A true skinhead?

Ska is not "speeded up" reggae. This is an all too common misconception and it is ironic that you would state it that way given your attempt to clear up some myths about skinheads.

Ska predates reggae by a number of years, so if you're going to compare the two, it would be more accurate to say that reggae is a "slowed down" version of ska.

The over-simplified history of ska/rocksteady/reggae music:

Ska was the child of Jamaican folk rythyms (mento) and imported R&B/early rock in the late '50s to early '60s. People would set up their own makeshift dancehalls where the locals could listen to bands and or recorded music and dance. These were sometimes called "sound system". Early pioneers include Desmond Dekker and the Skatalites among many others.

It is said that one of the summers in the late '60s was so unusually hot that the music makers slowed down the rythyms so that the dancers didn't pass out from exhaustion. This was the birth/segue into rocksteady/reggae.

Reggae originally didn't have anything to do with Rastfarianism. That association came later. Bob Marley was a skinhead in the early '60s.

As others have pointed out, ska went through a revival in England in the late '60s and on through the early '80s. This is usually referred to as the "second wave". Think Specials, Madness, Selecter, Bad Manners etc...

You will also hear about the "third wave". Depending on who you listen to that can either refer to the brief explosion of ska-infused punk rock that enjoyed (?) a very brief moment in the sun in the mid '90s, or it could be the small contingent of post-second wave bands that play a mix of traditional ska and other styles such as blues, R&B, soul etc. Look up Hepcat, Slackers, Pietasters, Toasters, Stubborn All Stars/King Django, Westbound Train (you know who you are) and so on.

That's enough out of me. Remember: Ska came first, and just because your punk band has a horn in it, doesn't make it a ska band.

Thank you

[Edited on Mar 13, 2005 by negative]

No, thank you.

Was he? Don't ever remember seeing that anywhere. Danny Baker killed him though.

edited to add:

according to some sources.

[Edited on Mar 13, 2005 by Crivelli]

Mother-fuckin' Oi!!!!!

Funny, to me the only ignorant fascists in this thread are those who jumped to conclusions without knowing a damn thing about real skins.

And as far as making fun of drinking beer and head-butting street signs, there are nights when that sounds like a hell of a lot more fun to me than hanging with whinny hipsters sipping mojitos and discussing last night's Arcade Fire show.

Garry Bushell, nah, can't believe that.

He was in the sense that like many other Jamaican youth of the time he cut his hair really short to keep cool.

Jamaican rude boys often had shaved (though probably not as close as what we call shaved today) heads. When the fellows in England were turned on to the scene, they adopted the hairstyle as well as the terms "rude boy" and "skin head".

This picture is from 1964. I have seen others, though I couln't find any just now. This is from Marley's pre-Rasta days.



I am by no means any kind of authority on Marley, I just brought it up as a bit of an anecdotal evidence.

Thank you

He had short hair but that hardly makes him a Skinhead.

Yeah, that's why I made a point of mentioning that:

A: Our idea of a shaven head is much different than what it used to be
B: I couldn't find the other pictures I have seen on short notice
C: "Skinhead" was originally just a hairstyle, not an affiliation
D: Bob Marley and his hair isn't really critical to what I was talking about

Thank you

A skinhead, is a crewcut.
A Skinhead is a Skinhead.

I used to have a skinhead but I wasn't a Skinhead.
I wasn't Jamaican either.


[Edited on Mar 13, 2005 by Crivelli]

whatever happend to moonska records? why lord why? and what the hell happened to bucket's new label / startup comp thing from a couple of years ago?

Sounds like you was a US Marine.

Moon went under several years ago amid some rather sketchy financial shenanigans (read: embezzlement) on the part of Moon bigshot Noah Wildman. He eventually paid most of it back, but he had stolen so much that the damage was irreversible.

Bucket's Megalith Records is still around putting out some stuff. I think I heard they just put out a Toasters DVD. I might need to check that out.

AMEN! Blue Beat Records a Go-Go!!!
Ska=Speeded Up Reggae=LOLZ!

You've always been lava, haven't you?

Was he trying to talk about SHARPs? Skin Heads Against Racial Prejudice? Pretty much that's his only hope for a coherent argument. However they were a really tiny group in the 70s-80s and are now more or less defunct.

My head hurts from this thread. I'm going to go look at LOLcats or something now.