Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty featuring Big Youth and George Dekker "Everything Crash"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

"Everything Crash" is the fantastic second single released in advance of Prince Fatty's forthcoming In the Viper's Shadow album, which will be issued on October 4, 2019 and can be pre-ordered now (the first single off this record was "Get Ready," which we reviewed here). This track, of course, is a cover of The Ethiopians' 1969 hit (inspired by public worker strikes during an economic crisis in JA in '68: "Firemen strike/Water men strike/Telephone company, too/Down to the policemen, too...What gone bad a-morning/Can't come good a-evening, whoa/Every day carry bucket to the well/One day the bottom must drop out"), but in this version--featuring the always brilliant Big Youth and wonderfully mellifluous George Dekker (The Pioneers)--the concern is about global environmental collapse due to humanity's incredibly poor stewardship/outright abuse of the planet. Big Youth impassionedly chats: "People need to take a check and look at what we do/Take a likkle stop and look at what we do/Leaders of government/Leaders of war...We need to take of our nuclear waste/We need to find a better place/Global reasoning/This is global argument/There's so much emission in the air..." (he goes on to decry fluoride in the water, though that seems pretty low on the list of extraordinary damage we've done to the land, air, and other living things, but his point is still well-taken--the water's not pure and clean). With this track, Prince Fatty, George Dekker, and Big Youth have created an "Armagideon Time" of sorts for our man-made global warming Anthropocene era. As always, this is a top Prince Fatty production and signals just how great his In the Viper's Shadow is likely to be...

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty featuring Big Youth and George Dekker "Get Ready" b/w "Get Ready Dub"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Prince Fatty featuring Big Youth and George Dekker "Get Ready" b/w "Get Ready Dub" (7" vinyl single/digital, Evergreen Recordings, 2019): This extraordinary 1966 Smokey Robinson-penned and produced track for The Temptations--one of the defining songs of the 1960s (and for Motown)--has a brilliant, menacing edge to the bass and horn lines that belies the subtext to the chorus, "Get ready, 'cause here I come," which (apart from the double-entendre) was clearly a message of black empowerment and support for the civil rights movement (and probably a nod to Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" of a year earlier). The white radio and TV powers that be--and many white teenage Motown fans--took the love song lyrics at face value (and for most of the '60s, Motown head Berry Gordy didn't want any overtly controversial lyrics getting in the way of record sales), but there was another nation of receptive ears receiving the signal loud and clear. Prince Fatty's take on this soul classic (which follows recent covers of Roy Ayers' "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" and William DeVaughn's "Be Thankful for What You've Got") with the amazing George Dekker singing Eddie Kendrick's falsetto lead and Big Youth augmenting it all with his head-over-heels DJ chatting ("Maybe we could settle down/If you have children/I've got some/But we could have some more...10 to 10/This love will never really end/10 to 10/You'll never fall in love again") presents it as a straight-up love song--and he gives it the usual, fantastic Prince Fatty production. But given the times, perhaps it would have been even better if Big Youth had emphasized the hidden anti-racist aspect of the original and chatted about combating white supremacy to make the world a better place for his woman and kids...

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Duff Review: Horace Andy backed by Welders "Straight To Hell" and Big Youth backed by Welders "Pair of Dice" b/w Horace Andy v. Big Youth "Asylum Seekers" and Eric Blowtorch "Christmas in Ladbroke Grove"

Fe True Records
Limited edition 12" vinyl EP/digital
2017

(Review by Steve Shafer)

During The Clash's recording of Sandinista! in New York City at The Power Station and Electric Lady studios in 1980 and their extraordinary 17 show residency at Bond's in Times Square in 1981 (since an unhappy with this triple-LP album Epic wouldn't help finance a national tour, their only US gigs in support of Sandinista! with mind-blowing, Clash-selected opening acts like The Fall, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Lee "Scratch" Perry, The Slits, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Bush Tetras, ESG, and others opening, according to the book "The Clash FAQ" by Gary J. Jucha), they had become completely enamored, if not obsessed, with the funky, druggy decadent, definitely crumbling, and oftentimes dangerous concrete jungle that was New York City in the late '70s and early '80s ("Ford to City: Drop Dead"; "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning"). It was the greatest city in a nation still very much traumatized and disillusioned by the hubris, moral bankruptcy, deception, and madness of its leaders and failures of its institutions in the wake of the loss of the Vietnam War and the corruption/illegality at the highest levels of government in Watergate (as well as the more recent humiliations of the late '70s oil crisis, stagflation, America's "crisis of confidence," the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the agonizing Iranian hostage crisis).

