Grab it and change it: Ten punk, ska and reggae albums that everyone should listen to
The Specials' self-titled debut album; right, London Calling, by The Clash.
A starting point has to be The Specials’ first album, The Specials. For me, this was friends’ older brother’s record collection stuff. That's how I got introduced to it. What was so appealing about it was the punk side of it, the social commentary side of it, the energy side of it. The whole thing wrapped up into one. When we started off 20-odd years ago as a band, it was us trying to capture that sense of fun and serious music you could dance to. It's probably a huge record for everybody.
It’s a double album and there’s not a weak track on it. You’ve got the title track, the attack of that chopping guitar. You've got the sweet reggae Revolution Rock at the back end of it. It's great bookmarking of the album. The lyrics of Revolution Rock: “Everybody smash up your seats and rock to this brand new beat…” It's probably one of my favourite albums of all time regardless of genre. It has everything in it: rockabilly, reggae, ska, punk. It's just a top class album from start to finish.
Stiff Little Fingers were a big influence on me and the rest of the band. I grew up in Dundalk. They were only an hour up the road from me in Belfast. I'm 52 so I grew up in the mid-70s, early '80s. Hearing punk rock from an Irish band talking about Irish things. You could relate to them. They were talking about Irish problems. Alternative Ulster and, from later albums, Nobody’s Hero and Tin Soldiers, were songs about the Troubles that you could see in the paper and on the news. There’s a lot of reggae in there as well like Johnny Was. Listening to Stiff Little Fingers is definitely an important point of reference.
Not a lot of people would probably know about Rancid. Their name might put people off – that hardcore punk attitude where people use a name to disgust people. Rancid is not exactly something you're going to be drawn to unless you've got the curiosity to see what they want to tell you. They’ve released loads of albums, but this is a stand-out. It was a breath of fresh air when it was released in 1995. It was taking everything back, but not dating anything. There is a lot of social commentary in it, talking about people that they knew, a lot of full-on punk rock, reggae and a bit of ska in there.
There’s a track on this album called The Impression That I Get. It was used in a bubble-gum movie called Clueless back in the 1990s. It’s a very radio-friendly song. This was the third wave of American ska. Ska core it was called. There was influences of hardcore punk in it. A little bit of metal riffs. On the tracks, they’re talking about going out with their friends, the carry on you might get up to. Getting a bit messed up, but joyous as well at the same time. It’s got that upbeat, high-energy, knees-up vibe to it. It's another album that's brilliant from start to finish.
Back in the late 1970s, Dexys blended punk with soul music. They had that sneer, that energy of punk, the bite in the music, and they put it with soul music. It had that anthemic, four-to-the-floor chorus that makes you want to punch the air and sing along to it. That record would have been an influence on me when it comes to the musicality of structuring a song. They weren't afraid of being musical, of showing that they could play their instruments.
I was introduced to Lee 'Scratch' Perry by a friend, as a producer and innovator in the development of dub and original Jamaican bands like The Upsetters. It was kind of mind-blowing. He was fiercely popular for a reason. He played in Cork a good few times. I remember being at him in The Savoy about 20 years ago. I remember having a bottle of beer. The bass was that heavy you could put your hand over the top of the beer and feel the air being displaced out of the bottle. It was absolutely fantastic.
I couldn't actually define what makes Toots and the Maytals so much better than any other bands of their era – like, say, The Skatalites – but there was an infectiousness about Toots and the Maytals. This big grin on his face pretty much nonstop. Even though he was talking about being in prison, it still felt like it didn’t sound that bad.
There's a bit of ska- and reggae-influenced breaks in Mezzanine. All the constituent parts of ska and reggae and punk attitude definitely falls into the Massive Attack canon. Even though it's kind of laid back, it's trip hop, there’s still an attack in it. You know that these people are very, very serious about what they're saying, about what they're doing. It’s not throw-away. It has something for everybody in the audience. It’s another album that's an absolute classic from start to finish.
The Allstonians come from Allston, Mass, a suburb of Boston. I got to sing with them a few times. They’re a bunch of musicians who love reggae. They love doing what they’re doing and that comes across in their music and live on stage. Dana Reed Thurston, who is the mainstay of the band, is giddy, a messer on stage, which feeds back into the audience – it’s reciprocal.
To celebrate life and to highlight the importance of minding our mental health, Joy in the Park will host its inaugural event. There is a carnival atmosphere to its programme, which includes live music, Rap A’Mile by Cork’s young rappers, spoken word, storytelling, children’s entertainment and a food market.
Acts include the Cork Circus Factory, Cork Puppetry Company and a New Orleans jazz procession by Rebel Brass. Headline music acts include Jerry Fish, John Spillane and Kíla. Joy In The Park is a free event and open to the public from 12 noon until 6pm, Sunday, July 17, Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork.
- See: www.joyinthepark.com
