Un Paso Adelante…

“One Step Beyond” is a tune written by Jamaican ska singer Prince Buster as a B-side for his 1964 single “Al Capone”. Although Buster’s version was mostly instrumental except for the song title shouted for a few times, the Madness version features a spoken intro by Chas Smash and a barely audible but insistent background chant of “here we go!”. The spoken line, “Don’t watch that, watch this”, in the intro is from another Prince Buster song, “Scorcher” — and is also used at the start of Dave and Ansell Collins’ “Funky Funky Reggae” — whilst the next line “This is a heavy heavy monster sound” is taken from another Dave and Ansell Collins song, “Monkey Spanner”.

The intro vocals for One Step Beyond were re-recorded in Spanish on June 30th, 1980, at Eden Studios. This version utilizes the backing track from the original album. According to Alan Winstanley, one of the producers, the released Madness version was a rough mix, created by taking the original 1 minute 10 second instrumental and repeating it, with the second half treated with an Eventide harmonizer to make it sound slightly different. Langer and Winstanley intended to do a full remix but found that the double-length rough mix had already been sent for mastering before they got the opportunity. The cover art for the single is from a photoshoot by Cameron McVey. It is similar to the photograph used on the album cover art, but features the band in a slightly different pose.