If dance music showed that you could paste a hammering beat onto almost anything, UB40 had long since been at hand to show that mostly anything could be given a reggae makeover too. On this, the reggae backbeat provides the flim flam of Presley's original with a stiff backbone to give it a pleasing sense of purpose, but the industrial clang of the percussion and Ali Campbell's whine gives this a coldness at odds with what the message the song is meant to be conveying. But whichever way you cut it this is lazy, by the numbers stuff - another cover version off their conveyor belt of cover versions with no stamp of originality that makes it UB40's own and with their apparent disinterest perfectly mirroring my own.** It was around this time that Frank Zappa's touring band were playing a reggae version of 'Stairway To Heaven'. Dread Zeppelin too were doing similar to other Led Zep tracks and both provided an interesting spin on the two genres. Of course, UB40 wouldn't have been able to go out on such a limb without losing their credibility (!?!) as a reggae act, but by playing it so safe they also play it boring.
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