While this societal breakdown and collective PTSD of sorts played out around The Clash during their exploits in New York City (whose ghettos they dubbed "an urban Vietnam" in "This Is Radio Clash"--this Don Letts directed music video features live footage from the Bond's residency, as well as fantastic shots of The Clash's somewhat real/somewhat romanticized version of NYC), it also was being reflected/reinforced in dozens of films in the 1970s, including Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter, Hal Ashby's Coming Home, and most significantly in Martin Scorsese's lurid, NYC-based Taxi Driver (about a deeply disturbed Vietnam vet who almost assassinates a presidential candidate after being romantically rejected by one of his female campaign volunteers and in a botched murder spree-suicide attempt to rescue a child prostitute he was obsessed with saving is mistakenly hailed as some kind of hero by the media), which was one of Joe Strummer's favorite movies (and The Clash loved their movies--during the recording of Sandinista!, they stayed at the Iroquois Hotel, because they'd heard James Dean used to bunk there). As well, Francis Ford Coppola's surreal and hellish Vietnam War take on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," Apocalypse Now had a huge impact on the band and was the inspiration, of course, for "Charlie Don't Surf" on Sandinista! It's interesting to note how Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle and Apocalypse Now's Captain Willard are clear descendants of the ultra-violent, loner American Wild West antiheroes depicted in 1960s spaghetti Westerns by Sergio Leone and others which influenced The Harder They Come, Perry Henzell's JA rude boy/outlaw fantasy--Jimmy Cliff's character Ivanhoe Martin even goes to the cinema to see Sergio Corbucchi's Django in one scene. (The Harder They Come was so beloved by the myth-loving and self-mythologizing Clash that they referenced it in two songs: "Safe European Home" and "Guns of Brixton.") To the dismay of their British fans and the London music press (who felt they were losing one of their own to the Yanks), The Clash's growing infatuation with American culture, music, and politics (quite evident on London Calling and Sandinista!) was about to go full bore.

As The Clash began writing and recording their follow-up to Sandinista!, the real and (imagined) cinematic impact of the Vietnam War on America became a dominant, almost all-consuming topic of Combat Rock (its original title--and superior Mick Jones mix--was the even more explicitly American military-esque Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg)--see cuts like "Red Angel Dragnet" (which directly quotes Taxi Driver during a spoken word verse by Kosmo Vinyl channeling damaged Vietnam vet Travis Bickle as he drives his cab through all the porno theaters, sex shops, pimps, prostitutes, druggies, and scam artists in Times Square: "All the animals come out at night - queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."--and also offers this revealing bit: "What is the dream?/I'll tell it/To live like they do in the movies"), "Sean Flynn" (about the photojournalist son of Hollywood Robin Hood/Captain Blood actor Errol Flynn who disappeared in Vietnam in 1970; Dennis Hopper's character in Apocalypse Now is based on Flynn), "Car Jamming" ("And then a shyboy from Missouri/Boots blown off in a Sixties war/Riding aluminum crutches/Now he knows the welfare kindness/Agent Orange color-blindness") and the extraordinary "Straight to Hell."

