Happy New Year to all MOTB readers! To ring in 2013, I look back to a memorable musical New Year for me when I tuned in to see both UB40 and General Public perform during the 4th annual MTV New Years Rock 'N Roll Ball broadcast on December 31, 1984.
I was in a complete state of shock the entire broadcast as I patiently waited through performances by Joan Jett, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and John Cafferty before watching both bands perform live on American TV. It really was a defining moment for those here in the U.S. who had followed UB40 and The Beat (before they had broken up the year before) from afar to finally see them live.
I remember staying up late to see UB40, who played songs from the "Geoffrey Morgan" LP and General Public who had just released "All The Rage" in the U.S. and were having chart success with their first single "Tenderness."
So without further ado, I present General Public performing their eponymous song before an enthusiastic crowd in Los Angeles.
It's September 21st, 1979, at a Clash show at New York's Palladium, and Paul Simonon's bass has only seconds to live. "The show had gone quite well," says Simonon, "but for me inside, it just wasn't working well, so I suppose I took it out on the bass. If I was smart, I would have got the spare bass and used that one, because it wasn't as good as the one I smashed up."
Paul Simonon of The Clash is the reason I initially stuck with the bass guitar despite initially knowing nothing about notes, scales or bass lines. As I fell more deeply in love with ska, reggae and punk music as a young and angry teenager, it was the knowledge that Simonon was a reggae fan, a rude boy and self taught musician that continued to inspire me. That and the iconic image of him smashing his beloved Fender Precision bass guitar sealed the deal. I wanted to be like him and I had to have the same guitar!
And so because of Simonon, I went out and bought my first cheap bass guitar at a nearby Sears with money I had saved from a dish washing job. It was Cherry red and white and weighed a ton. I remember taking it out of the flimsy cardboard case it came in and looking at it with a mix of desire and despair. I finally had the object of my affection but I had absolutely no idea what to do with it! I remember standing in front of a mirror with the guitar strapped low across my body like Simonon and plucking the strings. The sound was sharp and metallic and nothing like the fluid bass lines I heard on the 2-Tone, Clash and reggae records I played non-stop in my bedroom. My love affair with the bass flickered and threatened to go out permanently. But, I have Simonon to thank for not giving up and for eventually getting a black and white Fender Precision bass.
"Paul Simonon–well, he’d have to be the driveshaft, because it was his aesthetic sense, his knowledge of painting, his use of sculpture (especially the slabs of Carreran marble that characterized his bass playing) and pliocene sensuality–that visualized the band’s look and touch.”
– Lenny Kaye, Americlash, Fall 1991
Though known for his many inventive and innovative bass lines with The Clash, Simonon was self taught and did not read music but he brought so many intangibles to the band and to his bass playing. This was always an added inspiration to me, as I struggled to play. It took a while for Simonon to learn the four-string (at one point, he marked the notes off on his instrument's neck to know where to place his fingers), and after 9 months of intense practice he was ready to play on the band's first record. Although it was Strummer and Jones who penned the lion's share of the Clash's songs, Simonon's fluid, almost reggae-ish bass lines often provided the glue that held the band's best known breakneck compositions together.
Fender recently conducted an interview with The Only Band That Matters' bassist. In the interview Simonon talks about learning to play bass, his technique, how he got turned on to the Precision Bass, and the iconic "London Calling" album cover and what led to that historic moment when he "sort of smashed up" his beloved Precision Bass.
"Simonon started out playing a Rickenbacker but found it's sound too thin. He then quickly switched to a mid 70's Fender Precision Bass, which offered more bottom end and a stronger tone. He preferred using heavier model Precisions that he believed sounded better and could take all the abuse he dished out on them night after night. His P-Basses were usually white and he often adorned them with stickers, abstract paint jobs and roughed them up a bit to give them some individuality. He also reasoned that no one would want to steal his basses if they were bashed up and hand painted."
"He frequently swung the instrument around onstage, and after a two hour show would often have serious problems with his shoulder. Strung low by his knees, he normally played with a pick, sometimes using his fingers for reggae style tunes. His style evolved from simple root-fifth punk lines to a more complex and intricate style, incorporating rock, reggae, ska, pop, funk and other elements that set him apart from most other punk bassists of the day."
