Who Put the Ska in Skate?

(l-r): Madness, Specials, Selecter and English Beat

Get your skate steady beat and get up on your feet as we venture into Ska. Enjoy this week’s YouTube Tuesday videos from four of the core ska bands active during the initial punk movement: Madness, The Specials, The Selecter, and The English Beat. As an added bonus, we found some ska stencils for the skartist in you. EPM Out!

4 Responses to “Who Put the Ska in Skate?”


  • I can’t believe I hadn’t seen those Specials videos before. Nice find. But you left out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TeUbYvXS0

  • No better way to begin a Tuesday work day than with a good dose of ska. Thanks.

  • 2 “tings” I’ll say about the Beat’s “Mirror in the Bathroom”. First, I always loved the opening line “…please don’t Freak” because it is obviously a reference to looking in mirrors while tripping.

    Second, Ranking Roger has absolutely mastered the rootsman skank. When I lived in St. Kitts I used to get loaded on Ting and rum and do that dance with some real ranking Dreads. I got entre because I would come to their club at One Tree Hill by myself and skank it in the corner alone even if no one else was into the tune that was playing. This is where I first heard Tappa Zukie. I would get blotto and ask them longingly “tell me about Prince-Far-I” because I had it all so romanticized. Another night I drove the Dreads nuts-o because I kept sneaking up on them and poking my head around corners while singing “guess who’s coming to dinner? ” and then screaming “NATTY DREADLOCK!” while they were trying to concentrate on their dominos. Every Friday was full of this kind of shit for like a year. They all called me “bald heady” cuz I was from Babylon (Illinois) but they couldn’t deny my enthusiasm for Culture. One Dread, “Little Nut”, even filmed my wedding when I returned to the island years later with my gal. When it was over I gave him $50 U.S. and my homemade “Roots, Radics, St. Kitts” armband that I wore for the ceremony. He gave me some “West Indian exports”. Ha!

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