ska classics
- Thread starter Bingo
- Start date
Firky, Fedayan and Butchersapron had a good list of ska on another forum. Should keep you going for a bit:
Slim Smith
Harry J Allstars
Toots and the Maytals
Jimmy Cliff
Trojan
Treasure Isle
Pama
Studio 1
Studio One
Prince Buster
The Skatalites
The Paragons
Dandy Livingstone
Laurel Aitken
Owen Gray
Jackie Mittoo
Jackie Edwards
Rupie Edwards
Boris Gardner
Ken Boothe
Stranger Cole
Bob and Marcia
The Kingstonians
The Pioneers
The Melodians
Susan Cadogan
Tommy McCook
Don Drummond
The Techniques
The Gaylads
Byron Lee
Lord Tanamo
King Stitt
Alton Ellis
Pat Kelly
Roland Alphonso
Clancy Eccles
Jackie Opel
Derrick Morgan
Silvertones
Baba Brooks
Justin Hinds
Ray Martell
Winston Groovy
The Slickers
Tony Tribe
Slim Smith
Harry J Allstars
Toots and the Maytals
Jimmy Cliff
Trojan
Treasure Isle
Pama
Studio 1
Studio One
Prince Buster
The Skatalites
The Paragons
Dandy Livingstone
Laurel Aitken
Owen Gray
Jackie Mittoo
Jackie Edwards
Rupie Edwards
Boris Gardner
Ken Boothe
Stranger Cole
Bob and Marcia
The Kingstonians
The Pioneers
The Melodians
Susan Cadogan
Tommy McCook
Don Drummond
The Techniques
The Gaylads
Byron Lee
Lord Tanamo
King Stitt
Alton Ellis
Pat Kelly
Roland Alphonso
Clancy Eccles
Jackie Opel
Derrick Morgan
Silvertones
Baba Brooks
Justin Hinds
Ray Martell
Winston Groovy
The Slickers
Tony Tribe
most of those aren't ska.
Some are rocksteady and some are skinhead reggae but it's all good 
(@ jefe)
(@ jefe)
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Ska and rocksteady tend to be coupled together because many ska artists, Derrick Morgan, Alton Ellis etc etc, also produced rocksteady hits. Rocksteady was also more closely associated with 'rude boys', yet rude boys are often lumped into the whole ska scene, hence both ska and rocksteady often falling under the 'ska' banner for lots of people.
Most of this doesn't matter much to people who just wanna listen to good tunes, but if it's important to the compilation that you find ska then it's worth getting it right?
Most of this doesn't matter much to people who just wanna listen to good tunes, but if it's important to the compilation that you find ska then it's worth getting it right?
Nanker Phelge
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Actuall when I wrote Alton Ellis I was thinking more of Laurel Aitken....
One day I was idly browsing Amazon and saw this. Instant buy even if it meant dipping into my overdraft.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
grr who gives a toss what the fucking genre label is, you bunch of muso snob tosspots
Good posting
Music falls into a few categories. I like it, that's shite, wtf!!!!, it's ok.Can't be doing with nitpicking about subtleties
coccinelle
Active Member
No-one has mentioned Monty Morris. He had a string of ska No 1s in Jamaica. And Roy Panton of Roy and Millie.
Good posting
Can't be doing with nitpicking about subtleties
so if someone asks you to recommend some soul music, you'll recommend something by Slayer? Cos genres are for snobs, right?
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
I wouldn't have a clue what they meant be soul coz ime there seems to be a number of definitions and I really can't be arsed with it. Soul as in Barry White or soul as in northern soul or soul as in something else??
I would NEVER recommend Slayer, coz I dunno what they sound like
I believe they may come under the heavy/metal type label.I wouldn't have a clue what they meant be soul coz ime there seems to be a number of definitions and I really can't be arsed with it. Soul as in Barry White or soul as in northern soul or soul as in something else??
hence the need for genres to help people distinguish what they're talking about.
Callie
Pivoting
or so that wanky boys can start banging on about whats what and whats not
Labels can be useful. What isn't useful is when someone asks about X style of music and the only answers they get consist of 'well thats not X because technically thats Y' when the the people answering actually pretty much fully understand what the person is talking about in the first place.
This is pet hate for me, can you tell? *falls off high horse*
Labels can be useful. What isn't useful is when someone asks about X style of music and the only answers they get consist of 'well thats not X because technically thats Y' when the the people answering actually pretty much fully understand what the person is talking about in the first place.
This is pet hate for me, can you tell? *falls off high horse*
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
hence the need for genres to help people distinguish what they're talking about.
Yeah but when those genres are so close that most people can't tell the difference they just become pointless.
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Let's have some youtube links then...
Spion
I hear ya
most people could tell the difference. Most just don't know that the two are a different genre because 'ska' has become a catch all for anything jamaican from 1960-67ish, but the musicians knew the difference, the producers knew the difference, the dancers in the dancehalls knew the difference - and the differences are there in the role instruments play, the tempo, the overall feel.
Listen to Train to Skaville (which oddly is classic rocksteady, IMO) and to Phoenix City
Spion
I hear ya
Some early first wave Ska was called Bluebeat to make things a bit more complicated - Chris Blackwell where are you now?
Spion
I hear ya
Not really.Blue Beat was a UK-based record label which sold Jamaican music, which covered the pre-ska period of so-called JA boogie through to roacksteady. But, it's true it kind has become a catch all for all the things people think of as ska, but lots of its output very definitely wasn'tSome early first wave Ska was called Bluebeat to make things a bit more complicated
Yes it was a label, part of the Island Records and Black Swan but my understanding is that some of the music he was releasing over here was referred to as Bluebeat?
I shall google my hunch
THE ORIGINS OF SKA, REGGAE AND DUB MUSIC
http://www.potentbrew.com/skaregdu.html
I haven't heard that Marley quote before
I shall google my hunch
THE ORIGINS OF SKA, REGGAE AND DUB MUSIC
http://www.potentbrew.com/skaregdu.html
I haven't heard that Marley quote before
Spion
I hear ya
Well, I dunno, there's two things going on here. Blue Beat as some kind of catch-all term for Jamaican music. It's possibly a retrospective term tho. My bro was buying this kind of stuff at the time so I'll ask him what he called it (and Jamaican stuff on other labels back then) when I see him next. He had (and gave some to me
) stuff on Blue Beat, Pama, Pyramid and JJ labels IIRC. And then there's the facts of the Blue Beat label, which wasn't anythng to do with Chris Blackwell, but a subsidiary of Melodisc which was started up by two Jewish geezers in London.ericjarvis
give a feck for the feckless
Thing is that the musicians aren't always trying to be in a particular genre when they make the music. Sometimes it may be definitively ska, another time it may be quite clearly reggae, another time it may have started out as rocksteady but drifted towards lovers rock as it was developed. Not all music comfortably fits a genre. So it's reasonable to treat a genre as being somewhat fluid rather than rigid. Just as it's necessary sometimes to define a genre strictly. Horses for courses. Neither approach is inevitably right, neither is inevitably wrong.
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