The Fender Precision bass immortalized on the cover of The Clash's "London Calling" album was a white early 70's model with a maple neck. Simonon had placed a skull and crossbones sticker on the body, done some drip painting on the pick guard and had handwritten the word "PRESSURE" on the top body horn. Although the body and neck of the bass were damaged beyond repair, the smashed remnants were deemed important enough to be displayed in the permanent collection of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
While there is no film or video of Simonon in the act of smashing his bass during the show at the Palladium here in New York City on September 21, 1979, an intrepid fan of the band has matched short film clips of the band performing "I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.", "I Fought the Law", "Jail Guitar Doors", and "English Civil War" with audio from the show that night. They demonstrate the power and energy of the band at the height of their powers and the important role that Simonon played in their live show.
To mark The Specials May 2013 UK tour, Fred Perry Subculture are giving away one pair of tickets to a gig of the winner's choice (see below for available dates and venues).
The full list of UK dates announced for May 2013 is as follows:
May 10 Glasgow Barrowland
May 13 Newcastle 02 Academy
May 15 Manchester 02 Apollo
May 18 Liverpool Olympia
May 19 Leicester De Montfort Hall
May 21 Birmingham 02 Academy
May 23 Newport Centre
May 25 Margate Winter Gardens
May 26 Portsmouth Guildhall
May 28 London 02 Academy Brixton
Following the success of The Specials' 2010 and 2011 tours, and their 2012 Olympic Hyde Park concert, the 2013 dates are very likely to sell out quickly.
I strive to celebrate and venerate the best of ska and reggae music on this blog. The many artists who made the music a cultural phenomena are all heroes to me and many others. However, as ska and reggae music made its way into the charts of the U.K. (and the U.S, to a lesser extent) and its influence and popularity spread, many mainstream singers, bands and musical artists began including the rhythms and sound in their own songs. Some of these efforts were magnificent and some less so. Others were just plain terrible. I've previously trained the spotlight on some of the more dreadful attempts of what the Brits call 'Cod Reggae' (which is a term I have always loved).
So in the spirit of Christmas, I offer you "Reggae Christmas" a 1984 b-side by Bryan Adams which may be the best (or worst depending on your view) Christmas cod reggae song ever recorded. The video, which gives you a real sense of the early, anything goes days of 80's music, was recorded at the MTV studios in New York City.
What is there to love/hate about this song and video? Let me count the ways. First, in case anybody was wondering what MTV was like in 1984, “Reggae Christmas” serves as a pretty good time capsule: All 5 original VJ's make caneos as does Pee-Wee Herman (in a Santa hat with dreadlocks). Why Pee-Wee Herman you ask? Lest we forget (or if you aren't a child of the 80's). Herman was on hot streak at the time due to his smash hit "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" TV show and "Pee- Wee's Big Adventure" movie.
Musically, you have to hand it to Adams for giving reggae a go. While the song is a rote version of reggae, his band seems to get it musically. The bass and drums are locked in and the guitars are playing upstrokes in the right place. It was the early 80's after all and from what I have learned, the song gets an airing every year around this time, which I suppose is the goal of every artist who records a Christmas song -- to be remembered, even if for a few minutes. Plus how can you resist these insipid lyrics which read like they were written five minutes before the band recorded the song:
Christmas is nice in Germany if you like being up to your knees in snow it's just as cold up in Canada we gotta find another place to go So...so we're having a reggae Christmas - down in Jamaica
To those who argue that Bryan Adams is French-Canadian and in no way qualified or capable of attempting reggae, I would point out that his birth certificate does say that he was born in Kingston, albeit the one in Ontario.
A big hat tip to Chuck Wren of Jump Up Records for alerting me to this fantastically terrible piece of reggae music.
Director Deborah Aston’s documentary "Made In Birmingham: Reggae Punk Bhangra" tells the story and development of reggae, punk and bhangra in Birmingham from the mid 70s to the mid 90s through rare and uncovered archive footage and interviews from those who were actually there.