Strummer's "Straight to Hell" is primarily about the estimated 50,000 sons and daughters of American GIs and Vietnamese women who were conceived during the war, but abandoned when the U.S. finally pulled out of Vietnam in 1975--though it also condemns Western imperialist nations' almost wholesale persecution/rejection of immigrants and refugees from their former colonies. These bi-racial children--who were so obviously fathered by white, black, and brown American soldiers--faced harsh discrimination and desperate poverty in Vietnam; many wound up in orphanages. To the Vietnamese, depending on your politics, they were children of the ally that failed/betrayed you or the offspring of your enemy; they stood out physically in a largely homogenous ethnic society; and a good number, but certainly not all, of their mothers had been sex workers. In 1980, a number of articles in U.S. newspapers and a documentary by Bill Kurtis titled "The American Faces" began to raise national awareness of the plight of the Amerasian children of the Vietnam War; clearly Strummer was paying attention. This was another (very real) example of the folly and failure of U.S. imperialist Cold War policy for Strummer to comment on (and it was an indirect swipe at Reagan, who--terrifyingly--was heating up things again with the Russians in the early 1980s). "Straight to Hell" went on to become a fan favorite, generated great critical acclaim (Jucha opines that it's the closest The Clash came to writing their own "Armagideon Time"), and has been covered, sampled, and versioned by other artists, including Skinnerbox, M.I.A., Elvis Costello, and Lily Allen and Mick Jones.

Several decades pass and Strummer ends up co-writing the title song for Horace Andy's great 1999 Living in the Flood album (released on Massive Attack's label after Andy came to widespread attention due to his work on Blue Lines, No Protection, and Mezzanine); at the time, when he'd come to town with the Mescaleros, Strummer mentions to Milwaukee reggae musician, producer, and Clash fanatic Eric Blowtorch that he thought "Straight to Hell" would be a perfect song for Andy to cover. Years later, when Blowtorch was corresponding with Andy, he asks if he has ever covered any Clash songs and Andy tells him that he has recorded a version of "Straight to Hell," but wasn't satisfied with the results. This sets Blowtorch on a mission--and this four-track EP is the spectacular result.

Horace Andy and the Welders' roots reggae take on "Straight To Hell" takes on renewed meaning and relevance as millions of immigrants and refugees across the globe ("It could be anywhere/Most likely could be any frontier/Any hemisphere") flee war, violence, extreme poverty, and man-made or natural disaster in the hope of finding peace, stability, and opportunity for themselves and their families--all while America extinguishes Lady Liberty's beacon and rolls up the welcome mat through Trump's despicable (and un-American) white supremacist/nativist/xenophobic Tweets, utterances, and policies, which gives cover to ethno-nationalists throughout Europe ("No man's land/There ain't no asylum here/King Solomon, he never lived 'round here/Straight to hell, boy/Go straight to hell"). In this version, the violin-sounding synth and lead guitar lines are transformed into bright horn riffs and the rhythm section keeps the pace relatively brisk--but it's all sparse enough to leave space for Andy's plaintive vocals to deliver the devastating lyrics. Since The Clash purposefully shed much of their reggae sounds on Combat Rock with the explicit goal of reaching a broad American rock audience--which they found and then some--it's wonderful to hear this track in a full-on reggae setting with Andy's beautifully expressive voice (Joe, of course, was spot-on about him singing this song).

Back in 2007, Blowtorch spent a summer volunteering at the Alpha Boys' School in Kingston, JA (which fostered many of the island's greatest musicians, including Tommy McCook, Johnny Moore, Lester Sterling, Don Drummond, Rico Rodriguez, Theophilius Beckford, Headley Bennet, Cedric Brooks, Vin Gordon, Leroy Smart, Eddie Thornton, Yellowman, Horsemouth Wallace, and more!). While there, he met U-Roy (and later recorded and released the Groping in the Dark/Groping in the Park 10" in 2010), who eventually put Blowtorch in touch with Big Youth (though this collaboration has all been long-distance; they've never met). On the terrific deejay version "Pair of Dice," Big Youth serves up some wordplay on the "Straight To Hell" lyric "this is your paradise" and great commentary on the high stakes gamble immigrants and refugees are taking: "If you're seeking asylum/Then paradise is a pair of dice/ICE stands for immigration and custom enforcement/Minutemen...racists/Trouble on the borderline/You've got to sell your heart/Sell your soul/You have to sell your kidney sometimes."

