I think if you asked Gwen from No Doubt she'd hum an entirely different tune.

Marley was like 10 or 12 when people started playing ska... Nobody in particular invented it, it just sort of came about.

Short history lesson:

Lower-class black Jamaicans have entertained themselves with outdoor music parties since they were enslaved and taken from Africa to the Carribean. For most of history, they had live bands. Economic and social realities in the 1940's made musicians hard to come by, so people started playing records on old record players hooked up to PA systems (these were actually the original raves in a way). American R&B, and a little jazz, was what they played. These 'sound systems' got bigger and bigger, and began competing with each other for customers. The primary way they competed was by playing new and/or exclusive records, normally obscure R&B tunes, that other systems didn't have. By the mid-1950's the big operators (first Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid, a little later Prince Buster) realized that recording their own songs would be a great way to ensure exclusivity.

At first, it was all just straight R&B, but musicians and singers innovated by incorporating rhythms and sounds from the local calypso and mento music (as well as bringing Rastafari drummers and their flat-out African beats into the studios). By 1958 or 1959, it was ska. Most of the music that we listen to from 1950's and early 60's Jamaica is ska, but there was still tons of straight R&B being produced - if you can track down the Wailers album "One Love at Studio One (1964-1966)" (i forget whether i found it on torrentspy or thepiratebay, should still be active though), you'll get a kick out of hearing Bob Marley singing stuff like 'teenager in love.'

Also: the musicians later known as the Skatelites were the main studio band throughout this time, playing for just about every singer in the country. They were extremely talented and serious musicians, hence they loved jazz. that's why ska horns are they way they are.

rude boy don't care.

All of the Dorobo stuff was a pretty big money pit for me. I should drag that stuff out and start listening to it again.

I disagree.

I was just listening to Shinjuku Thief last night! The Witch Hammer > *

I went through a very experimental phase back then, looking for 'challenging' music. Shinjuku Thief, Muslimgauze, Merzbow, Masonna, Aube, Naked City/John Zorn, crazy drone stuff, Lustmord... basically, if it sounded like a toolbox being thrown down a metal staircase, or a pipe snake whipping a Buick in a wind storm... I was all about it. Good times.

I think our escape pods must've landed on different sides of the US.

(let's not talk about the whole ant-zen/hands/dhr thing. please.)

Fair enough.

My sources:
Bradley, Lloyd. This is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music. New York: Grove, 2000.
Chang, Kevin O' Brien and Wayne Chen. Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music. Philadelphia: Temple U.P., 1998.
Dawes, Kwame. Natural Mysticism: Towards a New Reggae Aesthetic. London: Peepal Tree, 1999.
Stolzoff, Norman C. Wake the Town & Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica. Durham: Duke U.P., 2000.

What are yours?

Or are you disagreeing with me because in my haste I left out a couple of things - The rise in popularity of rock and roll reduced the number of R&B records on the American market, which was another reason the Jamaicans shifted to domestic production.

And Marley was involved even in the 50's - he worked for one of the producers listed above (I forget which one). His job was to listen to American records and pick out the ones that Jamaican audiences would like the best. This may prefigure the fact that he wound up having a far more internationalist take on music than any other Jamaican musician of his time - he did, after all, nickname his son after a David Bowie album. His western outlook, though, precluded any of his post-Wailers material from becoming particularly popular on the Jamaican market - he's revered as a sort of human demigod there, not as a beloved singer and songwriter.

rude boy is also in grad school studying the history of jamaican music.

Special Beat Service is one of my favorite records. I don't know why you're coming down so hard on me.

I heard you were a big fan of Dave Wakeling's British Beat.

No one gets my jokes.

I have it on reasonable sources that some guy in some ska band was in love with a girl named Spike.

yeah, but she was on a tv show.

Actually she was on two TV shows.

To hell with ennui, he has masters? Or maybe no one to gossip with?

i liked that stuff, got tired of it, now i like it again.

Punchline: the people who did the ass kicking were part of the "ska scene."

No, actually, they were a bunch of nazi skins who got arrested

That's even funnier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<3

Most of my money in that regard was spent on stuff on Extreme ("Music for Bondage Performance", etc) and Manifold (Hands To - "Nazha", weird field recordings) and whatever Dave from Ear/Rational was touting...

I remember I went to a Masonna/Merzbow dual bill in Boston at this tiny venue in '97... Akita had a flourescent light fixture that he'd replaced the bulbs with 5' long metal springs, which he had dual-mic'd and wired through like 3 distortion pedals and then a feedback loop -- and then proceeded to bash with a ball peen hammer. It was like sticking your head in a blender... pretty awesome.

In 1983 I saw the English Beat play in an real cow barn on the UW campus in Madison. Gave new meaning to the term "Ranking Roger". Greeeeaaat show.

best ska show was my 1st one at the Rave in Milw. Bosstones, Skankin' Pickle, Mustard Plug, and three other "local" midwest ska bands for $6. There were only like 50 people there. It was the 666 show---6 bucks, december 6 at 6:00.


------although the shows at Skappleton rocked as well

My friend attempted to light a pipe and he almost got the heave-ho because they feared a lit match might set the dirt, saw dust, manure ground on fire. God, I love Wisconsin. Every night is Hockey Night.

Actually, I do and I agree.

Damn, man, I can't believe you're talking **** about the Aquabats. They're awesome. They're not really a ska band anymore, anyway. They're much more geeky new wave, a la Devo.

Unfortunately so went a lot of good ska bands----

less pop; more skanking!