The doc includes rare footage from the city's earliest reggae bands including UB40, Steel Pulse, Musical Youth and Beshara interspersed with interviews from UB40's Brian Travers, Musical Youth's Dennis Seaton, Steel Pulse's Amlak Tafari and dozens of others who highlight the social and political issues of the day and how the music of that time reflected the diverse communities of Birmingham, Britain's second biggest city. This is a great insight into Birmingham and some of its rich musical heritage.
It is hard to believe that the world has been without Joe Strummer for a decade. The co-founder and lead singer of The Clash died Dec. 22, 2002, of an undiagnosed heart defect at just 50 years old. Yet even his most topical songs continue to resonate. According to an excellent piece done about Strummer's passing on NPR this week:
The band's biggest single, "Rock the Casbah," released in 1982, could as easily have been about last week's news from Syria. A Middle Eastern sherif, or king, orders his air force to bomb his own subjects, who are rebelling. Like the best Clash songs, it manages to be a pop tune and a protest song at the same time.
Strummer remains a musical hero and an ongoing inspiration to me -- listen to his diatribe before kicking into a raucous version of "Rock The Casbah" at the US Festival in 1982. It was 2-Tone, The Clash and reggae music that offered me a lifeline during a difficult time in my life in the early 1980's. Instead of alcohol and drugs, I found refuge in music that changed my life in incalculable ways. I am the man I am today because of people like Joe Strummer who offered me a vision that the world could be different and that I could play a part in changing it. The Clash's albums were like a classroom for me and their admonitions to question authority, support social justice and know my rights, helped shape the political and world view that I still hold to dearly nearly 30 years later.
More importantly, The Clash and other punk bands inspired me to pick up a guitar and find other like minded souls to make music with. I had no idea how to play the bass when I started, but I was encouraged by Strummer and others who said that it didn't matter as long as kept at it and was passionate about it.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. There is nothing more common then unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world if full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
― Joe Strummer
Even better, Strummer imbued me with the punk rock ethos that everyone had a story a tell and that those stories were important and interesting. For that I am deeply indebted.
In memory of the tenth anniversary of Joe Strummer's passing check out this mind-blowing live video of their cover of Willie William's "Armagideon Time" (which segues into the dub "Justice Tonight") at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1979. This version still gives me musical chills each time I hear it.
Are you still searching for a unique, one-of-a-kind, ska related holiday gift for that special Rude Boy or Rude Girl in your life? Do you also want to support the ongoing Hurricane Sandy relief efforts here in New York City and surrounding areas? Do you like my band Bigger Thomas? Well if you answered yes to any of the questions above, I have an excellent gift idea for you -- a personally autographed live photo of the band in action. It may be one of the best photos of the band ever taken, and it can be yours if you act quickly!
Though the 12-12-12 concert here in New York City last week featuring The Rolling Stones, The Who and Bruce Springsteen was an important fund raiser to help support the ongoing Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, smaller, more localized and creative efforts are ongoing and pack a more emotional and personal touch.
Bryan Kremkau is a talented New York City area photographer who also happens to love ska and punk music. He came to photograph a show that my band played this past September and he took an amazing photo that captures the essence of our band -- specifically the love and passion we have for playing ska music. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Kremaku decided to auction off autographed photos of bands he photographed during 2012 including The Descendents, Flogging Molly, NOFX, The Pilfers and Saw Doctors and others. Kremkau recently wrote about the impetus behind the project:
After Hurricane Sandy hit the area, I wanted to help out in some way. I thought it would be great if I could get prints signed from bands & artists I’ve photographed over the years, auctioned off those prints, and then donate 100 percent of the proceeds to American Red Cross or another charity for the hurricane relief. Well that’s exactly what I’m going to do! After seeing all the destruction that happened on Staten Island, Rockaway, and NJ Shore, I just wanted to do something to help. Personally, it was certainly sad to see Long Beach Island get hit hard by the “superstorm.” It felt like my childhood washing away in a way.
If you are a fan of ska music or Bigger Thomas and looking for a special gift that will also support a cause close to our hearts, I hope you will please consider bidding on the photo. It would mean a lot to us and all the people here in New York and New Jersey who are still struggling to get back on their feet.
