This pairing is a little unusual in that both original and cover appeared on albums within 12 months of each other. The song is ‘Doesn’t Make It Alright’ and the original is by The Specials, appearing on their eponymous first album from 1979. The song was covered the following year by Stiff Little Fingers who recorded the track for inclusion on their second studio album ‘Nobody’s Heroes’. Much of SLF’s first album was related to ‘The Troubles’, a theme that was carried over to a lesser extent on the second album. Nevertheless, whilst not directly related to or referencing the situation in Northern Ireland, the song could as much be about the extremes of sectarianism as about racism within black and white communities. Equally, the sentiments of the song could be applied to the prejudice experienced by the Irish community from sections of the English community, tensions heightened by the mainland activities of the IRA in the mid to late 1970s.
Of SLF's version, Jake Burns had this to say on 'Song By Song'.
'The first Specials album had just come out and we were on the same label so we had become quite friendly with some of the guys. We were big admirers of what they were doing and what they were trying to do - I'd seen them live quite a few times before they got round to making the record and that song in particular had always struck me as incredibly powerful when they played it live.
Burns had some initial misgivings from his fellow band members to overcome when it came to taking on the song, given the fact that the original had only just been released. But his will prevailed...
'... so in fine Stiff Little Fingers fashion we took a really well thought out, pretty song and beat the living crap out of it! Obviously Terry's singing style is quite offhand and nonchalant and I wanted to put a bit more urgency into what I thought was an exceptional lyric.'
For The Specials the song serves as a manifesto in musical form. ‘Doesn’t Make It Alright’ is everything that that band stood for from formation right up to the loss of Terry Hall. The Specials were one of the reasons why ‘Rock Against Racism’ was wound up… not for any negative reasons, far from it. Founding figure, Red Saunders set the organisation in motion to encourage and facilitate the coming together of black and white bands on the same billings in order to bring black and white music fans together under one roof. Five years down the line, it was the success of the multiracial Specials that lead him to the realisation that RAR has achieved its aim, exceeded it in fact in that in The Specials, black and white musicians were sharing the same stage let alone gig billing. This was something very rare even in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
The song has stood the test of time and remains as a potent 5 minute 48 second (SLF)/3 minute 36 second (The Specials) message against ignorance and hate.