"Asylum Seekers" (AKA "Reason Pan Babylonian Delusion") is an amazing mash-up (by Shane Olivo) of a version of Horace Andy's "Straight To Hell" vocal track with Big Youth's singjay performance (Andy: "Let me tell you about your blood family, kid/It's ain't Coca-Cola..." Youth: "...It's racist!"--though mostly Big Youth urges asylum seekers to "Do right/Be right/Live right/Live good"). This mix includes some choice electro-synth percussion reminiscent in what has to be a nod to M.I.A.'s "Straight To Hell"-sampling "Paper Planes" (which also is about the challenges of immigrating legally and the stereotyping of immigrants).

The EP is rounded out with Blowtorch's haunting "Christmas in Ladbroke Grove" (performed with Cecilio Negron, Jr.), who was inspired to write this very Clash-like reggae track when he learned the heartbreaking news of Joe Strummer's death as he was in London around Christmas in 2002 to perform at Gaz's Rockin' Blues with The Inflammables.

"Running from Ankara to Tehran
In the school cafeteria someone left the radio on
Older brother just 19 and gone, his only solace in a song

He only just stopped squatting, said something ‘bout a boy named Rotten
He used to sweep the factory floor, then he ran off to join the peace war
He led the charge into the terror zone then left us on our own

He used to make the breeze a blow
He used to be your hero
Where did that gravedigger from Tehran go?
Where is Woody? Where is John? Joe?

Christmas night so quiet on Ladbroke Grove
Not one soul in sight on Portobello Road
Someone turn the radio on
Give us solace, give us song – where he gone?"

It's quite affecting and one of the best songs about Strummer I've heard--and is perhaps a track to pull out every December 22nd (or whenever the feeling strikes) as you hoist a few in Joe's memory. I imagine he'd be very pleased with this EP and touched by the tribute.

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10% of each Straight To Hell purchase goes to Doctors Without Borders/Medicin Sans Frontiers, who provide medical care to human beings in dire circumstances in the most dangerous parts of the world.

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Postscript: It wasn't until 1987 that America finally recognized the Amerasian children in Vietnam--our own kids--and established refugee/immigration status for them through the American Homecoming Act. While it was in effect (from 1988-1990), approximately 23,000 Amerasian children and 67,000 of their next-of-kin were resettled in the United States.

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Update: Washington Post, 8/31/18: "Thousands of Vietnamese, including offspring of U.S. troops, could be deported under tough Trump policy"

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Duff Review: Blue Riddim Band & Big Youth "Nancy Reagan" b/w "Nancy Reagan Remix 2011 - Voice of the People"

Rougher Records
1981/2011
7" vinyl single

(Reviewed by Steve Shafer)

Despite my burgeoning interest in reggae and ska (UB40, Peter Tosh, and all things 2 Tone) during my high school years in first half of the 1980s, I somehow missed Blue Riddim Band in their heyday (of note, they were first American reggae band to play Reggae Sunsplash in 1982--and the live recording from this event, Alive in Jamaica, was nominated for a Grammy in 1986; to this day, they remain the only American reggae band ever nominated for a "best reggae album of the year" Grammy).

Hard as it is to imagine now, back in the primitive pre-internet times, unless they played their record on WLIR (the Long Island-based alternative radio station that served as my lifeline to New Wave music), or I heard about the band through word-of-mouth, or I happened to read about them in Trouser Press (hell, even MTV was airing some pretty left-of-the-dial music videos back then), you could completely miss some incredible acts like this all-white reggae band from Kansas City, Missouri. I have to fess up to not encountering Blue Riddim Band until reading several recent posts on the band by Marco on the Bass, including one regarding their work with Ranking Roger and a more recent entry about their excellent new collaboration with Big Youth, the subject of this review.

The B side of this single is the original (and now remastered) 1981 version of "Nancy Reagan." Over an amazingly catchy roots reggae rhythm (laid down at Channel One in JA), the lyrics lampoon Mrs. Reagan, who was seen as frivolous, materialistic, detached, and aloof (her detractors mocked her as "Queen Nancy") during her first year as First Lady for renovating the White House, purchasing new White House china, and outfitting herself in very expensive designer clothing--all of this during a deep economic recession that was hurting many Americans.

