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The Clash - Reggae Punk Pioneers?


Guest Tam o' Shantie

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Guest Tam o' Shantie

I was just thinking about how cool the more 'experimental' Clash stuff actually is, having loathed it back in my punx days, and was wondering if anyone knew of another band who were mixing jamaican music with punk rock before them? 'The Clash' came out in 1977, is there anything earlier than this that defines the sound better than 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais'?

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I was just thinking about how cool the more 'experimental' Clash stuff actually is, having loathed it back in my punx days, and was wondering if anyone knew of another band who were mixing jamaican music with punk rock before them? 'The Clash' came out in 1977, is there anything earlier than this that defines the sound better than 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais'?

Were they not doing the whole reggae thing at around the same time as the earlier 2-tone stuff? Maybe "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" was released earlier but some of the 2-tone bands were doing the rounds before that and The Clash started out as straight ahead punk rock and added the reggae and dub influences later.

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Another and much lauded group of pioneers of this sound clash were The Slits. If ya don't know them, then check 'em out here: MySpace.com - The Slits - London - Punk / Reggae / Dub - www.myspace.com/theslits Back in action too. Perhaps some folks here caught Ari Up's quite amazing performance at The Tunnels last year?

I always thought it was more of tribal thing The Slits had going on, having said that that's probably just the impression i got from reading about them as opposed to listening to them.

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Good band I thought, not sure if their nude cover advanced the cause of the sisterhood much though. Anyone who can do a good cover of '..Grapevine' can't be bad (like the awesome Creedence version), bet Marvin would have dug it.

Don't forget Dillingers 'Funky Punk' with the line; "All dressed in Junk", finger on the pulse as ever.

Peter Tosh's attitude made your average punk look like a Carpenters loving conformist, 'Steppin' Razor' furreal.

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What was that band Don Letts was originally in? They drew heavilly on both their own Jamacian heritage & the sound/attitudes of their contemporaries - Who were mainly punk bands & included The Clash. They surely must be up there somewhere?

ETA:

Here we go, Basement 5:

325620946_5969ef750f.jpg

MySpace.com - BASEMENT 5 - London, UK - Other / Punk / Dub - www.myspace.com/therealbasements

:)

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Better than Big Audio Dynamite, that's for sure!

Peel said on his 60th Birthday programme that his favourite sessions of all time were the three Slits sessions. He said something along the lines of "Their complete inability to play coupled with their enthusiasm to play was amazing."

Saw Ari Up at the Lemon Tree - different I'd say, to be nice!

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
I always thought Rancid had that punk reggae thing going on in some of their tracks.

pete

inthehills

Slight chronological misunderstanding there, rancid formed in 1991, The Clash was released in 1977

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I was just thinking about how cool the more 'experimental' Clash stuff actually is, having loathed it back in my punx days, and was wondering if anyone knew of another band who were mixing jamaican music with punk rock before them? 'The Clash' came out in 1977, is there anything earlier than this that defines the sound better than 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais'?

I'm a huge clash fan but 'White Man' is one song that just doesn't do it for me. Good job the clash were experimental or London Calling wouldn't have been what it is.

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
I'm a huge clash fan but 'White Man' is one song that just doesn't do it for me. Good job the clash were experimental or London Calling wouldn't have been what it is.

i did mean 'defines the sound' in the context of reggae punk, not in the context of what 'the clash sound' is

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