ALBUM REVIEW: Roots Rock Rebels – When Punk Met Reggae 1975-1982 (Cherry Red Records)
1977, the years two sevens clashed, held special symbolism for punks and reggae lovers alike. In the UK it was the year punk broke (though the first records by The Damned, The Vibrators and Sex Pistols came out in late 1976).
In Jamaica, the home of reggae, the phrase had even more meaning. Two Sevens Clash was the debut album by roots reggae band Culture, referring to the date 7/7/77, when political activist Marcus Garvey predicted chaos as the year of judgement arrived.
With its apocalyptic message, the song created a stir in his Caribbean homeland and many businesses and schools closed for the day. It was also a massive hit, in reggae circles in Jamaica and beyond.
Those inspired by Two Sevens Clash included four young punks in West London. Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Terry Chimes – better known as The Clash.
They were among the first wave of punk bands, and one of the first to embrace the reggae which was soundtracking the lives of the UK’s black youth. Just like the white kids, they expressed discontent through their music, so it was a real convergence of two cultures.
The Clash’s debut album contained a cover of Junior Murvin’s Police And Thieves, and it’s one of the key tracks among the 54 collected in this 3CD set, along with their own reggae-inspired masterpiece (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais and the much-sampled Guns Of Brixton.
They weren’t the only punks tipping a nod to the influence of reggae; Generation X, The Ruts (with the sublime Jah War), The Members and the Angelic Upstarts, all represented here, tried their hand at it, with varying degrees of success.
My prize for the best punky reggae goes to Stiff Little Fingers, who took Johnny Was, a track from Bob Marley & The Wailers’ 1976 album Rastaman Vibration, and turned it into an eight-minute epic just as relevant to the strife in their native Northern Ireland as to troubled Jamaica.
Several bands who were considered part of the new wave movement incorporated reggae rhythms into their music; among them Public Image Ltd, XTC, The Slits, and good old Elvis Costello & The Attractions, whose Watching The Detectives I’d somehow never considered a reggae song. The glaring omission (presumably for licensing reasons) is The Police, whose first two albums were very reggae-influenced.
As well as the aforementioned Culture, reggae is represented by Burning Spear, Dillinger, Steel Pulse, Matumbi, Aswad, Black Uhuru and Talisman to name just a few. A handful of stonewall classics are included too: Althea & Donna’s Uptown Top Ranking, Dennis Brown’s Money In My Pocket and Janet Kay’s Silly Games (Christ, those high notes!).
The punk-reggae conflation led, of course, to the second wave of ska which burst into the charts at the tail end of the 70s, burned brightly for a couple of years and then disappeared as suddenly as it had erupted. Thus we have contributions from The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners, The Bodysnatchers (whose Ruder Than You is a standout) and Madness, who progressed beyond their roots to become one of the biggest pop bands of the ’80s.
As always with these sets, the compilers have dug out some new-to-me gems, most notably dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Inglan Is A Bitch and two excellent early songs by Musical Youth that are much more political than their huge chart-topper Pass The Dutchie.
Add a sprinkling of bands you’ll likely never have heard of unless you’re a real reggae afficionado, and this adds up to one of the best themed compilations you’ll hear this or any other year. 9/10.
