The Skatalites would have you believe that the ska sound came about in the early 60s. But what do they know?

they would have you believe that, and they would be in a sense correct. the skatalites were the main studio band, playing r+b and ska since 55 or 56, helped develop the sound for years before they even though of calling themselves the skatalites and recording instrumental albums.

except the people calling themselves the skatalites nowadays are not the actual skatalites ('cept one of them) who were recording those albums back then.

the most important one, trombonist don drummond, went crazy, stabbed his girlfriend to death, and then killed himself in the looney bin 40 years ago.

you imply that you're citing 'the skatalites' as an authority. you have a link to an interview or something where they talk about their role? history's imperfect, but what I've been saying comes from books written by people (ranging from tightass academics to jamaican businessmen to british sound system dj's) who spent years traipsing around jamaica interviewing the folks who were actually there when this stuff was happening.

lots of jamaicans would have you believe lots of things. nobody actually invented ska, nobody actually invented reggae. dozens claim to have done both. and they're not exactly lying.

nobody invented toasting, but king machuki was almost certainly the first to begin to realize its potential... in the early 60's, 20 years before anybody in the west paid attention to it. i haven't heard any of the 60's records w/ toasting on them (there aren't many), but you can hear it in the intros to some prince buster songs.

but king tubby did actually invent dub. and the equipment used to make it.




lee 'scratch' perry was nothing more than a phenomenal ska/rocksteady/reggae producer until he met tubby and had him build the beginnings of the black ark.

ahhhhhhmeeeeeenn

also this thread needs a picture of prince buster




and the wailers



(bob's the one in the middle. tosh was born a badass and died a badass)

It also needs a pic of jabsco

How many rudeboys does it take to change a lightbulb? Two. One to try and fail and drop the bulb and the other one to PICK IT UP PICK IT UP! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

that's pretty good. --too many hahas in there though---its pickit up pickit up pickuuuuup, ha ha ha haaaaaaa


How many skins does it take to change a lightbulb? A pack. 1 to try and change it and the other 15 to kick his a$$

How many punks does it take to change a lightbulb? None, punks don't change lightbulbs, they smash them.

How many hippies does it take to change a lightbulb? 15. 1 to sit around and say---maaaan that is totally like not cool. The other 14 to say right on man--hey, quit effing up the rotation




-----do you know how to jamaican ska?

I heard the skins one differently. How many skins does it take to change a lightbulb? 100. 1 to change it and 99 to GET HIS BACK!

How many punks? 100 again. 1 to change it and 99 to get in on the guestlist.

How many feminists? Feminists will never change anything.

And how is a punk show like a banana? They're both only good once you get rid of the skins.

Your version is much better.

How many EMO kids does it take to change a lightbulb? 100. 99 to whine about it and one to get his divorced dad to pay an electrician to change it.

I don't have a link because my comment comes talking to Lloyd Brevett before he passed away. I would disagree that Don Drummond was the most important. He had the biggest hit of the day, but the sound came from the beat, which would make Lloyd Knibb the most important. Too much ska talk. back to listening to the dog faced hermans.

As told by Exene Cervenka in The Decline of Western Civilization:

"How many punks does it take to change a light bulb? Twenty...one to hold the bulb, one to turn the stool, and eighteen on the guest list."

And as long as we're on the subject:

How many Marxist-Leninists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None--the lightbulb's own internal contradictions will inevitably bring about revolution.

cool.

can we go back to the john zorn?

i saw a Cobra gig a few tears back when the lineup was basically mr. bungle + 10 zornites on horns / keys / theremin. patton stole the headband off somebody and proceded to conduct ten minutes of the most mindblowing improv i've ever heard, capped with his white-man Tuvan throat singing. good times!

Hey, Zach. I appreciate the music history. Could you tell us where/when Reggae started hitting the scene? Reading your stuff on ska made me wonder at first if you'd confused it with reggae or if the terms have changed around a bit. Ska as I remembered it was late 70's, early 80's British groups putting a more pop sound to reggae music.

(anyone else remember the short-lived tv series "Police Squad". In one episode Dick Clark gets the lowdown on ska from the streetwise shoe-shine man who also sells him some anti-aging cream.)

There's no longer Soul music, it's called R & B. But R & B used to mean Chicago-styled Blues music. There's no more Rap; it's Hip-hop; which originally was a variation of rap. And the difference between Country and Western have blurred and with singers like Shania Twain, Country has gone quite pop compared to 20-30 years ago.

Oh yeah! Here we go. Ska's got a really rich history. I look forward to Zach's response on this one. I know the answer, but he'll be able to explain it better than me.

country has gone downhill steadily since the 60s. a few gems here and there. but the days of "good country music" are waaaaay over (R.I.P. johnny cash, patsy cline, hank williams, george jones, buck owens, et. al).

reggae's had some presence in the western scene ever since it came about, '67-'68 - mick jagger and keith richards were big fans of jamaican music, and they were putting it out there. there was always up-to-date jamaican music available in the UK due to the large number of jamaican clubs (even though the US had nearly as many jamaican immigrants, they could assimilate much more easily and therefore didn't maintain their own cultural institutions nearly as much. dj kool herc was a jamaican, for example...). i'll be back with a little more detailed information about exactly what happened in the UK during the 70's tomorrow (books are at home, i'm at work)... can't spout it off the top of my head.

internationally, it was the soundtrack to The Harder They Come that broke reggae - and jamaican music in general.

My understanding was that reggae was an offshoot of ska that came about from slowing down the tempo to rocksteady tunes

Q: how many hippies does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: hippies don't screw in lightbulbs, they screw in sleeping bags.

I think it might be urban legend that it was really hot one summer...Too damn hot to dance to ska music, so they slowed it down & it became Rocksteady, then eventually Reggae.

well, yeah pretty much... but the question was about reggae's rise outside of jamaica.

it is a good story, and there might be some truth to it... another factor that's been cited is the contempoaneous rise of armed political gang violence and the fact that it's easier to watch your back in the dancehall when you're just shuffling around slowly instead of skanking like a madman.

most important factor: tastes change over time

I don't even like reggae, though I do like the old ska and rocksteady.

I just like pictures of King Stitt.

where's desmond dekker at in all this?

Loretta Lynn's "Van Lear Rose" is quite good. I really like Johnny Cash's American Recordings. "When the Man Comes Around" is great.