When Rock Met Reggae

Reggae may have started in Kingston, Jamaica, but according to Blush, it didn't truly spread around the world until waves of Jamaicans began emigrating to England in the late 1950s. Reggae, he maintains, ""spoke in a language that upstart youth could identify with: fierce lyrics, anti-fashion, DIY attitude, and a radical fight for freedom."" Blush discusses the roots of reggae before turning to the many sounds of Bob Marley, Millie Small, Prince Buster, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, and Desmond Dekker. He then tackles the various forms of reggae, including dub, rock-reggae, and punk-reggae, the latter perhaps best exemplified by the Clash (Joe Strummer and Mick Jones went to Jamaica to write the songs on their second album, Give Em Enough Rope). As musicians on both sides of the Atlantic experimented with reggae, including the Police, Blondie, and Elvis Costello, such 2 Tone label artists as the Specials, the Selecter, the English Beat, and UB40 blended punk, rock, reggae, and ska into a unique sound. Blush's illuminating chronicle ends with an annotated playlist featuring the backstories of classic recordings. -- ""Booklist"" Veteran rock writer Blush demonstrates the connection between '70s British punk and Jamaican reggae. The author explains modern Jamaican music and its significant proponents: the upbeat, calypso-/mento-influenced ska promoted by the sound systems of Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid; the more restrained, smoother rock steady of Jimmy Cliff; the pounding-bass, scratchy-guitar, Rastafarian-based reggae of Bob Marley and Toots and the Maytals; and the remixed, distorted, echo-laden dub pioneered by King Tubby. Blush highlights the importance of record labels such as Chris Blackwell's Island Records in disseminating Jamaican music to British rock acts, including Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, and especially punkers such as the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten and the Clash's Joe Strummer, who embraced reggae as another form of rebel music. He also describes the emergence of ska in Great Britain with the Specials, the Selector, and the English Beat. He concludes with the backstories of pivotal reggae/rock songs and a list of reggae films, such as The Harder They Come (1972), which popularized the genre...Blush's nimble outline of the interplay between reggae and British punk will appeal to music fans. -- ""Library Journal""