Indeed, contrasted with the austere, humble, and introspective Carters, the formal and glamorous Reagans (both ex-Hollywood B movie stars) coupled with his administration's right-wing policies (which promoted "trickle-down economics," the disproved theory posited that if you focused solely on creating an environment where the rich and corporations could flourish through business deregulation and low taxes, the wealth created would somehow "trickle down" to the lower classes and take care of them as well--hmmm...taxes have been super low on the rich and corporations for the past decade and things are worse than ever for the non-rich) that decimated the social safety net at a time when unemployment was at a record high, gave their critics the strong impression that they didn't give a damn about poor and working class Americans.

In this context, the vapid, "Stepford Wives"-like depiction of Mrs. Reagan was a powerful political statement--and still has some sting left in it after all these years:

"My name is Nancy Reagan/My husband's name is Ron/He rules this nation/All my clothes come from the best designers/All my china is a perfect match."



Blue Riddim fan and boss DJ Big Youth does a wonderful job of versioning this track for the 21st century, with explicitly anti-war lyrics. On "Nancy Reagan Remix 2011 - Voice of the People," he chats:

"The voice of the people/is the voice of God/
War in the Middle East/war in the middle West/
War for the hopeless/war for the homeless/
War with the helpless/war with the needy/
War with the greedy/them a start the war/
War is not the answer/only love can conquer it/
War is not the answer/only love can conquer it..."

In particular, Big Youth connect the dots between the Reagan years and current day conflicts, particularly in the Middle East:

"It starts with Ron/and him give it to Bush/
war in the Middle East with them ancient Persians..."

If the voice of the people is the voice of God, as Big Youth toasts, then talking through the issues that divide us is the path to peace:

"Rise up people/let's have a conversation/
Rise up people/we don't want no bloody revolution."

Here's hoping that this single brings more attention to the legacy of this extraordinary American reggae band--and that Big Youth's message of love is taken to heart by all who hear it.

Duff Guide to Ska Grade: A

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While we're on the subject of the Reagans and pop music, I can't help but mention the significant number of songs about the fear of nuclear war that were written during Ronald Reagan's presidency. Reagan's hard-line rhetoric and stance against the Soviets (several neo-cons in his administration--including Dick Cheney--who were disdainful of detente, increased defense spending to such a degree and implemented provocative polices that ended up re-igniting the arms race with the Soviets, since they were convinced that America was preparing for a nuclear first strike against them), his use of end-of-days evangelical language (Reagan told now-disgraced TV preacher Jim Bakker in 1980, "We may be the generation that sees Armageddon"), and itchy-trigger gunslinger image exacerbated Cold War relations between the nuclear superpowers to such a degree that millions of people throughout Western Europe and the U.S. (and one had to imagine the Soviet Union) were very worried that they might die in a nuclear war (I certainly was one of them).

Within this context, according to Dorian Lynskey's terrific book about popular protest music, "33 Revolutions Per Minute," an additional reason that bands like Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Specials (as well as a slew of British New Wave acts) wrote about nuclear war was the May 1980 publication and distribution of the Home Office booklet (and release of accompanying short films) titled "Protect and Survive" (read a copy of the booklet here; see one of the films here), which grimly detailed the steps the public should take to attempt to survive a nuclear attack and (if they lived through the initial blast) the radioactive fallout afterward. Lynskey notes that even though "Protect and Survive" was "designed to reassure, it proceeded to scare the daylights out of anyone who read it." This and the very real placement of U.S. cruise missiles in the UK (as part of a NATO counter-move against a new medium-range Soviet nuclear missile) convinced many Britons that they would high on the list of targets should all-out war break out between the superpowers.

