While Human's Lib had appeared in the US with few changes, there was probably more hope that custom-fitting Dream into Action to American tastes would increase sales. The sequencing was altered, and then two songs on the UK version were completely removed, to be replaced by two "safer" tracks, one that had already scored big in Europe as a single the previous year ("Like to Get to Know You Well"), and another that flirted with some elements of the new craze in rap music ("Bounce Right Back").
It's a shame US audiences couldn't hear "Specialty" or "Why Look for the Key?" without buying imports or listening to alternative radio stations, since both tunes are wonderful examples of Jones' unique skill for combining catchy new wave synth-pop with sincere and genuinely meaningful lyrics. Both were eventually tacked on to the end of the CD release in later years, when time limitations were less of a problem.
The musical contrast between the frantic verse and the more soothing chorus admittedly made the song "undanceable" for most, yet it reflects how we fuss so much over fitting in, when the solution lies in finding peace through inner self-acceptance. The cynics may say the message is trite, while I would humbly suggest that it only becomes vapid in the hands of those who don't really mean it, because they are desperately afraid to simply be themselves, on their own terms.
I can't tell you how often the words from the chorus have given me a remarkable, almost superhuman, strength, and made it possible for me to respond with love when I am so tempted to lash out with jealousy and resentment. The message is hardly complex, though it really needs to sink in to the core of the soul to become truly effective.
—5/2007
A few words of commentary from Howard Jones:
And the song itself:
Howard Jones, "Specialty" from Dream into Action (1985)
Don't chop off his head
To make yourself look tall
Don't tear a strip off
To make yourself feel wonderful
Who wants to compare
As if this was a competition?
Leave that to teachers at school
Must preserve their tradition
To make yourself look tall
Don't tear a strip off
To make yourself feel wonderful
Who wants to compare
As if this was a competition?
Leave that to teachers at school
Must preserve their tradition
'Bout time you realised
You are a specialty
There is no one like you
Spend your life worrying
'Bout what you could have been
Can't you like being you?
Don't need a scalp
Don't need to be a juror
Take care of yourself
No need to feel so insecure
Waste of energy
To prove a holier than him
Waste of energy
To find out who commits what sin
'Bout time you realised
You are a specialty
There is no one like you
Spend your life worrying
'Bout what you could have been
Can't you like being you? . . .
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