London’s Blue Beat Records were releasing what would now be called ska or reggae as early as 1960: this is Laurel Aitken’s Boogie Rock.
Yeah, that’s interesting stuff. The only white quasi-rock (ok, that’s kind of a stretch) artist mentioned in that article as recording for the label is Georgie Fame. Did he record a ska tune before the Beatles with “I Call Your Name” ?
I don’t know what to say really, the Mods were into Ska really early - the Who/Quadraphenia types, that was def west London. They had their own bands, never recorded.
People like Alexis Korner were into bluesy jazz and probably delved into ska jazz. Jagger/Jones/Richards seems to have stuck with blues in the early days but were certainly exposed to everything through Korner and that scene.
This seems to be a well received history, might help:
Well, I’ve dived further into that, and I’ve found in Georgie Fame’s bio at allmusic.com that he was performing ska and blue beat songs as early as 1961, though he didn’t release until 1963, and I don’t know if these recordings included Jamaican music. I’ll explore further.
Oh thanks BrokenBriton. Guess what I’m listening to right now? (Live At Leeds!)
That sounds almost New Orleans to me. Geographically, the Big Easy might have been another conduit from Jamaica to white rockers.
You’re right, that’s pure New Orleans. But please allow me to nitpick: Laurel Aitken is not a white rocker, if you meant it this way. The gist of your post is certainly true, in that the New Orleans sound and rhythm and blues in general played a big part in influencing Jamaican music.
Well, the name Blue Beat itself became so synonymous with early ska that Dinah Lee had a bubblegum hit in 1964 with “Do the Blue Beat”, complete with embarrassing cod-Jamaican accent.
During the 40’s and (especially) the 50’s there was tons of commercially-successful pop jazz and folk music that had heavy calypso influence. Yes, this doesn’t fit the strict verbiage of the OP since neither rock nor ska/reggae had been invented yet, but you’ve got essentially the music out of which rock evolved being influenced by the music out of which ska and reggae evolved. It’s not as if western pop artists just randomly discovered Jamaican music at some point during the 1960’s-- the mutual influence had gone back decades.
(If you do want to look at the bigger picture, I’d say the Andrew Sisters’ 1944 version of “Rum and Coca Cola” was probably the first big pop hit done in a Caribbean style by a non-Caribbean artist.)
Covering Prince Buster is about as white guy reggae as it gets: no date on this one, sadly.
eta:
But here’s the ska-flecked “J. A. Blues” from 1963.
This thread gets more interesting with every post! Well, I had intended to include a “no Calypso” disclaimer in my OP, but the scope of this subject has become so hopelessly blurred that it doesn’t matter, so just keep the early Jamaican/rock crossover stories coming.
Good point…the conduit went both ways.
Here’s something from 1969. Shango - Day After Day. I could have sworn this was a cover of a genuine Jamaican tune but I guess not. I don’t know anything about these guys, but they’re obviously not Jamaican.
Well, if you want calypso (though it’s also classified as reggae, Sir Lancelot had hits back in the 40s. His “Shame and Scandal” (with lyrics changed to fit the plot) came to the attention of the US public in 1943 in I Walked with a Zombie.
Here’s the Wailers version with the original lyrics.
Lou Christie - The Gypsy Cried, 1962. Followed by Two Faces Have I. Solid chunka-chunka ska (actually, more rocksteady) beat meets Italian-pretty-boy “rock” here in 1962.
Damn again! This always happens. I’ve been away for a few days so I’m catching up on a lot of old posts. I read from beginning to end and my thought has yet to be expressed — until the very last post.
Lou was from the Pittsburgh area. I don’t know if it’s ever been determined whether he actually was exposed to ska rhythms of just came up with this on his own. Or maybe his mysterious songwriting partner Twyla Herbert (the “gypsy” in question) had something to do with it.
Everything mentioned so far has been one or two songs that had a reggae/calypso sound/influence.
For my money, the first rock band to have their ENTIRE CATALOG of songs sound this way was The Police.
Very interesting. The first example is closer to typical doo-wop of the times, but “Two Faces Have I” sounds much like contemporary ska (the organ).
I first heard about Lou Christie some years ago after stumbling over the Tammys’ song “Egyptian Shumba” which he wrote and produced. Granted, there’s nothing Jamaican about it, but I can’t let the opportunity pass to link to this song because of it’s hysterical fierceness and weirdness. You gotta hear it to believe it, so here it is: