Some books speak softly. Others sing, groove, and move with rhythm. Soul Salvation: A Gen X Love Letter to The English Beat does all of this and more. Written by Marc Wasserman, a devoted fan turned accomplished music historian, this book is a soulful tribute to one of the most influential yet under-appreciated bands of the 1980s. It is a memoir and a cultural document, and it lands like a long-overdue thank-you note to a band that changed lives without demanding the spotlight. This is Wasserman’s second book, following the critically acclaimed SkaBOOM!: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History. With Soul Salvation, he continues his mission to uncover, document, and celebrate the roots and branches of ska, reggae, punk, and post-punk culture, only this time, with a more personal lens. The result is a work that balances deep research with a heartfelt narrative. It is informative without being overly academic and emotional without being sentimental. For readers who lived through the era, it will stir nostalgia. For younger readers, it offers a window into a vibrant musical movement often overlooked in mainstream histories.
Soul Salvation is a love letter to Special Beat Service, the English Beat’s third and final studio album. Released in 1982, the record landed just as British new wave and post-punk sounds were taking hold in the United States. But while other bands climbed charts, the English Beat quietly reshaped the landscape. Blending ska, reggae, pop, and punk with thoughtful lyrics and tight arrangements, Special Beat Service became a sleeper classic. And for Gen Xers like Wasserman, it became a lifeline. Wasserman tells this story by combining his own memories with carefully curated interviews. The book features voices from the band itself, including Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger, as well as record executives like Jay Boberg, who provides a rich and revealing foreword. We also hear from music critics, producers, and surprising celebrity fans, among them Eddie Vedder, Adam Duritz, Pete Townshend, and Elvis Costello, each offering their take on the English Beat’s impact and enduring legacy. The writing style is conversational but never careless. Wasserman has a gift for making the reader feel like a confidante. He doesn’t lecture. He reminisces, reflects, and reveals. At times, it reads like a mixtape made for a close friend, the kind that comes with liner notes, personal annotations, and just the right mood. The pacing is brisk, yet nothing feels rushed. Every anecdote, interview clip, and memory feels precisely placed, like another track on a perfect album side.
It is not merely an oral history, nor is it simply a memoir. Instead, it incorporates the two together into a larger meditation on what it means to love music, truly love it, and the way certain songs become part of your identity. Wasserman writes not just about Special Beat Service, but about what it meant to be living in suburbia in the early ’80s, discovering a sound that felt radically different and emotionally near. For many of his generation, the English Beat’s music wasn’t just background noise, it was soul salvation. This deeply personal angle is never self-indulgent. Instead, it adds haste and humanity to the story. By grounding the story in his own lived experience, Wasserman reminds readers that music is not only made by musicians. It is completed by listeners, by the lives it touches and the cultures it shapes. His reflections on finding identity through record stores, radio stations, and live shows feel especially poignant in an era where music is often consumed passively through digital platforms. This book reaffirms the communal and transformative power of discovering music when you need it most. The interviews are another standout feature. Each is carefully chosen and edited to complement the larger narrative. Jay Boberg’s foreword is especially illuminating, offering insider details about how the English Beat were marketed in the U.S., and why they never quite broke into the mainstream. Yet Wasserman never dwells on what the band didn’t achieve. Instead, he celebrates what they did, and continues to do so, for those who listened.
Wasserman traces how Special Beat Service quietly seeped into the DNA of countless American bands, particularly within the emerging indie rock and alternative scenes of the late ’80s and ’90s. Through interviews with artists like Eddie Vedder and Adam Duritz, he shows how the English Beat’s hybrid sound helped shape what would later be called “alternative,” long before the genre had a name. These moments are never forced or exaggerated. They are presented with humility, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions about the band’s cultural significance. Another remarkable quality of Soul Salvation is its emotional honesty. Wasserman does not shy away from the bittersweetness of memory, or the passing of time. His tribute to the late Ranking Roger, for example, is deeply moving, offering both admiration and grief. There is a sense throughout the book that this story matters not only because of the music, but because of the people who made it, and the people who listened, danced, cried, and grew up with it. The layout and design of the book also deserve mention. DiWulf Publishing has given Wasserman’s words a clean, inviting platform. The structure flows naturally, with clear chapter breaks, contextual footnotes, and a steady rhythm that mirrors the music it honors. Readers can move through it linearly or jump around, either way, the experience remains rich and rewarding.
Soul Salvation: A Gen X Love Letter to The English Beat is detailed without being dry, personal without being preachy, and deeply passionate without veering into fandom. Marc Wasserman has achieved something rare, a book that documents history while telling a deeply human story. It speaks not only to fans of the English Beat, but to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a band and found themselves transformed by it. Wasserman has written a book about salvation, not in the religious sense, but in the way that art can save a life, a soul, or even a generation. In doing so, he has given the English Beat the legacy they deserve and reminded us why we turn to music in the first place. Required reading, not just for fans of ska, new wave, or 1980s music, but for anyone who has ever found hope in a melody, or identity in a song. The book is available in the UK and Europe via Earth Island Books.
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