Buttkickin' Halloween Songs: "One Step Beyond" - Madness (1979)

Hey you, don’t watch that, watch this
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!

I think the most terrifying thing about Madness is that barely any North Americans know them for more than Our House, and that’s quite the goshdarn shame. I mean, they had a cameo on The Young Ones! I mean that’s freakin’ LEGEND!!

Ahh, well… so we’re here in the home stretch leading up to Halloween, so let’s dive right into Madness’s 1979 single One Step Beyond which, for the most part, has little to do with the supernatural, spooky things that go creepy-crawly in the night, crazy people, mass murder, Satanic sacrifices, zombies, demons, cannibals, Proud Boys… in fact, it has NOTHING to do with any of the above.

Not even a little bit.

In fact, other than the intro I posted above, there are no lyrics to the song whatsoever, save for a continued chanting of the song’s title, peppered into the melody at predetermined locales.

So why are we featuring One Step Beyond?

Well for starters, it’s an amazing tune. Bouncy British ska pop of the vintage class, you can’t help but love this little number. It cooks. It moves. It confounds. But it also espouses a carnival fun-house aesthetic, welcoming you into whatever next phase of Next Phaseyness you might need in your life at that moment. Or not at all!

Listen Buster: want people to get up and start dancing and bouncing maniacally at your Halloween Awesomefest? Pop on One Step Beyond and groove into the next amazingly buttkickin’ quantum state of mad joyousness! Or joyous madness!

ONE STEP BEYOND!!!