As regular readers know, I’m a sucker for any time that crosswords find their way into other media.
I’ve previously discussed crossovers between the music world and crosswords in my post about “Staring at the Rude Boys”, a single released by The Ruts in 1980, as well as several novelty crossword songs from the 1920s, like “Crossword Mama, You Puzzle Me (But Papa’s Gonna Figure You Out).”
So I was delighted to see another example of album art with a crossword motif while scrolling social media a while back.
This time it was “Cardiac Arrest” by the band Madness.
Madness is a British ska band who made their name in the 1970s and 1980s as one of the prominent ska bands during the revival of two-tone ska.
Although they have more than a dozen songs in the UK Top Ten, you probably know them from their song “Our House,” which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100:
But it’s their controversial song “Cardiac Arrest” that interests me today.
Written by band members Chas Smash and Chris Foreman (aka Chrissy Boy), the song highlights the dangers of overworking yourself, as the song focuses on a workaholic who suffers a fatal heart attack on the way to work.
The band was known for writing humorous songs about the trials and tribulations of everyday life, reflecting the working-class backgrounds of the band members. But the darker tone of this song would have repercussions for the band.
Some listeners took issue with the song’s tone and subject matter, and the title itself hurt its chances at regular radio replay as well.
It’s sad, because I doubt the people who complained were actually listening. The song is a warning, hoping that people will not follow in the footsteps of the song’s doomed main character.
In an interview, Chas Smash defended the song:
It was born out of concern. The message was, ‘Relax darling, don’t get stressed.’ As the Arabs say, ‘Walk through life, don’t run.’
I reached out to the band — who is still touring with six out of their seven original members! — to see if I could get some background on why they went with a crossword-style design to promote the album, and Chrissy Boy himself responded!
He said that the crossword design was an intentional nod to some of the song’s lyrics. Not only do they mention crosswords directly — “Ten more minutes ’til he gets there / the crossword’s nearly done” — but there’s also a cryptic / British-style clue in the lyrics:
Think of seven letters
Begin and end in c
Like a big American car
But misspelt with a d.
Like a big American car (Cadillac) but misspelled with a D. That’s CARDIAC.
Naturally, I had to solve the puzzle itself for the full experience.
In fact, I solved BOTH versions of the “Cardiac Arrest” puzzle and I very much enjoyed them. They’re absolutely packed with trivia about the band’s songs and performers, including instruments and nicknames. Plus they mixed American-style cluing with cryptic cluing!
“Check over an animal doctor” for VET is a perfect double-definition cryptic clue and “Lies about a little island” for ISLE has an anagram-clue mix.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that another ska band used a crossword pattern, since the mix of black and white squares in crosswords is very reminiscent of the checkerboard pattern that is synonymous with both two-tone ska and third wave ska.
In fact, the band incorporates that patterning in several shirts they continue to sell today.
It never ceases to amaze me how there’s virtually no corner of pop culture that hasn’t been touched by puzzles in some way.
And to stumble upon a second example in one of my favorite genres of music? That’s just the icing on the cake.
Are there any albums or songs you associate with puzzles? Let me know in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!
PuzzCulture 