Syracuse Ska Forum

Like I alluded to in another thread, I long ago started a little project to create an online beginners guide to ska that is more comprehensive than 99% of whats already out there on the interweb.

I really think this could be a legitimate way to create more interest or at least to better organize existing interest. But I need lots of input on what should be included.

For starters, I want songs like "Easy Snappin'" by Thelonious Beckford from the 50s and then early and later Bob Marley & the Wailers songs, for example, to better document the musical progression. I just think hearing music makes it easier to understand than merely explaining it, ya know?

One of my goals with this would be to present in one place online a cornucopia of how varied this music really is and a clearer sense of how that came about. And I'm obsessed that it should include a lot of "rarities" that usually get missed in the typical narratives of this subject.

Specific suggestions?

don't

dick move

Lame-o


But anyhow sounds like a cool idea Danny.
And I do agree that hearing ska music, especially the progression of it, is a far better way to show it.

Especially so to people that may not even know what ska is at all.

~Pat<3

Are you talking about an album that, from start to finish, demonstrates how ska has evolved? I could possibly contribute. I'm not really sure why you'd want to include rare tunes, though. The big tunes are the ones that changed the landscape, y'know? Plus, they were popular for a reason haha.

Are you going to include rocksteady and reggae as well? It'll be kind of weird otherwise, when you jump from 1965 Kingston to 1980 Coventry on a playlist.

agree, matt - there should be a bit about the late 50's -- the 60's reggae/rocksteady in JA -- UK late 70's -80's -- US and the world 90's through now

i think its a great idea! im sick of having to explain it to everyone i wanna bring to shows, so a page describing in detail would be pretty beneficial to a lot of people.

Like I said before, I think a lot of text isn't very helpful explaining music. That's why I'm clearing a lot of space for music files for this.

ska danny wrote"I want songs like "Easy Snappin'" by Thelonious Beckford from the 50s "

Thelonius (Monk) is the jazz guy

Theophilus (Beckford) is the ska guy

i think a mix with short samples would help keep it quasi legal unless you had permission from the
artist like m wixon.

i think its a good idea.
a

As a beginner's guide to Jamaican music in general, I think a good spot to start is the first two discs of the Trojan U.K. Hits Box Set (Downloading the discs is optional ). The third disc is mostly unimportant, although "Uptown Top Ranking" might be interesting to fans of Big D's "Strictly Rude" since they're the same song. It obviously doesn't the second and third waves of ska, but it's a good selection of trad ska, early reggae, and early DJ tracks.

This is a great idea, definitely. I think everybody has friends who would be very into ska if they had some idea of what it is.

Having a link or something to throw at them to educate themselves would be fantastic.

Podcast- I mean it. What I would do, seven episodes:

1- mento, boogie woogie, and the skatalites
2- 60's vocal ska and intro rocksteady
3- finish off the 60's up to early reggae
4- uk skinhead reggae and ja roots
5- 2tone and post 2tone 80's
6-80's us ska and later ska punk
7- late 90's trad and a taste of the current scene.

45min to an hour long

accompanied by an informative blog, with sound clips and pictures galore.

there is no other way, and you know this.

-JJ

skasthelimit@kdhx.org
http://skablahblah.com

7 hours of music is hardly a beginner's guide haha. I think for this purpose, you could also omit most of the pre-ska Jamaican music, save for maybe a song or two. And roots reggae, while obviously important to reggae, didn't affect ska a whole lot. I guess some early roots stuff - particularly Black Ark productions, it seems - made it into some ska groups' repertoires, but you far fewer of that that early reggae tunes.

I think it would be cool if the trad, rocksteady, and ska selections were songs that were brought back in a later wave. Songs like "You're Wondering Now," "Madness," "54-46," "The Tide Is High," "Simmer Down," "Police and Thieves," and so on. "The Tide Is High" doesn't have much of a significance to ska, but if you want to include some rocksteady, the Paragons song should be appealing to listeners who know the cover by Blondie, just as "54-46" will do the same for Sublime fans, and so on. Just an idea I think would cool, and make the peripheral genres' inclusion that much more involving for the listener.

You may also want to include some Symarip and Upsetters, and use that as an excuse to include the neo-skinhead bands like the Aggrolites and One Night Band (well, now anyway). Not ska, but this new reggae revival is definitely in the same ballpark.

I think you could probably do this whole thing in a way that would fit onto maybe two CDs, 40 songs or so. Just a few examples of the various vibes the music created in each period.

Make sure to include the part about how Tomas Kalnoky invented ska when God told him how to play the mighty upstroke. "Let there be ska," he said, and thus Streetlight Manifesto was born, and the world has never been the same since. It's a fact.

^
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Reason no. 1 why it should be Danny putting the thing together, and not me.