claims Department Issue 8 The Rhythm of Ska From christopher j garcia for fapa, February 2006 Claims Department Issue eight Second for FAPA Written by Christopher J Garcia LayOut Help by M Lloyd A Cover by Tiffany Poklish This one is all about the ska, Rude Boys, Rude Girls, Skinheads Skankers, Bands, Brass and Freaks like Me around the world Welcome back. After my first FAPA Claims Department, I went and wrote one that’ll live on in infamy...or at least on eFanzines.com. If you get a chance, take a look at it. It’s all about Vegas. This issue is a lot different than some, but still keeps to the music, movies, book and place theme. This time, it’s about my trip for Thanksgiving 2004. My uncle Wayne had just tak- en the position of Director of the Hemet Public Library System, and so he bought a house about twenty minutes away in the city of Perris in Riverside County. It’s not a half-bad place if you like being in the middle of nowhere with a Wal- Mart and every other big draw store around. There’s even a motion pic- ture theatre near-by! I wasn’t too impressed, but I had lowed by my discov- little choice. ery of Madness when The trip down I started watch- would be another of ing MTV. They would my famous drives. I play One Step Be- love driving up and yond and Our House, down Highway Five No as well as House of less than 4 Issues Fun and various oth- of Claims Department er tunes. It was have featured a trip not unusual for me up (Issue Number 1) to get up and start or Down (Issues 3, dancing. I loved 4, and 7) that long it, but honestly, road that runs through the heart of when Madness sorta faded away (about California and beyond. I know the 1986) and groups like the Specials road well and I really love it. The and English Beat weren’t around, I driving actually gives me time to didn’t really come to it again. think (the novel that I wrote for Not that there wasn’t great ska National Novel Writing Month was around. In the mid-1980s, the orig- much thought-out in a car on I-5) inal Jamaican Ska records were get- and listen to some quality tunes. ting re-released for the first time. This trip, there was no ques- Bob Marley and His Wailin’ Wailers tion as to what I would be listening put out Simmer Down and One Cup of to, but it took a lot of work to put Coffee, both of which were big time it together. ska tunes. Jimmy Cliff, Toots and I’ve been a ska fan since my the Maytals, and even Desmond Dekker Dad brought home Ska albums in the were all Lloyd Brevvet, Roland Al- very early 1980s. This was fol- phonso and Don Drummond. They were big names, but by the late 1960s, they broke up because Drummond went to jail for murder. With all the Jamaicans com- ing to the UK in the later 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Ska started to pop up in places like Bristol and Manchester. In the late 1970s, two bands formed that would end up changing Ska forever. One was the Coventry Automatics, who like most bands from that part of the world, changed their name a bunch becoming The Special AKA. They started re- cording songs, and their first album was produced by the greatest song- writer in history: Elvis Costello. (OK, I know there are going to be people reading who will have very different opinions, though typically they boil down to one of three peo- ple: Bob Dylan (People in their 40s+), Willie Nelson (Country Fans 1993. (40+), and Lennon-McCartney (as one In 1993, several things hap- guy). I just don’t see it with any pened. First, a band called of them, as Elvis really changed Skankin’ Pickle was touring the US. rock ‘n roll and basically invented I’d seen them several times before, what would become Alternative Music, and they were always great, but they which is now what’s called pop music were now a college favourite. The by the MTV and so on.) The album Bosstones were getting MTV play, No was great and there were other backs Doubt was starting to show up all coming up too. The (English) Beat, over the place. It was the first The Selector, Madness and so on. sign that Ska was making a main- All of them did great stuff just stream comeback. as Punk was dying out. Sadly, this By 1995, it was everywhere. only lasted a couple of years and by There were ska bands like Reel Big 1981, it was pretty well over. Fish, Less Than Jake, The Dance In the mid-1980s, kids around Hall Crashers, Jack Kevorkian & His the US started forming bands. It Suicide Machines and The Aquabats was MTV that had spread songs like A were getting mainstream play, and Message to You Rudie, Concrete Jun- No Doubt released one of the big- gle, One Step Beyond and Mirror in gest selling albums of the decade. the Bathroom and the growing alter- A bunch of punk bands also started native music station, like Live 105 doin’ the ska, including Sublime and in the Bay Area, had exposed a lot Rancid (who came out of the classic of new kids to ska during the ear- Ska-Punk band Operation Ivy). It ly 1980s. Bands like Fishbone, The was a good time to be a ska fan. Toasters, The Undercover SKA and The But it wasn’t to last. Untouchables were all out of these By 1999, it was almost entirely kids. By the late 1980s, there were done. No Doubt was shuttled to the Ska bands all over the country with back in favour of Gwen Steffani on names like Gangster Fun, The Mighty her own. Reel Big Fish wasn’t the Mighty Bosstones, Buck-o-Nine and big deal any more, and there wasn’t Plate ‘O Shrimp. They tore it up, a lot goin’ on. The fans still on an underground kick, for about stayed loyal, but only just barely. The Music seven or eight years, until the year I set out to make the perfect car. I did so, set of CDs with the prefect set of making my er- Ska songs. I did five CDs for the ratic driving trip: one on Jamaican Ska, one on even more er- Two Tone, one on Third Wave, one ratic. Luck- on Covers and the last one being ily, at 5 in the Greatest Ska Songs Ever. As I the morning launched out from San Jose’s beau- on the Tues- day before Thanksgiving, it’s not a tiful Downtown, I was ready to pop big problem. I followed that up with them in the order of age, building some of the other great songs of the towards the two general compila- Specials, including Concrete Jungle tions. (a Marley Cover), Long Shot Kick de The first album was stuff that Bucket, and the Beat’s Mirror in the any ska fan would expect to have Bathroom. It was a good CD, but the from the 1960s. 007 Shanty Town third was what I was looking forward was the highlight, thought there was to the most. Laurel Aiken, Rico Rodriguez, Prince The Third Wave brought with it Buster, and so many other things to stronger elements of Punk and Funk. listen to. I found myself skankin’ I had put bands like Perfect Thyroid hard to a tune called Dr. Kildare, and The Slackers on it, who both which I believe was just a cover of blow me away. (My favourite lyr- the theme song to the TV series. It ics from The Slackers: Every single was great, and it almost made my day, she’s looking to put me away, Best Comp Ever, but got beat out. and she brings me gasoline when I By the time I made it to Casa De ask for water). This is serious Fruta, I had gone through the entire fun music. Fishbone, The Bosstones, first CD, and was reasonably ready to Reel Big Fish, it’s just plain fun. rock with the second CD. There’s a great song called Allston, And that was where I started my Mass all about the immense suckti- true rocking. tude of that city near Boston where You see, traditional ska is I used to live. It’s a great tune based on Jazz and Soul and R+B, and and there was another from folks who in a way it showed. Two Tone was lived in the same area called Nut based off of Ska itself and Monkey, which Punk, and in was just a big many ways, was instrumental the first wave to blast of speed give Ska an in- and fun. Let’s dependent image. Go Bowling, The Specials Too probably my all- Much Too Young, time favourite a live version, Ska band, from was the first the beautiful song and it was city of Fres- one of the songs no, CA, kicked that almost re- in a great tune quire you to called Rude 69, bounce around a with a rollick- ing horn drive that just about blows and dirt-filled ar- me away. eas, I popped in That CD was boss, The Best Ska Cov- and I was about to ers.