“Rat Race” by The Specials

"Rat Race" is Roderick Byers' song, words and music, and it's the Specials with their tongue sharpened to a point: a swipe at privileged students who drink their way through three years of college, sure that Daddy will line up a good job for them whatever happens, while ordinary kids get nothing to aim for. Linton Kwesi Johnson's "Me Wan' Fi Go Rave" served as its musical starting point, and Jerry Dammers put plucked piano on the front of it, a nod to John Barry and possibly to "A Man Alone" from The Ipcress File.

2 Tone issued it as a double A-side with "Rude Buoys Outa Jail", and it went to five on the UK singles chart. It was left off the British edition of More Specials, though the American one on Chrysalis carried it. Record Mirror's Daniela Soave called it another winner, if a less obvious one than what came before.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.