around!
posted by benito.strauss at 11:25 AM on November 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

Being a Cold War kid I always leaned towards The Specials. Warning, warning! Nuclear attack!

Concrete Jungle.

You're gonna get your fucking head kicked in! You're gonna get your fucking head kicked in! You're gonna get your fucking head kicked in!

Still one of the most menacing songs ever put to record, especially with that intro.

And of course being a racially integrated, skinhead 2-tone band, not an idle threat the Specials lived with.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:27 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

The Nauseous Sound Around!
posted by alex_skazat at 11:29 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

The Snazziest Sound Around!
posted by benito.strauss at 11:33 AM on November 25, 2014

Uno Paso Adelante!
posted by zippy at 11:33 AM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

This is the moment where I can share my favorite song about leading a double life.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:51 AM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

A #9 on the accurately rated bands list.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:17 PM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

"Lee Thompson, on sax, had the concept of The Nutty Boys. He came in one day with “That nutty sound” sprayed on his jacket and talked about our music being a mixture of pop and circus."

A mix of pop and circus is the perfect description. I love this song, and early Madness in general. Driving In My Car is one of my first musical memories - it's the perfect song for a 6 year old. There's car horn beeps in it and everything!!1!
posted by billiebee at 1:19 PM on November 25, 2014 [4 favorites]

Never mind all that music shite. Just look at it: http://kenelmgrayson.com/beercans/5liter/Showcase3-3.html
posted by clvrmnky at 1:23 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ouch
posted by billiebee at 1:27 PM on November 25, 2014

Oh yes I meant to note for American readers that a stone is 14 pounds so ouch indeed
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:38 PM on November 25, 2014

Also, you can tune a saxophone!? I thought, like the bagpipes, a saxophone was hatched fully formed. I just assumed the rest of the band just played in whatever tuning the brass happens to be in.

I thought that b-flat was, basically, "the key the band leaders fave horn happened to be in this week".
posted by clvrmnky at 1:44 PM on November 25, 2014

Tune A Saxophone
posted by cherryflute at 1:53 PM on November 25, 2014

This is my favourite.
posted by Pendragon at 1:58 PM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

And some background: An embarrassment no more .
posted by Pendragon at 2:03 PM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

I was about as far away as one could be from the ska revival, and yet ... and yet.

I love me some Madness.

Even (My Name Is) Michael Caine.
posted by chavenet at 3:30 PM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

You're all wrong. It's "Juan's Steep Behind."
posted by hydrophonic at 4:54 PM on November 25, 2014

The only thing I have to add is that I was a second wave ska fan in high school and defaced all of my text books with Madness, Bad Manners, and Specials graffiti. Ted inherited my books the year after me and, knowing I was a saxophone player, suggested we start a band. Within a year, I had gone from band geek to soloing One Step Beyond at the high school talent show, opening for much more well known bands at local clubs, playing school dances and parties all over the valley, generally getting laid throughout my teens and 20s and continuing to play in bands up through today. Madness had an incredible blend of infectious fun and musical chops that was easy to replicate as a teenager and One Step Beyond is a hell of a song and video.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:02 AM on November 26, 2014 [7 favorites]

Aw! Just look at those boys jumping up and down for two-and-a-half minutes solid! Time slows us all down.

Metafilter: Don’t you know any Hot Chocolate numbers?

The documentary Dance Craze played in cinemas and caused ruptions (drinking, dancing in the aisles) but not when I saw it. I don't even think you can get hold of it now - my copy was probably made from a video copied off the telly in someone's bedsit, judging by the picture quality.

Also, does anyone know what happened to comments on that article? Looks like they've been purged.
posted by glasseyes at 2:37 AM on November 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Dance Craze! In early '80s L.A. the crowd I was part of - mod, ska, punk, black, white, what-have-you - would go see that movie at the Nuart or some theater in Westwood at midnight on a Saturday if there wasn't a good live gig or a dj thing at the Lhasa, say, happening. We danced it up in the theater. I remember twirling up from my front-row seat when Terry Hall said, "Spending money . . on BEER!" Am watching the beginning of what purports to be that same film on youtube right now.
posted by goofyfoot at 12:43 AM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

And is! The whole thing of Dance Craze is gloriously on youtube! Including Madness. I just watched it all, including Madness. But the Specials, the (English) Beat, and the Selecter (Pauline Black!) sorta steal that show. My word, that's a good movie.
posted by goofyfoot at 2:11 AM on November 27, 2014 [2 favorites]

God, I totally forgot about Dance Craze. Of course that would be on YouTube. Thanks for the tip.

How could there never have been an FPP on Dance Craze? And of course, there has been.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:41 AM on November 27, 2014 [3 favorites]