Once Heard Never Forgotten

I first heard Rhoda Dakar via the single The Boiler by Rhoda with The Special A.K.A. featuring Nicky Summers, circa 1989 on The Two-Tone Story cassette compilation. Released in January 1982 as the follow up to The Specials' final single (and UK #1), Ghost Town, The Boiler made it's predecessor seem like bubblegum pop by comparison.

 

Set to a mid-tempo beat, with Jerry Dammers' swirling organ and Dick Cuthell's signature cornet, Rhoda lays a spoken word narrative based on a real-life experience of one of her friends in the late 1970s. It is an increasingly unsettling account leading to a harrowing description of violence, assault and rape, closing out with Rhoda screaming as the music carries on regardless before an abrupt fade. But it's clear that the narrator's ordeal is not over. 

 

Jerry Dammers has been quoted as saying that The Boiler "is the only record that was ever made quite deliberately to be listened to once and once only.”  The Boiler reached #35 in the UK singles chart. 

 

Lizzie Soden produced a video for The Boiler with Steve Binnion and a crew from Nottingham Film Workshop, shot on 16mm film. In the notes accompanying her post of the video on YouTube, Lizzie states that,

 

"The main issue we wanted to explore was that rape was fundamentally about violence against women, as opposed to "sex." We wanted to use images of passive women and violent men from mainstream media to use as a metaphor. However when it was broadcast the TV company cut out the TV collage and replaced it with a silhouette of a man raping a woman which was classic irony."

 

Lizzie adds that "Tyne Tees TV cut off the end which includes snippets from TV shows from back in the day due to copyright clearance costs." The video remains a powerful visual complement to the song.

 

Rhoda also performed The Boiler with The Special A.K.A. on BBC2's Oxford Road Show. I've just seen this for the first time and she delivers an incredibly powerful performance. Unsurprisingly, given that the BBC had withdrawn The Boiler from the Radio 1 playlist after a couple of broadcasts, Rhoda's heart-rending screams are cut short. Unintentional I guess but no less unsettling, the ripped VHS goes all wibbly wobbly before jumping suddenly to a clip of Terry Hall singing the words Enjoy Yourself before cutting out completely.

 

The Boiler was the first original song written by The Bodysnatchers, a 7-piece formed by Nicky Summers in 1979 and fronted by Rhoda. The record label baulked at the idea of releasing The Boiler as a single and to date it remains unreleased. The Bodysnatchers were sadly short-lived, with just 2 singles released on Two-Tone in 1980. However, the band did record The Boiler for a John Peel session on 8th April 1980.

Again, I've just heard this for the first time. This is much more uptempo, rocksteady version compared to Jerry Dammers' arrangement and Rhoda's delivery is superb. It's a bit more colourful in it's characterisation and it's fascinating to hear how Rhoda developed and honed her performance between these recordings.

In the latter version with The Special A.K.A, there is an initial emotionally detached quality at first, leading to a slow build up and release that evokes the journey of Rhoda's character reliving her traumatic experience which makes the final agonised screams even more impactful. 

I haven't followed Jerry's words and listened to The Boiler just the once but three decades of familiarity with the song, since first hearing it as a teen on a tape deck, has done nothing to diminish the song's power to shock and horrify. Sadly, also a reminder that in our supposedly enlightened 21st century society, little has changed.

Rhoda continued to record with Jerry (as the slightly amended The Special AKA), notably on 1984's album In The Studio. She released her own first solo album in 2007, with Cleaning In Another Woman's Kitchen and has been on a something of a roll since. Rhoda's latest album, Version Girl, was released this summer. The dozen covers are songs that Rhoda could not find previous definitive Reggae, Ska or Rocksteady versions of, and include David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World and Everyday Is Like Sunday by The Manchester Racist. 

The album closes with a rather fine cover of (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding, written by Nick Lowe and released as a single from his 1974 album The New Favourites of... Brinsley Schwarz. I'm more familiar with the cover version recorded in 1978 by Elvis Costello & The Attractions but I like this a lot.

  

Version Girl is available on physical and digital formats. If you head to Bandcamp, you'll also find a slew of singles, accompanied by dubs/versions on the B-side. All of the releases feature beautiful artwork by Pete McKee, worth the purchase cost alone.