Some of the songs expressing the terrible nuclear war anxiety and dread of the early 1980s included: Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Two Tribes," Time Zone's "World Destruction," The Fixx's "Red Skies" and "Stand or Fall," The English Beat's "Dream Home in NZ," "Two Swords," The Ruts' "It Was Cold," and "Psychedelic Rockers," U2's "Seconds," Fishbone's "Party at Ground Zero," XTC's "Living Through Another Cuba," The Selecter’s “Their Dream Goes On,” Nena's “99 Red Balloons,” The Toasters' "Radiation Skank," Prince's "1999," The Clash's “London Calling” and "Stop the World," Alphaville’s "Forever Young," Men at Work's “It’s a Mistake,” The Specials’ "Man at C and A," Elvis Costello's "Peace in Our Time," Billy Bragg's "Help Save the Youth of America," Depeche Mode's "Two Minute Warning," Ian Dury's "Ban the Bomb," Aku Aku's "Ground Zero," The Police's "Walking in Your Footsteps," The Untouchables' "Sudden Attack," and Bonzo Goes to Washington's “5 Minutes."

These anti-nuke songs helped a lot of people cope with the stress of living with the very real possibility of doomsday--and made you feel like you weren't the only freak up late at night wondering if a Soviet ICBM was going to erase all of your tomorrows in an instant. It also made it seem like something could be done to take some small measure of control of a completely out-of-our-control situation ("Forever Young" lyric: "Heaven can wait/we're only watching the skies/Hoping for the best/but expecting the worst/Are you going to drop the bomb or not?"), as musicians banded together for concerts supporting the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and CND anti-nuke benefit albums like Life in the European Theatre (featuring tracks by The Clash, The Jam, The Beat, The Specials, Echo and the Bunnymen, XTC, and more). By giving voice to our collective fears and setting it to music you could dance to, these New Wave groups helped make it possible to live and even enjoy life at a time when world's leaders were unbelievably close (see Able Archer 83) to wiping us out forever.

Duff MOJO Watch: Ramones, Rocksteady Movie, Big Youth, Bad Manners

Compared to this month's Vive Le Rock!, the May 2011 MOJO has scant ska or reggae coverage to offer, even though there are plenty of worthy releases coming out/bands touring, etc. (Hmmm...the 2011 London International Ska Festival doesn't rate at least some sort of preview?!) However, MOJO cover boys The Ramones give me the opportunity to recount two minor Joey Ramone-ska connections. For a brief time in the late 80s, Joey Ramone owned a small club called Downtown that was located in the basement of a building that was just off Broadway on Bond Street. In 1989 or 1990, I caught a show there with the newly-minted, Django-led ska act Skinnerbox--my brother's best friend Steve Abrams was their guitarist at the time--and NYC Oi band The Press; afterwards, Steve invited me backstage to hang out. As it turns out, it was Joey Ramones' birthday (May 19) and they were holding a little celebration for him. So, fortified by all of the beer sloshing around in my belly, I went up to the punk legend that towered over me (even as hunched over as he was), thrust my hand into his and wished him a happy birthday. Joey said something like, "Thanks, man!" and offered me some of his cake, which I gobbled down when not smiling ear to ear. It was a great New York moment--the kind that reinforced the notion that you lived in the greatest city in the world. (Even though he wouldn't have known me from Adam, I passed by him many times in the East/West Village throughout the 90s...he'd just be walking around with a friend as I was on my way to work or a record shop.)

The other ska gig I caught at Downtown was an ultra-rare NYC appearance by The Untouchables (which must have been sometime in the winter or spring of 1989). Even though the album that they were touring in support of (Double OO Soul) was less than stellar (my friend Andy was reluctant to see the show, since he'd heard bad things about the record), The Untouchables unleashed one of most brilliant and energetic live performances I've ever seen (Black Rock Coaltion funk-metal rockers 24-7 Spyz were also on the bill and were extraordinarily good). Most of The Untouchables' set that night was comprised of cuts from Wild Child, their debut album, which is a must for every self-respecting ska fan's collection (and my compatriot Marco on the Bass has a great appreciation of the band and this record here).

