Got into an argument over some white artists who've taken a stab at a reggae-beat song or two. I said Paul Simon's Mother & Child Reunion is reggae, he disagrees. Neither of us think Eric Clapton's cover of I Shot the Sheriff deserves to be called reggae. Also he said Billy Joel did a song with a reggae beat but can't recall it, and neither can I, can you?
No... but if I did, I dont think I'd let on I knew any Billy Joel songs on a public forum Then there was The Police :bobby: Crap name, abysmal "white reggae". Some of the best white-band covers of reggae came from the earlier Brit Punkscene, largely from people who actually respected the music, rather than just ripping it off. The Clash's cover of "Police & Thieves" and Stiff Little Fingers's cover of "Johnny Was" spring to mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO2bC7rJl5s"]YouTube - The Clash- Police and Thieves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mquLQAiTJU"]YouTube - Johnny Was Even the Rolling Stones had a reasonable stab at it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZOlDsHCL00"]YouTube - Cherry Oh Baby
There is Reggae music And then there is music that uses a Reggae beat. Two different beasts, in my book.
the paul simon song is okay, some of the maytals and jimmy cliff's band play on it the sf punk band the offs did a sorta okay cover of the slickers' classic johnny too bad i remember kinda liking 30 years ago [sorta kinda] of course since some of the greats in jamaican music history are of chinese origin [vincent and clive chin, byron lee, justin yap, leslie kong, bunny lee, herman chin loy, joseph hoo kim] the whole race question becomes kinda funny . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-UJNgaCihQ Soldiers of Jah Army - Revolution Cry now who said this wasn't reggae? Just listen to those lyrics, they are so deep. This is some real shit. PS= how do you embed video links?
you just paste the url into a message, don't do any formatting [as long as they're youtube], the forum does the work for you
***The Clash. They could do it right for sure. The thing about them was they actually walked the walk and talked the talk. I lived in West London at that time and there really was a great fusion of punk/ska/reggae/psychedelic - all these people hung out together and jammed. Great little clubs going on like The Tabernacle. Good times, and of course some great music came out of it. The Police however were shit, but see they didn't hang out in Goldborne Road!
Except that once in a blue moon it doesn't work. I'm sure there's a reason for that, but I've not figured it out yet... seems to be to do with YT rather than Hip. .
Yeah, I only got to see them after Malcolm Owen died ... They continued as a 3-piece, called Ruts DC. They'd kind of lost the edge and I think they were probably aiming for a wider market. Mind you, seeing them in a half-full sports hall type place probably didn't help, but I was pretty disappointed. So it goes... .
Jonathon Richman an the Modern Lovers-Egyptian Reggae https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha-VXWxgvR8"]Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Egyptian Reggae - YouTube
definitely a white dude singing, you might not believe your ears. http://grooveshark.com/s/Blind+To+You+explicit+Album+Version+explicit+Album+Version/3EVGUD?src=5 i think they are white... http://grooveshark.com/s/Too+Rude/3WerPg?src=5 these dudes might not be considered white - they are from hawaii. http://grooveshark.com/s/Stillness+Of+Night/2rJdHS?src=5
This was a pretty solid white reggae band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKox6__hziY"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKox6__hziY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXzFCS72QIA"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXzFCS72QIA I did background vocals on one of their tracks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRfHU99qj1k&feature=related"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRfHU99qj1k&feature=related
