That punk rock, it was all shouty noise and noisy shouting wasn’t it?
Ah, now you see one of the
great stereotypes of our times; that punk was just about making a racket. Well,
it wasn’t jazz but there was far more to the genre than a lot of people think.
Back in 1976, punk and
reggae seemed intertwined; at the punk clubs, reggae was played by Don Letts
and other DJs as there were so few punk records to actually play. Bob Marley
& The Wailers got in on the act with 1977’s ‘Punky Reggae Party’ … “The
Wailers will be there/ The Damned, The Jam, The Clash/ Maytals will be there/
Dr Feelgood too.”
And punk bands found dub
reggae to their liking.
That produced the cracking
records from punk and post-punk outfits. Like these …..
The Ruts: Jah War (1979)
Hit singles such as ‘Staring
at the Rude Boys’ and ‘Babylon’s Burning’ tick all the requisite punk purity
boxes. But The Ruts were far more diverse than many of their peers, which can
partly be attributed to being late starters and hearing more than the early
punk rockers. ‘Jah War’ appeared on the classic 1979 debut The Crack. It has a
heavy roots-reggae feel and is also political, tackling the violence
perpetrated by the London Police’s controversial SPG (Special Patrol Group)
during trouble in the ethnically-diverse suburb of Southall in 1979.
Released as the third
single from The Crack, the BBC banned it for its message.
The Clash: One More Dub (1980)
The Clash laid their love
of reggae and dub to the mast early on: a cover of Junior Murvin’s ‘Police and
Thieves’ was released as a single in 1977. A year later they released ‘White
Man (In Hammersmith Palais)’ which namechecked a litany of reggae stars to a
Jamaican vibe backdrop.
‘One More Dub’ followed on
from ‘One More Time’ at the end of side two of the triple album meisterwerk
Sandinista. The standard track is about poverty and its effects in so-called
ghetto towns; ‘One More Dub’ strips the lyrics down, more or less to the
chorus: “One more time in the ghetto/ One more time if you please/ One more
time for the dying man/ One more time if you please.”
Generation X: Wild Dub (1978)
Generation X’s second 45,
glam-punk stomper ‘Wild Youth’ was paired with ‘Wild Dub’ which revealed the
band’s reggae influences with singer Billy Idol toasting at the end, “Heavy,
heavy dub/Punk rockers!”. The single was produced by Phil Wainman in late 1977,
and while neither track were included on the self-titled debut album, they were
both part of the much-changed US version.
Stiff Little Fingers: Johnny Was (1979)
A cover of a Bob Marley
& The Wailers song, the Irishmen’s version revamped the lyrics to reflect
the violence of the time in Northern Ireland. While both songs convey the
horror of a mother who’s son has been killed by a stray bullet, the Wailers
made it non-geographical while SLF’s take added the following line to make
clear where the incident occurred: “A single shot rings out in a Belfast night
and I said oh Johnny was a good man.”
Steel An' Skin - Afro
Punk Reggae (Dub) (1979)
Steel An' Skin were a
British-based group who came from West Africa, the Caribbean and the UK.
Reggae, post-punk and Caribbean steel drums are all prevalent on this 12-inch
record. Perhaps the punk link in the title was somewhat tenuous but there’s no
doubting that some of the influences could have been from Bristol’s The Pop
Group or London all-girl four-piece The Slits.
A-side ‘Life After Life’,
B-side ‘Life After Dub’. The A-side was a clear nod to Jamaica, with vocals
from Sniffin’ Glue editor Mark Perry, sounding positively positive. The B-side
was a straight-through dub version with echoes and clipped lyrics. One of the
band’s finest moments.
Bad Brains: Bad Brains LP (1982)
American band Bad Brains were out on their own, with many of their songs actively fusing hardcore punk and roots reggae. They were that rarity of being a black punk band. They were also followers of the Rastafari movement, so the reggae/dub side came easily to them. The first five tracks of this debut LP are pure hardcore (with noticeable nods to reggae) then track six, ‘Jah Calling’, is akin to a dub interlude. ‘Leaving Babylon’ is another track that is 100 percent reggae and the shift in moods works perfectly, though it does seem at times that there are two bands at play on the same record.
Public Image Ltd: Metal Box (1979)
After the punk wave
disintegrated by the beginning of 1978, post-punk came into play. The Sex
Pistols’ Johnny Rotten reverted to his birth name John Lydon and formed PiL
which threw out the three cord thrash and explored a buffet of divergent
genres. Jah Wobble’s booming bassline
sounded like it was torn directly from dub plates. Same for the band’s
production, especially on the second LP, the much-lauded and pioneering Metal
Box.
Gang of Four: I Love A Man In Uniform (Dub version)
(1982)
Way before the Gang’s
finest hour, the Leeds disruptors were well versed in the art of reggae and dub
with the band’s discordant basslines clearly being influenced by Kingston
producers. This version of the group’s biggest hit single only initially
appeared on US and Canadian 12-inch releases. It helped the single become a big
hit in American clubs and on the dance charts.
Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi’s Dead (1979)
Bauhaus are often unfairly
labelled as a Goth band, so many people will be surprised to learn that they
highly influenced by dub, with bass player, David J saying that their signature
song "was our interpretation of dub". Several singles contained
dub-tinged versions.