Punky Reggae Party: Scritti Politti & The "Sweetest Girl"

Welcome to the first episode of “Punky Reggae Party” a special audio documentary series of the Ska Boom podcast that focuses on the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music that will explore the phenomenon of punk and post-punk bands adopting the sounds of reggae The convergence of punk with reggae and ska in the late 70's and early 80's resulted in some significant musical developments leading some punk and post-punk bands in England to experiment with the sound of reggae and dub in particular.Reggae was natural for punks to mine as inspirational fuel, just as earlier rock ‘n’ roll eras adopted ideas and energy from blues and R&B. And chances are quite a few English punks had more than a few scratchy Trojan 45s in their record collections and a love of reggae in their blood. One of the earliest and most interesting collisions of punk and reggae has to be the Scritti Politti song "The Sweetest Girl," which Rough Trade label head Geoff Travis described at the time as a “game-changer.'” Please note: The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, and news reporting.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Om Podcasten

Ska Boom - An American Ska & Reggae Podcast is hosted by Marc Wasserman, author of Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History published by DiWulf Publishing. Wasserman helped to found Bigger Thomas -- the first ska band from New Jersey -- in 1988 and had a front row seat to watch the growth of American ska. Ska Boom is the audio companion to the book, which tells the origin stories of 18 American ska and reggae bands and one national tour from the early 80s through the mid 90s that helped to give birth to and define a uniquely American version of ska and reggae. The podcast explores the impact of ska and reggae on popular music and features interviews with key ska and reggae musicians, audio documentaries about the history of ska and reggae and special episodes based on news and developments in the world of ska.