Even though this is a little off topic, it should be noted that the articles in MOJO about The Ramones are excellent, including one that reveals that Joey's pretty severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder--which had afflicted him since he was a kid--led to his demise ten years ago (on April 15, 2001 at the shockingly young age of 49). Joey had been convinced that he had not closed his chiropractor's door properly--he'd already gone uptown earlier in the night to check it once--but decided to go check again at 6:00 am on December 31, 2000. He slipped on some ice outside his Village apartment and ended up breaking his hip--he'd had lymphatic cancer since 1994 and the medication he'd been taking to treat it caused his bones to become very brittle and fragile. To fix the hip, he had to go off the cancer drugs, which gave the cancer the opening it needed to complete its terrible work. Earlier that year, Joey had become friends with Bono, who offered to take care of his medical bills when he found out that Joey was in the hospital--and Bono was one of the last people to talk to Joey on the phone when he was in intensive care (when they unplug Joey from the respirator, U2's "In a Little While" from All That You Can't Leave Behind is playing on the boombox). It's heartbreaking stuff.

As for this month's attention to ska, there is a short, positive review of the Pressure Drop expanded reissue of Bad Manners' debut Ska'n'B (they should also have mentioned the reissues of Loonee Tunes, Gosh It's... and Forging Ahead while they were at it). Ian Harrison praises the reissue of Big Youth's awesome Screaming Target LP on Sunspot in his "Vinyl Countdown" column. There is also a double review of Looking Back: The Jamaican Chart Hits of 1958 and 1959 and Easy Snapping: The Jamaican Chart Hits of 1960 (Sunrise Records), which documents the roots and rise of the Jamaican music industry as reflected in the island's record sales charts for each of these years. In '58 and '59, the R&B pumping out of New Orleans dominated (with artists like Louis Jordan, Fats Domino, Louis Prima, Perez Prado, The Platters, The Drifters, and Nat King Cole), but by 1960 Laurel Aitken, Owen Gray, and Jackie Edwards were making this style their own. Then things started shifting away from the American sounds towards something closer to Jamaican ska with the involvement of sound system owners Duke Reid, Clement Dodd and others. Reviewer Lloyd Bradley gives both comps (compiled and with liner notes by Laurence Cane-Honeysett) four stars.

Lastly, David Katz reviews the documentary "Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae," directed by Stascha Bader. The original plan for the movie was to have guitarist Lynn Taitt return to JA for a concert and to re-record rocksteady hits with their 60s-era vocalists. But Taitt had to drop out to undergo cancer treatment (he died earlier this year of cardiac arrest after being hospitalized for pneumonia--read Brian Keyo's extraordinary tribute to Lynn Taitt here). Despite this major setback, the filmmaker was able to connect with and record performances by many in the rocksteady firmament (including Ken Boothe, Hopeton Lewis, Judy Mowatt, Dawn Penn, Derrick Morgan, Leroy Sibbles, The Tamlins, Stranger Cole, Ernest Ranglin, and Marcia Griffiths). Katz gives "Rocksteady" four stars, so I think I'd better track this one down and give it a look...(indeed, the trailer looks amazing and the newly recorded cuts sound out of this world).

Duff Guide to Ska Interview with Mike Drance of The Bluebeats

Since the mid-80s, Mike Drance has been a vital force on the New York City and Long Island ska scenes as a former singer, songwriter ("Rudy's Back," "Paul Getty," "Ali-Ska-Ba," "Goin' Back to Kingston"), and baritone saxophonist for The Scofflaws and founding member, singer, and songwriter for his current rocksteady band, The Bluebeats.

After catching up at a recent Bluebeats show, Mike was kind enough to agree to consent to an interview with The Duff Guide to Ska via e-mail...

The Duff Guide to Ska: When/how were you introduced to ska music--and what was the first ska (or rocksteady) album/single that you picked up?

Mike Drance: In 1980, when The Specials' and The Selecter's first records came out, I used to frequent a local record store in Huntington Village. At the time, I was into punk and new wave music and I remember seeing the lifesize cut out of the rude boy from the Selecter album cover in the store and thinking to myself, that is so fuckin' cool! I hadn't even heard the record yet. Soon thereafter, one of the guys at the bar/restaurant/disco I worked at at the time was playing The Specials' first record while we were setting up for the dinner crowd and I thought to myself, this is so fuckin' cool! Then I spoke to the DJ about the record and he showed me the cover and the connection was made. I was changed for life. I went out and bought The Specials and Selecter records almost simultaneously, then Madness followed, Bad Manners, etc. I cut my hair and was a Rudeboy from then on. A couple years after that, I was turned onto the original ska from the 60s by my friend Mike from The Nihilistics, a local hardcore band. We used to go to some of the local new wave clubs and go to shows together and he turned me onto the Intensified compilation and again I was hooked.

