Overview
Signing Off was UB40's first album and it featured a mix of reggae and dub material which was lyrically politically charged and socially conscious, while musically it was reverb-heavy, doom-laden yet mellifluous, best exemplified in the hits "King" and "Food For Thought" as well as the searing "Burden of Shame".
"King" was a song written about the late Martin Luther King, Jr., questioning the lost direction of the deceased leader's followers and the state of mourning of a nation after his death. Perhaps the biggest success of the album was the song "Food For Thought", which was an attempt to publicize and condemn the Ethiopian famine in Africa, comparing it with the Western over-indulgent celebration of Christmas, a full five years before Band Aid brought the subject to widespread attention. Subsequently it was also a prominent feature of UB40's 2005 Live 8 appearance in Hyde Park, London - 25 years after the song had been first released. Both "King" and "Food For Thought" were released together as a Double A-side, as their debut single in February 1980. It topped the Indie chart for three months, reached #4 in the UK charts, and went on to sell half a million copies. It was the first single to reach the UK Top 10 without the backing of a major record company.
The follow-up "My Way of Thinking"/"I Think It's Going to Rain Today" peaked at #6 on the UK charts in June 1980. Although this was their second single before the album was released, "My Way of Thinking" was not included on the album. The group was not entirely happy with the number and Ali Campbell had confessed to being embarrassed with the sexist nature of some of the lyrics.
The original vinyl album consisted of a ten-track LP plus a 3-track 12-inch record which included the tracks "Madam Medusa", "Strange Fruit" and "Reefer Madness". The opening track "Tyler" was written about a young black American Gary Tyler, who was convicted of murdering a 13-year-old white boy, at the age of 17. UB40 intended "Tyler" to be their first single in the States. "Burden of Shame" recounted the misdeeds performed in the name of British Imperialism. "I'm a British subject, not proud of it/While I carry the burden of shame". The 12-inch single contained one of the band's finest compositions: "Madam Medusa" featured some of their most impassioned and bitter lyrics. The song was a vivid description of Margaret Thatcher's rise to power depicted in a grotesque style - a lyrical equivalent to the goriest caricatures of the Iron Lady!
In 1985 the album was repackaged as a double album under the title The UB40 File, with the addition of "My Way Of Thinking", "The Earth Dies Screaming" and "Dream A Lie". The latter two were released two months after the release of Signing Off, and were written during the release of the album. For a short time in 1981/82 in Australia, the original album was released with a bonus 45 single, in an identical smaller version of the album cover, containing these two tracks. Both the original album and have been released on cd as well.
As an indication that Signing Off is considered by many to be by far UB40's best album, as well as one of the finest reggae albums by a British group, in 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 83 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
In 2010, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album's release, UB40 announced a tour of concerts where the band would perform the whole album.
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