I'm trying to co-operative a playlist for my mates birthday. I've been told he likes Ska music but I don't know too much about Ska music so looking for advice or any tunes you like?
Message to you Rudy / Gangsters - Specials Lucky Seven / Dick Tracey - The Skatalites Man in the Street - Don Drummond Train to Skaville - Ethiopians Miss Skaculation - Roland Al & the Soul Brothers
Intensified Ska Compilations 62-66 / 63 -67 / First Specials album 1979 - lots of classics
On my radio / Too much Pressure - Selector Mirror in the Bathroom / Too Nice to talk to / Twist & Crawl - Beat
Anything by Less Than Jake - especially the song All My Friends Are Metalheads... I think it's called than anyway. Reel Big Fish, Monkey Man. I don't know much ska but punk isn't far off. Throw some classics in there... Blink 182, New Found Glory, Green Day, Offspring etc.
Skinhead moonstomp - symarip Ten commandments - Prince buster Madness - Prince buster Al Capone- Prince buster Guns of navarone - skatalites Pied piper - rita marley Pressure drop - toots and the maytals
Add in some Jimmy Cliff(reggae) The Harder they come
Anything by Less Than Jake - especially the song All My Friends Are Metalheads... I think it's called than anyway. Reel Big Fish, Monkey Man. I don't know much ska but punk isn't far off. Throw some classics in there... Blink 182, New Found Glory, Green Day, Offspring etc.
Anything by Less Than Jake - especially the song All My Friends Are Metalheads... I think it's called than anyway. Reel Big Fish, Monkey Man. I don't know much ska but punk isn't far off. Throw some classics in there... Blink 182, New Found Glory, Green Day, Offspring etc.
There’s a wonderful Roland Alphonso solo album on CD with some great tunes on it. RA played sax with the Skatalites. There’s also a very good Randy’s ska comp on cd. Randy’s was a studio run by the Chinn family - they worked with Bob Marley in his early days and produced some great ska, some of which has yet to come out on cd - frustratingly. The singles are massively collectable and valuable.
And of course, The Skatalites themselves were the early exponents of ska, and there are a couple of good CD comps of their stuff out there.
I really can’t take the likes of Madness and The Specials as authentic Ska.
Nor The Beat a band I did like.
I was a big fan of all these bands as a kid - most of the cover versions they did didn't really match up to the original version. Their own material had a British slant which worked far better - definitely the roots of these bands was in ska.
Ghost Town was one of the best singles of the 80s.
The trouble with a lot of ska bands is they just do covers. Most of the best stuff dates from the 60s - ska was really replaced by reggae.
Comments
Lucky Seven / Dick Tracey - The Skatalites
Man in the Street - Don Drummond
Train to Skaville - Ethiopians
Miss Skaculation - Roland Al & the Soul Brothers
Intensified Ska Compilations 62-66 / 63 -67 /
First Specials album 1979 - lots of classics
On my radio / Too much Pressure - Selector
Mirror in the Bathroom / Too Nice to talk to / Twist & Crawl - Beat
I don't know much ska but punk isn't far off. Throw some classics in there... Blink 182, New Found Glory, Green Day, Offspring etc.
Jump on YouTube and have a search around for some ideas. Most of the above mentions are great choices.
Ten commandments - Prince buster
Madness - Prince buster
Al Capone- Prince buster
Guns of navarone - skatalites
Pied piper - rita marley
Pressure drop - toots and the maytals
Add in some Jimmy Cliff(reggae)
The Harder they come
Anything by The Slackers. Really underated band.
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Rancid
Time bomb
Daly City train
Or:
Specials - Too much, too young
Madness - Night boat to Cairo
The Beat - Ackee 1 2 3
Specials - Ghost town
Israelites
Shanty Town
Harder they come soundtrack
Nor The Beat a band I did like.
And of course, The Skatalites themselves were the early exponents of ska, and there are a couple of good CD comps of their stuff out there.
Ghost Town was one of the best singles of the 80s.
The trouble with a lot of ska bands is they just do covers. Most of the best stuff dates from the 60s - ska was really replaced by reggae.
London ska festival is on over Easter.