DGTS: When you were thinking about forming The Bluebeats back in the mid-90s, what attracted you to the rocksteady genre (as opposed to continuing with a vintage ska sound)?

MD: Well, as you know, I was in the New Bohemians in the early 80s, which was a garage/soul/funk/junk band at the time and when I joined, I began introducing more and more of the 60s ska stuff into the band's repertoire. We eventually became a full-fledged ska band and became The Scofflaws. I was with them for almost 10 years, so I had my fill of the vintage ska sound and was ready to do something different. At first I didn't find the rock steady as exciting as the ska, but the more I listened, the more I began to appreciate the wonderful melodies, vocals and pure soul of the music. To me, nothing is more soulful than rock steady and the early reggae tunes.

DGTS: What do The Bluebeats have on deck for the next year or so--any new recordings, big gigs, etc. (plug away!)?

MD: At this time, it's really hard for us to get together on a regular basis, with members starting families and all, so working on new material is hard to do. I've got quite a few tunes ready to go and a bunch more that need some work with the band, but it looks like it's gonna be a while before we get another record out.

DGTS: Are any of the members of the band full-time musicians, or is everyone balancing family/work along with The Bluebeats?

MD: No full timers.

DGTS: As with many bands, The Bluebeats have gone through some personnel changes over the years--is being its musical director one of your roles (i.e.: is there a lot of collaboration with the other members of the band with writing new material and the choice of covers--or do you make all of these decisions)?

MD: It's more of a collaboration at this point. We share ideas and material and work on arrangements together.

DGTS: What have been your best and worst experiences performing in The Bluebeats?

MD: Best...The Brooklyn Rock Steady Festival back in 1995, I think? Steeplechase Park at Coney Island. That was a dream come true. Playing with the likes of Ken Boothe, Phyllis Dillon, Hopeton Lewis, Big Youth, John Holt, and others I can't remember. It was amazing! We blew a lot of minds that day. Being the only white group on the bill and pretty much the only white folk at the festival, people were looking at us setting up on stage and you can imagine what they might have been thinking. But from the first chord on, we immediately won them over, big time! It was great. Also the European tour with Laurel Aitken and Dave Barker was awesome. Europeans totally understood what we were about and I was very touched by their appreciation of our music.

Worst...Hmmm Nothing terrible. Everyone has bad gigs from time to time, but nothing that I can think of that I would say was really that bad.

DGTS: What are your thoughts about music file sharing? Have you found a lot of The Bluebeats' recordings available on-line for free downloading?

MD: I love the idea of file sharing. Honestly, I haven't looked to see what is available from The Bluebeats music for free. I don't care if it's all available. I want people to share music with each other and I hope people are sharing our music with each other.

DGTS: Which up-and-coming bands on the current ska scene should we keep an eye/ear out for?

MD: Our friend John Pinto had a band Cold Spot 8 that played the last NYC Knitting Factory gig that blew me away. Unfortunately, they are not a regular performing band. I've heard some tunes from a new incarnation called The Equilibirans that sound pretty hot, so I'm keeping an eye/ear out for them.

DGTS: What are your top five Desert Island ska/reggae albums or singles?

MD: Do you mean Treasure Island? Anyhow, I don't catalog records by label so I couldn't tell you and I hate faves lists anyway.

DGTS: Do you ever forsee the possiblity of a debut album-era Scofflaws reunion (it was a smokin' line-up you all had back then!)?

MD: It's been talked about from time to time. I don't see it happening anytime soon, but I'd be willing to have a go at it. I'd have to pick up the horn again and get my chops back anyhow.

DGTS: Thanks for doing this, Mike!

MD: Thank you, brother! Hope to see you at another show soon. Peace.